Michael Spies: The last world 18 footer champion before one design

by Frank Quealey 14 May 08:29 BST

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.

He retired from the 18s after winning the 1995 worlds against a 27-boat fleet but returned recently when he was Shore Manager/Coach for the Shaw and Partners Financial Services team at the 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour when "a recent last minute offer presented itself to work with the Shaw and Partners Financial Services team, skippered by Emma Rankin, which had been struggling a bit during the 2024-25 season."

It created a great opportunity to reflect on his long sailing career, get his opinion on the change to the one-design hull, and check out his activity away from the water.

For Michael, it began when "I started sailing as crew, in Herons, for my late father, where we were one of the top three in the 100+ fleets for many years. My first International Regatta was in the 1967 Heron Inter-dominion in Auckland which we won. I also skippered Sabots and won the 1971 and 1972 NSW titles"

He was sailing at Hunters Hill Junior Sailing Club, whose senior class was the 12ft skiffs, which were "widely acknowledged as the hardest boat in the world to sail, with their unlimited sail area, limited righting moment, and only a 6 foot beam."

"I'd seen the disappointment of four unsuccessful Olympic campaigns by his late father, so it was a major incentive for me to go down the skiff and Ocean Racing path. Other Sabot sailors also aspired to sail 12ft skiffs as they were the proven stepping stone to 18ft skiffs."

"The 1970s was the 'Golden Era' for the 18 footers, which received wide spread coverage in the media and their skippers were well known to the general sporting public. Michael recalls, "you would read every day about the lead-up and boat development for the coming weekend races, then the Sunday and Monday race reports in the newspapers. It was every kid's dream to do his apprenticeship, come through the 12s and aspire to one day get a position on an 18."

Large, competitive fleets at both Sydney clubs, a strong fleet in Brisbane, the return of Western Australia (after a 50-year absence) and an incredible era of progress and achievements for the New Zealand designers, builders and competitors were the real highlight.

The quality and colour of local racing in Australasia, driven by an influx of champion skippers and teams, high-profile sponsors, incredible designers and the progress of building techniques and technology, was boosted by the introduction of international entries of the USA, UK, France and Italy.

Legendary Australian 18ft skiff names such as Iain Murray, John Winning, David Porter, Bob Holmes, Trevor Barnabas, Rob Brown, Hugh Treharne and Stephen Kulmar, to name just a few, were prominent in the 1970s as skippers. Two New Zealand designers, whose designs and innovations 'starred' during the decade, were the internationally famous Bruce Farr and Russell Bowler.

According to Michael, "having done pretty well in all the junior classes, I'd hang around my club hoping to jag a ride on a 12ft skiff, and my persistence paid off with a winter call-up 50 years ago, aged only 15 years, to sail on a brand new 12 with stitch and glue pioneer Phil Stevenson. We not only qualified for the Inter-dominion Championship, we finished 5th in a fleet which included Iain Murray, who finished 3rd in his self-designed and built boat."

"By the time I was 18 I was in the 18's."

According to Michael, "my first ride was as sheet hand on Nick Masterman's Nick and Kirbys, which was a timber Farr boat, and was followed by a new Kulmar-built hull for the 1978-79 season. Then in Easter 1979, I sailed sheet hand, on Pacific Harbour Fiji, for 'Woody' Winning in Perth, where we finished 2nd to Iain Murray's Color 7."

Following a season back in the 12ft skiffs, Michael returned to the 18s in 1981-82 as sheet hand on Anthony Scali's Nick Scali Furniture. The following season he skippered that skiff as Breville before again returning to the 12s in 1983-84 when he was runner-up in the NSW, Australian and Inter-dominion championships in a skiff named. Zapspar.

After living overseas during 1984-88, "mainly racing yachts" he was back in the 18s for the 1988-89 season as skipper of Bob Jane TMarts-2 Day FM, which was Rob Brown's ex world champion Entrad. He then skippered former Bank of New Zealand skiffs as Bob Jane T-Marts-2 Day FM during the 1989/90 and 1990/91 seasons before moving onto a Julian Bethwaite-designed B18 for the Winfield Racing sponsorship.

Michael was runner-up to Bethwaite in the 1992 worlds before winning the 1993 and 1995 worlds in Winfield Racing, then retiring from the 18s.

"I stayed in the class till my mid-late 30s when the body was starting to cry enough. Once you have been in the class it becomes entrenched in your DNA for life. I retired back to the 12ft skiffs for about another 15 seasons, still remaining competitive and winning a few championships and races on the way through. Finally common sense kicked in and I stopped getting my ambitions confused with my ability and graciously retired from skiff sailing."

Michael has competed in 46 Sydney-Hobart Races and was the youngest sailor to break the 25 and 40 Hobart Race milestones. He has won countless Australian Championships in various offshore classes and won numerous International Regattas mainly in the USA and Asia and continues to sail Dinghies in the Historic Scow Moths and NS14s, winning the Heavy Weight Division in the last two Australian Championship.

As winner of two of the last three world championship regattas before the introduction of the new style 18s, his involvement at the 2025 JJs gave Michael the opportunity "to review the development in the class over the last 30 years."

"The introduction of the Iain Murray hull shape was a controversial decision at the time, but has proven to be the right call with the class in a globally strong and competitive position. It also stopped the arms race and ensured the class' longevity and survival."

"The club's foresight to massage the rules over the past three decades, allowing exotics in hull, rigs, wings and sails, has allowed Brett Van Munster to build boats which have a competitive ten year life and probably another ten years as a solid entry level boat."

"The big developments is certainly in the rigs with the carbon masts now able to support massive square top mainsail. The thinking 30 years ago with the then alloy masts with very flexible glass tips was that a parabola profile was the ultimate. That is now clearly obsolete. The boats are now powered up with the big rig in around 7 knots TWS with the small rig clicking in at around 14 knots which makes it a challenge to drag the boats around the track in anything over sat 23 knots TWS."

"My final years in the class saw me doing it professionally. I was racing two days a week and on the water training for another two or three afternoons a week. I was also in the shed doing maintenance or the sail loft doing recuts four days a week. The boats now only race one day a week with a limited maintenance requirement due to the bulletproof nature of the boats."

So how did he get involved in the 2025 Giltinan Championship, "I got involved with Shaw and Partners Financial Services campaign a week out from the JJs because the team was not having a good year up to that point of the season."

"The goal was always the top 10 in the 28-boat fleet. We got the boat reliable in the week leading in, got the rigs symmetrical in the boat and changed the mast settings. I put a good sheethand in the boat and tried to implement the whole programme to be more regimented and disciplined which appeared to work."

Shaw and Partners Financial Services team at the championship was Emma Rankin (skipper), Joel Turner (sheet) and Brandon Buyink (bow).

"We put a big effort into presentation and organisation in the park. We had a pre-race briefing and post-race debrief, which appeared to be positive, installing more confidence in the team reflected in the results on the water."

Shaw and Partners Financial Services finished 10th overall in the championship, which achieved the team's pre-series goal.

Michael really enjoyed getting back involved in the regatta, and in his opinion on Emma "no other lady sailor has achieved such a result in the 18s since Adrienne Cahalan in the late 1980s."

"She tips the scales at only 60 kg and must be commended for meeting the challenge head-on. Against all the odds, she was leading the 6th race right up to the last mark, and despite having to make a penalty turn, still managed to finish with a good, but disappointing, 3rd place."

Emma Rankin has nothing but praise for MichaeL's management skills and how it assisted the Shaw and Partners Financial Services team at the 2025 Giltinan Championship. "You learn a lot about people when you spend 10 days competing in the JJ's. Michael Spies is the kind of guy with an idea or plan on the go at all times and is an out-of-the-box thinker who doesn't let many things escape him."

"He's got a good eye for people, too. I was in a difficult spot with crews in the lead-up to the JJ's, so he got Joel Turner involved, and with backing from Maritimo, he pulled the team together at the last minute. It saved my season and my confidence in sailing 18s."

"Since the JJ's, Spies invited Brandon and I to join the team on-board MarItimo 52 for the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht race. We finished with line honours, which was a fantastic result for my first ocean race."

According to Michael has always had a passion for Motor Sport, "my father was quite a good peddler and always had the leading drivers of the day at our home socially. I started racing Go Karts in 1980 with the highlight being runner up in the 1985 Hawaiian Championships."

"I was team manager for 6x Bathurst 1000 ps 3 in an ex Tony Longhurst Falcon, which I co-owned., and the highlight of my Motor Racing involvement was Team Manager and Strategist for the winning BMW of Paul Morris, Garry Holt and John Bowe in the 2010 Bathurst 12 Hour Race". I've owned and raced some quite historically significant race cars including the ex-Tony Longhurst JPS Group A BMW Touring Car."

The long history of 18 footer racing in Australia has produced many characters who loved the sport and gave 100 per cent every time they prepared and raced. Michael Spies is one of those men.