18ft Skiff Season Preview
by Alec Mckinlay 19 Apr 2006 08:06 BST
Ideal conditions for the first day of the 18ft VelamareSkiff Cup at Sardinia © Peter Danby
The 2006 season for the UK 18ft Skiff fleet kicks off this weekend at Draycote Water and is already shaping up to be busy year. It also looks to be one of the most competitive for years. The fleet will be joined by skiff ‘newbie’, former US Match Racing Champions Mason Woodworth and crew on the well known White Stuff skiff. Also the season marks a welcome return to skiff sailing after a couple of year’s absence for former fleet regular Martin Goodlad on Newport Arms/Ovington Boats.
In February 5 teams made the annual pilgrimage to the JJ Giltinan Championships on Sydney Harbour (the unofficial world championships of the class). Unfortunately the famous Sydney Nor-Easter stayed away for the majority of the week leaving all but one of the races sailed in fluky East to South Easterly breezes where local knowledge was paramount. However, lack of breeze was more than made up for by the competition. 2005 UK Grand Prix Champions and acknowledged light airs specialists Radii (Andy Richards, Andy Fairley and Dave Richards) made the best of the tricky conditions to place 12th overall.
The UK Season kicks off with a shared event with the 49ers at Draycote Water on the 22nd and 23rd April. The fleet then travels to Portland Harbour, Weymouth from the 5th to the 7th May for the 2006 National Championships, an event that is also the UK leg of the European Grand Prix series. The flat open waters of Portland Harbour are perfect for skiff sailing and the addition of a number of Europe’s top skiff teams for the first event of the 2006 European Grand Prix are likely to make this one of the biggest 18foot skiff regattas ever to have taken place in the UK. The sight of twenty or more of these flying machines lining up on a start line ready to head upwind at 15+ knots is enough to set hearts pounding and make race officers very nervous indeed!
The full 2006 UK series dates are:
- April 22-23, Draycote Water SC (UK Grand Prix Round 1)
- May 5-7, Weymouth (UK Nationals/Grand Prix round 2)
- May 20-21, Datchet Water SC (UK Grand Prix Round 3)
- July 1-2, Birkett, Ullswater SC (Lord Birkett Trophy/UK Grand Prix Round 4)
- July 15-16, Calshot (UK Grand Prix Round 5)
Last year, the European Grand Prix series was won by a British team, Barron & Smithers (Peter Barton, Martin Borrett, Ian Turnbull). This year, as ever, the circuit includes racing at some of the best locations in Europe and several UK teams will be competing to try to retain the trophy. After Weymouth, the next stop is Italy, for a week at Campione on the world famous Lake Garda for the European International Championships. This event (along with the JJ Giltinan and the North American International Championships in September) counts towards world rankings series and the UK and European fleets will be joined by some of the world’s top 18 sailors from Australian and the US for what promises to be an incredible not to be missed week of skiff sailing. Further stops on the tour include Travemuende Week, the beautiful Italian Lake Como and Carnac in Brittainy’s Baie de Quiberon.
The inspiration for a generation of asymmetric racing dinghies, the 18’s remain one of the most challenging, exhilarating small boats it is possible to sail. With racing in some of the UK and Europe’s top venues and strong competition from some of the top sailors in the sport 2006 looks to be a season not to be missed.