Please select your home edition
Edition
Ovington 2021 - ILCA 2 - LEADERBOARD
Product Feature
Allen 30mm Dynamic Tii-On Block
Allen 30mm Dynamic Tii-On Block

18ft Skiff International Regatta at San Francisco - Overall

by Rich Roberts 27 Aug 2011 09:49 BST 21-26 August 2011

It's been said about this City by the Bay that if you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes.

Echo that about racing sailboats here. Howie Hamlin, a 58-year-old land broker from Southern California, has now won six of the 10 annual 18ft Skiff International Regatta hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club, but Friday's clutch scenario played out like the Perils of Pauline.

Hamlin, with crew Matt Noble and Paul Allen on CST Composites, went into the last day with a one-point lead over Australia's John (Woody) Winning on Yandoo and five points over Michael Coxon's Thurlow Fisher Lawyers - the top three boats all week.

The latter performed like the defending champions they were, winning two of six races when Coxon, suffering from a neck injury, turned the tiller over to the veteran Trevor Barnabas. Until the very end Friday, with Coxon back, it seemed they would win the last three, as well (details below).

Hamlin won three of the 10 races, including the finale. Both of Friday's contests were two laps around the 1.1-nautical mile windward-leeward set from inside the Golden Gate Bridge to just past Alcatraz Island, where Al Capone hung out and Burt Lancaster played the Birdman.

Those were the days, but Hamlin lent his own drama to the scene Friday. He led early in the first race, then followed Coxon in the Australian's 47-second win while keeping an eye on Winning, who was third.

Then the drama got weird. As the chill breeze built from 14 to 16 knots and touched 20 at times, Hamlin led again in the second race until trouble struck at the leeward mark.

"I called for the [spinnaker] drop a couple of boat lengths too soon," he said, "and then you have to run real square and slow...my mistake. We went from first to sixth in a matter of 30 seconds. That's how good this fleet is."

As Coxon seized the lead and all but disappeared into the misty fog, Hamlin's prospects for the regatta suddenly tanked. Winning cruised into second place with three boats between him and his longtime American rival - ample margin to assure him of victory overall.

But it wasn't quite over. As the pack trailing Coxon ran downwind, Winning jibed left toward Alcatraz to set up his final line to the mark. Hamlin also had played that route successfully, but this time he couldn't jibe because Nick Press's Australian entry, SMEG, was close on his port hip blocking the move.

No problem. As tactics turned out, this time right was the better way to go. Hamlin and Press crossed and rounded 13 seconds ahead of Winning - game on again!

"It's easy when you have a little boat speed and you go the right way," Hamlin said.

So suddenly CST was in second place again, and if Thurlow Fisher seemed out of reach, about to tack for the finish line, just wait.

Allen, CST's forward crew, recalled, "I looked up and saw they were stalled. I wondered what was going on, and then I saw 20 boat lengths behind them [crew member] Trent [Barnabas] in the water swimming...like, here's our chance."

Barnabas' hiking trapeze line had failed at a very inconvenient time. By the time Coxon could collect him, CST had blown by for the win and a final three-point margin over Coxon and five over Winning.

Luck - good or bad - often makes a difference in any game, but skill and good gear are more consistent weapons.

"Jay [Glaser of Glaser Sails] has built a second version of a spinnaker for us and that made a big difference," Hamlin said. "Woody always used to crush us downwind, and now we were faster than him downwind."

And although they entered the week with concern about a lack of body ballast that might handicap them upwind, it wasn't a problem.

"We're light," Hamlin said, "30 kilos lighter than the heavies...72 pounds. If we can still go with the heavies that's good."

Also verified once again: "That all just goes to show that in skiff racing it isn't over until you cross the finish line," Hamlin said.

Winning wasn't happy - "Early in the week we were fast on the wind," he said - but he was encouraged by the turnout of five local boats by the Skiff Sailing Association and a 15-boat fleet overall.

"The bottom end of the fleet is getting better here, and there's more of them," he said.

See daily video highlights produced by Gecko Productions of Australia with expert commentary by Bob Killick.

Overall Results:

PosBoatSkipperR1R2R3R4R5R6R7R8R9R10Pts
1CST CompositesHowie Hamlin231[5][5]1222114
2Thurlow Fisher LawyersTrevor Barnabas/Michael Coxon[7]161[OCS]2311217
3YandooJohn Winning12323[5]1[5]3419
4CT SailbattensAlex Vallings[6][6]4423635532
5SMEGNick Press3[7]2[6]66446334
6Maersk LineGraham Catley4[9]79489[13]4651
7HarkenGlenn Raphael84117[OCS]757[12]857
8Mounts Bay WAGrant Rollerson1155314[DNF][DNF]DNFDNS61
9PanasonicJonathan Whitty98[13]107[DNF]7671064
10YamahaDavid McDiarmid5109[11]810109[DNF]768
11White LightningPat Whitmarsh[10][12]10899888969
12USA BlackSkip McCormack15138[DNF]10[DNF]111291290
13Death DealerBrian Malouf1311[14]1213[DNS]1210111193
14O'CanadaJohn Ladha/David Rasmussen12141213111113[DNF]10[DNF]96
15Love MachineKatie Love14[DNF][DNF]DNF12DNFDNF1113DNF114

Related Articles

The link between two great Australian sports
A unique connection between brute strength and beauty James Joseph Giltinan was one of Australia's great entrepreneurs of the early 1900s, and the man most responsible for creating a unique link between one of the most confrontational football codes in the world and the beauty of sailing. Posted on 25 May
The last 18' skiff champion before one design
Michael Spies won the 1993 and 1995 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championships When Michael Spies won the 1993 and 1995 World 18 footer championships, in his Julian Bethwaite-designed Winfield Racing skiff, he became the last winner of the title before the introduction of the new one-design 18 footer won its first title in 1996. Posted on 14 May
Smeg's 29 years of 18ft Skiff sponsorship success
It all began when a Trevor Barnabas-led team raced a skiff named Omega Smeg-2UE The Smeg Australia 18ft skiff sponsorship with the Australian 18 footers League began in 1996-97 and has continued harmoniously, with many great successes, over the following twenty nine seasons on Sydney Harbour. Posted on 7 May
The 18ft Skiff 'Big Boat Era'
The original 18 footers which raced from the 1890s to the mid-1930s We are all familiar with the modern 18 footers as they speed across Sydney Harbour with their carbon fibre hulls and lightweight state-of-the-art sails and spars but they a vastly different to the original 18 footers. Posted on 23 Apr
A look back at the 2003 18ft Skiff JJ Giltinan
The closest of 76 regattas in the greatest championship The recent JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship regatta produced some nervous moments for the Yandoo team of Tom Needham, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake during the 'crazy' westerly conditions of the last race Posted on 30 Mar
Winnings JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship Day 7
The Yandoo team of Tom Needham, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake wrap up the win The Yandoo team of Tom Needham, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake became the world 18 footer champions after scoring a brilliant victory in the Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship, which concluded on Sydney Harbour today. Posted on 16 Mar
Winnings JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship Day 6
Yandoo in pole position going into Sunday's final race The Yandoo team of Tom Needham, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake went into today's Race 8 on Sydney Harbour with a two points lead over Finport Finance, its closest challenger to retaining the coveted title. Posted on 15 Mar
Winnings JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship Day 5
A critical race going into the weekend's final two races With just one point separating the two leading contenders for the Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship, today's Race 7 of the nine-race regatta was going to be critical going into the weekend's final two races. Posted on 13 Mar
Winnings JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship Day 4
Races 5 and 6 were light and shifty Today's wind was light and shifty as it was yesterday, but the results of the two short-course races was vastly different, which has added to the drama of the final three races of the Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship. Posted on 12 Mar
Winnings JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship Day 3
Light winds and low visibility no barrier for the faultless Yandoo team Two short-course races with rain and light, variable easterly conditions on Day 3 of the Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship made little difference to the incredible performance being shown by the defending champion Yandoo team. Posted on 11 Mar