The Hey Charger 12 foot skiff is getting tidied up  hopefully back in the water for tgis weekends Upper Harbour Championship at Lane Cove 12 Foot Skiff Sailing Club.

Picked up a new custom made Bigfoot Trapeze Harness and gear bag today ready for my trip to Melbourne this weekend to race I14s in the Black Rock Skiff Regatta 2016.

Have a look at this video if you want more info about the Bigfoot tacking trapeze harness.  Thanks to Christophe Favreau for the video.

Adrienne Cahalan and Cameron McDonald won the 2016 Australian 12 Foot Skiff Championship sailing Panadol Rapid, a 26 year old Nash3 design skiff.

The Pandol team steered clear of the Captain Morgans Rum until after the last race, keeping their time penalties low, by not winning any of the races.  Consistent scoring kept them in the game but they went into the final days racing 2 points behind the very well performing Gizmo team of James Birdsall and Ewan Duckworth.  Both skiffs were deep in the fleet but sailed well to get into the top 10 finishers in light testing conditions on Sydney Harbour, with the experienced Panadol Rapid team (having just teamed up for the event) keeping a very loose cover over the Gizmo team throughout the race.

Adrienne had put the Panadol Rapid skiff on the market before winning the Handicap Title.  Get in touch if you are interested in buying a good entry level 12 foot skiff.

Here’s a shot showing how to start when you are not the fastest skiff in the fleet (or it probably works if you are the fastest too!).

Binks Marine Custom made Heavy Duty Trapeze Rings.

After years of dealing with trapeze ring failure risk, I discovered that Binks Marine gave up trying to get various manufactures of dinghy fitting to make trapeze rings stronger and started making their own.

Pretty hard to break these ones sailing as they are made from 1/4″ stainless steel rod, rather than the standard 3/16′”.

Used by the big boys Pete, Darren and Dave on 18 foot skiffs and Flying Dutchman.

Thanks to Darren at The Kitchen Maker for sponsoring the last race of the JJ Giltinan Championship with prizes from Allen, LIROS and Gill.

An thanks a lot to Mel, Robyn and Phil at DeckHardware for their generous support of The Kitchen Maker 18 foot skiff racing team and for supplying the Allen blocks and LIROS rope for prizes.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

18ft Skiffs
3-Buoys Challenge, Race 8
Sunday, 8 December 2013
Sydney Harbour

Chris Nicholson, Mike McKensey and Ricky Bridge won the Australian 18 Footers League’s 3-Buoys Challenge in Mojo Wine after finishing second in today’s final race of the series on Sydney Harbour.

Mojo Wine crew in complete control. Frank Quealey.

It was a great effort by the trio who were consistent, from the back mark, throughout the entire series.

With the best racing conditions this season, the fleet gave a magnificent spectacle for the ferry patrons in the 15-20 knot North-Easterly wind.

Close racing to the windward mark. Frank Quealey.

Gotta Love It 7 (Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton and John Winning Jr.) finally took line honours by 1m45s from Mojo Wine, with last week’s winner Coopers 62-Rag & Famish Hotel (Jack Macartney, Mark Kennedy and Peter Harris) another 31s back in third place.

Race winner gotta love it 7 thrills the crowds. Frank Quealey.

Pure Blonde (Nick Daly) was fourth, followed by Smeg (Nick Press) and Fisher & Paykel (Grant Rollerson).

Pure Blonde and Haier in tight racing down the first spinnaker run. Frank Quealey.

Final points in the series were:  Mojo Wine 25, Yandoo (John Winning 31, Rabbitohs-Kenwood (Brett Van Munster) 33, Smeg 34, Fisher & Paykel 36 and Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Michael Coxon) 45.

Series winning mojo wine crew Mike McKensey, Chris Nicholson, Ricky Bridge. Frank Quealey photo.

Conditions took a toll on the fleet with only 10 of the 18 starters completing the course.

Go Yandoo. Yandoo heads south on the spinnaker run. Frank Quealey photo.

The race to the first windward mark was close with only a few secs. separating the leading six teams.

Appliancesonline.com.au (Micah Lane) showed her best form so far to lead from Coopers 62-Rag & Famish Hotel, with De’Longhi-Rabbitohs (Simon Nearn) third.

First lap leader appliancesonline.com.au Frank Quealey photo.

The first spinnaker run was all action as Appliancesonline led the charge back to the bottom mark off Clarke Island with Gotta Love It 7, Thurlow Fisher Lawyers, Smeg, Fisher & Paykel, Coopers-Rag and Mojo Wine in hot pursuit.

Soon after turning for the second windward beat, the race took a dramatic turn as both Appliancesonline and Thurlow Fisher Lawyers were forced to retire with gear failures.

Gotta Love It 7 charged to the lead and it looked as though it may be all over for the challengers.

Gotta Love It 7 crew power upwind. Frank Quealey photo.

7 continued to hold a 25s margin over Smeg at the second set of windward marks with Sydney City Marine (David Witt) another 30s back in third place.  Coopers-Rag & Famish was also close behind in fourth place.

Another spectacular spinnaker run followed as Smeg began to pressure Gotta Love It 7.

A slight spinnaker mishap on 7 allowed Smeg to take a narrow lead for the first time.

With an advantage set to come at the final windward buoys, Smeg was in a particularly strong position to take the race honours.

An unexpected swim by the Smeg crew on the final windward leg allowed Gotta Love It 7 to regain the lead which the team held until the finish.

The red machine was driven hard by her crew down the final spinnaker run past the cheering crowd on the spectator ferry.

It was definitely the best race of the season and was a mouth watering glimpse into what we are likely to see during the championship end of the season.

More photos will be published on www.18footers.com.au.

Video coverage of the race can be seen on www.18footerstv.com.

• View the latest race of the week – every race filmed from start to finish plus a 3 minute round up
• Register for the archive of the last 2 seasons (older races being updated)
• Enter pick the podium and win TVs, sunnies, yachting gear and much more

The club’s regular spectator ferry will follow next Sunday’s Race 2 of the NSW Championship, leaving Double Bay Wharf at 2.15pm.

It will be the club’s final race before the break over Christmas and the New Year.

Racing will resume with Race 1 of the Australian Championship on Sunday 12 January.

Frank Quealey
Australian 18 Footers League
www.18footers.com.au