Beautiful week sail 18 foot skiffs with a couple of top blokes and a great bunch of people on tour.
Fantastic venue, will have to race here again.
Thanks to Alessandra, President of the Race Committee for filming the finish to the last race.
Spinlock Safety Cutters for the New Zealand 18 foot skiff fleet.
Please see our Safety Cutter page for more info.
The picture should sum up yesterdays 18 sailing.
Mal said he heard a crack. I had a look and said there is a little vertical crack. Probably OK but could easily go worse. Soon after it was a little bigger.
Darren steered the first work. Pretty good, learning plenty. Doing heaps better tacking than I used to.
18ft Skiffs: NSW Championship, Race 1
Sunday, 10 November 2013, Sydney Harbour
Very enjoyable sail for the first championship race of the season. A good strong SouthEasterly and cloudy enough for there not to be too much traffic.
See the results sheet here: 18s_Pointscore 10 Nov
See the video at www.18footerstv.com
See Frank Quealey’s photos for the idea:
Frank publishes more photos on www.18footers.com.au
Video coverage of the race can be seen on www.18footerstv.com
The club’s regular spectator ferry will follow next Sunday’s Race 5 of the 3-Buoys Challenge, leaving Double Bay Wharf at 2.15pm.
Off to the 12 foot skiff Upper Harbour Championship today at the Lane Cove 12 Foot Sailing Skiff Club.
Should be good fun, traditional interclub event with a good seabreeze forecast. Great fun sailing a skiff in protected waters with plenty of breeze.
Good Seabreeze Forecast
CST Composites and Gemmell Sailmakers 12 Foot Skiffs racing
2013 Upper Harbour – Sailing Instructions
Photos from the Lane Cove 12 Foot Sailing Skiff Club
A beautiful day helping Henry get his 16′ skiff Beancounters ready for the start of the Manly skiff racing season.
Replace a few ropes and fittings. Mark some calibrations. Lubricate some blocks. Tickle up the foils and find a crew.
18ft Skiffs:
Winning Group 2013 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship, Race 5.
Today’s race sponsored by Smeg
Thurssday, 21 February 2013
Sydney Harbour
A rig choice in the park at Double Bay was critical to the Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel’s victory in Race 5 of the Winning Group 2013 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour today.
With the ese breeze on the edge of the #1 and #2 rigs, the teams electing to go for the bigger rigs won the day as they filled four of the top five placings.
Jack Macartney, David Witt and Mark Kennedy took the honours in Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel by just 18s from Smeg (Nick Press, Dan Phillips, Dave Ewings).
John Winning, Andrew Hay and Jim Beck had their best result of the championship when they brought Yandoo home in third place, 1m16s behind Smeg.
Allowing for each skiff discarding her worst performance in the regatta, Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel joins Gotta Love It 7 (Seve Jarvin), which was placed fourth today using the smaller #2 rig.
Top visitor in today’s race was New Zealand’s Yamaha (David McDiarmid) in fifth place, followed by Appliancesonline.com.au (Micah Lane).
Gotta Love It 7 and Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel each have a total of 8 points after discard, followed by Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Michael Coxon) on 14, Smeg 17 and New Zealand’s C-Tech (Alex Vallings), also on 17.
Thurlow Fisher Lawyers got a ‘flyer’ at the start and was 22s ahead of Coopers-Rag & Famish at the windward mark.
Brisbane 18 Footers (Daniel Jack) was in third spot, ahead of Lumix (Jonathan Whitty), ASCC (Murray England, New Zealand) and Appliancesonline.com.au.
After a bad start Gotta Love It 7 was well back in the fleet.
Thurlow Fisher and ‘The Rag’ had a great battle downwind, then on the work back to Clarke Island, where Thurlow Fisher had increased her lead to 30s.
Appliancesonline was now third but Smeg was beginning to move up ahead of Asko Appliances (Marcus Ashley-Jones), Gotta Love It 7, Yandoo and Pica (James Mears, UK).
The Rag’s bigger sail again came to the fore on the reach into Chowder Bay where the two boats rounded together for the beat across the harbour into Rose Bay.
With Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel holding a narrow lead over Thurlow Fisher Lawyers as the pair set spinnakers for the run back across the harbour to Taylor Bay, Thurlow’s race fell apart when skipper Michael Coxon fell overboard.
The incident is a massive setback to the team, which was previously only two points from the lead going into today’s race.
Over the final legs of the course, Smeg put out a strong challenge to The Rag but the experience on board the Rag covered Smeg’s every move in a great finish.
The Rag’s for’ard hand David Witt, who is one of the sport’s great characters, wasn’t short of a comment after the race.
“Did you notice how the top three teams were all the older guys in the fleet”.
“The younger generation will have to toughen up”, he quipped tongue in cheek.
Today’s result sheet, present pointscores and eleven photos are attached.
Race 6 on Saturday starts at 4pm and Race 7 on Sunday at 3pm.
The spectator ferry leaves Double Bay Wharf 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each race. There will also be two ferries for Race 7 on Sunday.
For those who can’t make it onto the spectator ferry, there are many ways to follow the championship:
Live Tracking:
http://www.tractrac.com/index.php?page=eventpage&id=274
Video Coverage and ‘Pick-the-Podium’:
http://www.jj18footerstv.com
For all official race results, race reports and photographs:
http://www.18footers.com.au
Coverage is also available at http://www.18skiff.com
Frank Quealey
Australian 18 Footers League
http://www.18footers.com.au
18ft Skiffs:
Winning Group 2013 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship, Race 2
Today’s race sponsored by De’Longhi Australia Pty Ltd
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Sydney Harbour
The 18ft Skiffs are noted for their dramatic nature and today’s Race 2 of the Winning Group 2013 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour didn’t let supporters down.
While Mojo Wine, skippered by two times Australian 16 Footer champion James Dorron, took line honours, the 18s rookie skipper and his crew of Ricky Bridges and Mike McKensey were totally dismayed when they failed to get the judge’s verdict as they crossed the line.
The team had sailed the entire course not knowing they had been recalled for an on course start.
With Mojo Wine being declared a non-starter, race honours went to the Thurlow Fisher Lawyers crew of Michael Coxon, Trent Barnabas and Dave O’Connor, who took the official result by 22s from first race winner and defending champion Gotta Love It 7.
Gotta Love It 7 (Seve Jarvin, Scott Babbage, Peter Harris) held a narrow advantage over Thurlow Fisher at the final windward mark but could not hold off the Thurlow Fisher burst on the spinnaker run home.
Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel (Jack Macartney, Dave Witt, Mark Kennedy) finished a further 57s back in third place, ahead of Smeg (Nick Press), C-Tech (Alex Vallings) and Events Clothing (Riley Dean).
Gotta Love It leads the points tally on 3 points after the first two races, followed by Turlow Fisher Lawyers and Coopers-Rag & Famish each on 5 points.
New Zealand’s C-Tech heads the visiting teams on 11 points, followed by Smeg on 13 and Appliancesonline.com.au (Micah Lane) and USA’s Howie Hamlin (CST Composites) both on 15 points.
Yamaha (David McDiarmin, New Zealand) was among the leaders after the start but Mojo Wine’s crew sailed superbly in the 8-knot ENE breeze to hold a 35s margin over Thurlow Fisher Lawyers at the windward mark.
UK’s Pica (James Mears) was in third place ahead of Team Daly (Nick Daly), Events Clothing, C-Tech and Gotta Love It 7, which was 2½m from the lead.
Alexandra South and her all-girl crew on Lomax Financial Group were also well in contention as they held 10th place as spinnakers were set for the run back to the leeward mark.
A four lap windward-leeward course had been set and at the end of the first lap there was very little separating the first four skiffs with Mojo Wine just ahead of Events Clothing, Thurlow Fisher Lawyers and Pica.
Team Daly was also extremely fast downwind and was a nearby fifth.
On the next lap, Team Daly edged out her more fancied opposition to lead as the fleet approached the leeward mark.
When the skiff hit a wave and slowed dramatically, she was hit by another craft following the race and the resulting damage to her transom forced the skiff to retire.
The shifty nature of the breeze caused numerous place changes throughout the race.
With large crowds following today’s race it looked more like the final Sunday of the championship than the first weekend.
No team has looked dominant and the week ahead may produce one of the best finishes seen at a Giltinan Championship for many years.
Today’s result sheet and seven photos are attached.
Spectator ferries will follow each of the races in the championship, leaving Double Bay Wharf at 2.30pm, with the exception of Race 6 (Saturday 23 February), when the ferry will leave at 3.30pm.
Race 3 will be sailed on Tuesday with further races on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 24 February.
For those who can’t make it onto the spectator ferry, there are many ways to follow the championship:
Live Tracking:
http://www.tractrac.com/index.php?page=eventpage&id=274
Video Coverage and ‘Pick-the-Podium’:
http://www.jj18footerstv.com
For all official race results, race reports and photographs:
http://www.18footers.com.au
Coverage is also available at http://www.18skiff.com
Frank Quealey
Australian 18 Footers League
http://www.18footers.com.au
Good breeze kicked in for a big rig race today. .
New Velocitek ProStart might have had a little data spike tho
And a few fireworks at anchor to cap it off.
18ft Skiffs:
Winning Group 2013 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship
Today’s race sponsored by Asko Appliances
Friday, 15 February 2013
Sydney Harbour
An incident free race for the defending champion Gotta Love It 7 team proved a winning factor in a wonderful finish to Race 1 of the Winning Group 2013 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship sailed on Sydney Harbour today.
Seve Jarvin, Scott Babbage and Peter Harris were always near the lead and managed to manouvre their way around the south-east course without the dramas of their three main challengers.
At the end, Gotta Love It 7 finished just 4s ahead of Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel (Jack Macartney, David Witt, Mark Kennedy), with Pure Blonde (Tom Clout, Rob Bell, Matt Wark) only 20s back in third place.
Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Michael Coxon), Mojo Wine (James Dorron) and C-Tech (Alex Vallings) completed the top six placings.
Smeg (Nick Press) won the start, while Thurlow Fisher, Mojo Wine and De’Longhi-Rabbitohs (Simon Nearn) were nearby on the eastern side of the course.
When Gotta Love It 7 tacked to go o the west, Thurlow Fisher covered and the two favourites went to the east of Shark Island.
The move was a winner as Thurlow Fisher Lawyers won the race to the windward mark to lead Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel by 35s.
Gotta Love It 7 was third, followed by Appliancesonline.com.au (Micah Lane), Pure Blonde, Smeg, De’Longhi-Rabbitohs, Yamaha (David McDiarmid) and C-Tech.
Thurlow Fisher Lawyers maintained her lead over the next two legs of the course and still held a 25s margin at the Clarke Island mark for the second spinnaker run into Chowder Bay.
Disaster struck the leader off Bradley Head when the wind disturbance off a passing Many Ferry caused a near capsize for Thurlow Fisher and gave Gotta Love It 7 the lead.
From that point ‘7’ was never headed but serious challengers by Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel and Pure Blonde were hampered by separate incidents to those teams.
Skipper Jack Macartney fell overboard off ‘The Rag’ , while a port-and-starboard incident forced Pure Blonde to do a 360degree penalty turn at the final windward mark in Rose Bay.
Gotta Love It 7 certainly held a downwind speed advantage over ‘The Rag’ but was being pushed to the limit upwind.
A large ship leaving the harbour as the fleet made its way to the finish had a dramatic affect on many skiffs and changed the final placing throughout the fleet.
Despite a shifting wind which faded during the race, the spectacle was engrossing for spectators with so many close finishes.
A record was also set today when Alexandra South, Saskis Tidey and Lizzi Rountree became the first all girl crew in the 74 year history of the championship to complete the course.
The trio finished 28th in the 31-boat fleet in their Lomax Financial Group skiff.
Today’s result sheet and
Spectator ferries will follow each of the races in the championship, leaving Double Bay Wharf at 2.30pm, with the exception of Race 6 (Saturday 23 February), when the ferry will leave at 3.30pm.
Race 2 will be sailed tomorrow with further races on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 24 February.
For those who can’t make it onto the spectator ferry, there are many ways to follow the championship:
Live Tracking:
http://www.tractrac.com/index.php?page=eventpage&id=274
Video Coverage and ‘Pick-the-Podium’:
http://www.jj18footerstv.com
For all official race results, race reports and photographs:
http://www.18footers.com.au
Frank Quealey
Australian 18 Footers League
http://www.18footers.com.au
Frank Quealey
Australian 18 Footers League
0417 421 952
Allwood Sailing 