Please select your home edition
Edition
Rooster Women's Wetsuit Range

18ft Skiff 2024-25 Season Preview

by Frank Quealey 16 Oct 03:52 BST

The Australian 18 Footers League's 91st continuous season of 18ft skiff racing on Sydney Harbour will commence next Sunday (20 October) when the club conducts Race 1 of the six-race Sixt Spring Championship.

With a likely fleet of seventeen of the world's best 18 footer teams expected to face the starter during the season, the Sixt Sprint Championship will provide a great spectacle for supporters as well as an excellent opportunity for the younger and newer teams to set themselves up for the major championships that follow.

Highlights of the 2024-25 summer season are the League's 90th birthday celebrations over three-days from Friday 31 January to Sunday 2 February, the return of the Australian Championship to Brisbane for the first time in 35 years, and the 76th J.J. Giltinan World Championship on Sydney Harbour from 8-16 March 2025.

It should be an exciting local, interstate and international racing program to satisfy all 18 footer competitors and spectators.

The season-opening Sixt sprint series will include last season's champion team of Jacob Marks, Alex Marinelli and Matt Doyle, who will defend their title in the Sixt-sponsored skiff, after moving from last season's The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines.

Last year's runner-up and current JJ Giltinan world champion, the Yandoo team will again have the experienced John 'Woody' Winning, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake on board as it attempts to reverse the 2023 result.

Sixt and Yandoo will be under pressure from three of last year's top-5 teams, Balmain (Henry Larkings), Smeg (Nathan McNamara) and Shaw and Partners Financial Services (Emma Rankin) and top-10 teams Finport Finance (Keagan York), Burrawang-Young Henrys (Simon Nearn) and Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell).

Sixt team manager Alex Marinelli is looking forward to the move and prospect of defending the title won last year in The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines.

"We're looking forward to the challenge of retaining the title we won last year but will be without our skipper Jacob Marks for Race 1 as he is presently in the middle of his HSC exams at college."

"The team worked well together last season and the stability of having it remain the same for 2024-25 is important as we are looking to get better 'scratch' results at all the championships."

"We are really keen to work with our new sponsor, Sixt, and get the best possible results we can for the company."

Adding to the fleet this season is a new hull for The Kitchen Maker team of Lachlan Steel, Jerome Watts and Darcy McCracken. Steel has been sailing in the 18s for four seasons and the new boat this year will give him and his team their best opportunity for success.

It is also the fourteenth consecutive year of a sponsor-partnership between the McKavanagh family's The Kitchen Maker and the Australian 18 Footers League.

The eight-race NSW Championship, from 1-22 December, will follow the Sixt Spring Championship series before the racing on Sydney Harbour goes into a three-week break over Christmas and the New Year.

The return of major 18 footer championship racing to Brisbane, the Australian Championship 18-20 January, is a great result for the northern state and a just reward for the efforts of Dave Hayter and the results of his team in recent JJ Giltinan world championship regattas on Sydney Harbour.

90th anniversary celebrations announced by the League include a 'Super Sprint Series' for the Balmain Cup, a 'Skiff Sydney Harbour Marathon' and the 'Queen of the Waves' race, which will complete the celebrations on Sunday, 2 February.

Following the German Black Knight victory at the recent international regatta at Lake Garda, Italy, the team's return to Sydney for the 2025 JJ Giltinan Championship promises to make it a brilliant finale to an action-packed season of high-tech, high speed 18ft skiff racing.

The Australian 18 Footers League's spectator ferry will follow the racing throughout the entire season, as it has done over the club's 90-year history, and will leave Double Bay Public Wharf at 2pm next Sunday. Don't miss it!

For those unable to catch the ferry, Sunday's Livestream, Spring Championship Race 1 here:

Related Articles

18ft Skiff NSW Championship Day 2
Wins for Rag & Famish Hotel and Finport Finance Following the forced abandonment of Races 1 and 2 of the NSW 18ft Skiff Championship, due to an intense storm which hit as the fleet prepared to race, the series began on Sydney Harbour today when Races 3 and 4 were conducted. Posted today at 8:25 am
18ft Skiff NSW Championship re-starts on Sunday
Following the abandonment of Races 1 and 2 due to a severe electrical storm Following the abandonment of Races 1 and 2 of the NSW 18ft skiff Championship last Sunday, due to a severe electrical storm and the threat of a possible follow up, the Australian 18 Footers League will now stage Races 3 and 4 next Sunday. Posted on 4 Dec
18ft Skiff NSW Championship Day 1
Intense electrical storm accompanied by heavy rain and hail cancels racing Officials were forced to abandon racing on Day 1 of the NSW 18ft skiff Championship today when an intense electrical storm accompanied by heavy rain and hail swept in from the west, reducing visibility to near zero on the Sydney Harbour course. Posted on 1 Dec
18ft Skiff NSW Championship starts on Sunday
The Rag & Famish Hotel team go in as favourites The Rag & Famish Hotel team of Harry Price, Max Paul and Finn Rodowicz goes into the opening day's racing of the 2024-25 NSW Championship next Sunday as favourite to take the title after an outstanding start to the Australian 18 Footers League season. Posted on 27 Nov
18ft Skiff Sixt Spring Championship Race 6
The Rag & Famish Hotel team wrap up the series win The Rag & Famish Hotel team of Harry Price, Max Paul and Finn Rodowicz wrapped up the 2024 Sixt Spring 18ft skiff Championship, which concluded on Sydney Harbour today. Posted on 24 Nov
18ft Skiff Sixt Spring Championship Final Preview
The Rag & Famish Hotel team have dominated the season so far Three of the best teams in 2024-25 season fleet put on a great exhibition of power, speed racing in a 25-30 knot nor'easter on Sydney Harbour last Sunday with only a few secs separating them for more than two-thirds of the long course Posted on 20 Nov
18ft Skiff Sixt Spring Championship Race 5
Another brilliant exhibition by the Rag & Famish Hotel team in the strong north-east wind The Rag & Famish Hotel team of Harry Price, Max Paul and Finn Rodowicz continued their domination of the 2024-25 Australian 18 Footers League with another brilliant exhibition in the strong north-east wind conditions on a near-deserted Sydney Harbour. Posted on 17 Nov
Kevin Wadham, multi class sailing star
The skipper of the Lysaght Colorbond team only competed for three seasons The period from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s was one of the greatest, probably the greatest, periods of racing in the 132-year history of 18 footer racing in Australia and New Zealand, and produced some of the greatest competitors and designers. Posted on 13 Nov
18ft Skiff Sixt Spring Championship Race 4
Strong southerly winds forced the cancellation of today's race Strong southerly winds, gusting to more than 30 knots, forced the cancellation of today's Race 4 of the Sixt Spring 18 footer championship on Sydney Harbour. Posted on 10 Nov
18ft Skiff Sixt Spring Championship update
The Rag leads at the halfway mark The Rag & Famish Hotel team of Harry Price, Max Paul and Finn Rodowicz is currently dominating the Australian 18 Footers League fleet after the first three weeks racing and leads both the 2024-25 season Sixt Spring Championship Posted on 6 Nov