18ft Skiff Club Championship Race 1 and SIXT Spring Championship Race 2
by Frank Quealey 19 Oct 2025 08:54 BST
19 October 2025
Alf Beashel Memorial Trophy
Race Day Partner: Smeg
After last Sunday's opening race of the season had to be abandoned when 30-knot Westerly winds swept across the course, racing finally got underway when the Australian 18 Footers League staged Race 1 of its Club Championship and Race 2 of the SIXT 2025 Spring Championship, for the Alf Beashel Memorial Trophy, on Sydney Harbour today.
Conditions were far different to last week's Westerly storm; the fleet was greeted by a brilliant Sydney Harbour Nor'Easter, but if the teams thought it was going to be much easier then they were in for a shock as the wind was rarely below 20-knots with a choppy sea.
Tough for the competitors but some wonderful action-packed speed sailing for spectators as the fleet raced down wind at speeds of up to 30-knots by the winner Yandoo, skippered by the Giltinan world champion, Tom Needham.
Needham, Miles Davey and Lewis Brake gave a masterclass of heavy weather 18 footer racing in Yandoo to take out Race 1 of the Club Championship by a convincing margin of 1m41s Lazarus Capital Partners, which also showed enough to suggest another big season ahead for the team.
In a battle of attrition, Sixt (Jacob Marks, Alex Marinelli and Rasmus Rosenglen) survived the conditions to finish in third place, 10m26s behind Lazarus.
The only other teams to complete the course were Fisher & Paykel (Brett Van Munster, Tom Quigley and Logan Radford) in fourth place and Club Marine (Emma Rankin, Jack Taylor and Jed Cruikshank) in fifth place.
Race 2 of the SIXT 2025 Spring Championship was sailed in conjunction with the club championship and resulted in a victory for Lazarus Capital Partners, which defeated Yandoo, Sixt, Fisher & Paykel and Club Marine after each team's handicap was adjusted.
The race began with an even start off Clark Island between Yandoo, Lazarus and Balmain (Henry Larkings) all prominent, but it was soon evident that Yandoo was going to be extremely hard to beat as she accelerated away from Lazarus, Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell), Balmain and Sixt as the fleet fought the chop on the beat to the Beashel Buoy weather mark.
Yandoo's lead was one minute from Lazarus with Vaikobi only 5secs further back as the fleet headed to the wing mark at the southern end of Shark Island.
With Yandoo powering away at high speed, spectators were treated to the best battle of the day when Vaikobi edged into second place over Lazarus with a quicker spinnaker set.
Lazarus fought back and showed good downwind speed to prevent Vaikobi from gybing. It was a move which sent Lazarus back into second place and caused Vaikobi to capsize off Shark Island.
Yandoo extended her lead over Lazarus to 1m20s at the end of the first lap off Clark Island, then took it out to 1m45s after the second beat to the Beashel Buoy weather mark on the second lap of the course.
Balmain was in third place at the end of the first lap with Sixt in fourth place, ahead of Vaikobi.
On the following spinnaker run down the centre of the course, the SailMedia live stream commentary team raced alongside Yandoo and, from their camera cat, recorded the skiffs downwind speed at 30-knots.
Yandoo's victory was never in doubt, as long as the team could avoid a capsize, and after leading by 2m45s at the final weather mark she cruised home for a well-deserved victory.
Hopefully, conditions will be a little lighter next Sunday as the new and young teams have had little opportunity so far to come to grips with their new boats.
Next Sunday (26 October) will be Race 3 of the SIXT Spring Championship, for the Mick Scully Memorial Trophy. The Australian 18 Footers League's spectator ferry will follow the race and SailMedia will livestream all the action from the course.
18ft Skiff Club Championship Race 1 and SIXT Spring Championship Race 2 Results:
| Pos | Boat Name | Finish | Elapsed | Handicap | Corrected | Corrected Pos |
|---|
| 1 | Yandoo (Tom Needham / Miles Davey / Lewis Brake) | 15:55:35 | 01:10:35 | 0 | 01:10:35 | 2 |
| 2 | Lazarus (Tom Cunich / Marc Chapon / Nathan Edwards) | 15:57:16 | 01:12:16 | 2 | 01:10:16 | 1 |
| 3 | Sixt (Jacob Marks / Alex Marinelli / Matt Doyle) | 16:07:42 | 01:22:42 | 5 | 01:17:42 | 3 |
| 4 | Fisher and Paykel (Brett Van Munster / Tom Quigley / Logan Radford) | 16:12:02 | 01:27:02 | 6 | 01:21:02 | 4 |
| 5 | Club Marine (Emma Rankin / Jed Cruikshank / Jack Taylor) | 16:41:36 | 01:56:36 | 5 | 01:51:36 | 5 |
| DNF | Balmain (Henry Larkins / Tom Grimes / Lachlan Pryor) | | | | | |
| DNF | Sothebys Ballard Properties (Bec Hancock / Cam Walker / Ed Swain) | | | | | |
| DNF | Smeg (Ash Rooklyn / Fin Alexander / Finn Rodowicz) | | | | | |
| DNF | Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchel / Andrew Stephenson / Daniel Barnett) | | | | | |
| DNC | 18 Footers B&R Racing Team (Luca Gambacorti / Nic Livermore / Nathan Byrne) | | | | | |
| DNC | The Killer Coffee Co (Sam Abel / Max Voss / Nick Rozenauers) | | | | | |
| DNC | The Royal Oak (Hugo Stoner / Zann Scrimgeour / Daniel Watson) | | | | | |
| DNC | Shaw and Partners (Keagan York / Phil Marshall / Tom Anderson) | | | | | |
| DNC | Redhill Estate (Max Fonzo / Matteo Brignoli / Frank Oleary) | | | | | |
| DNS | Gotcha4Life (Kade Morgan / Graeme Fairbairn / Isaac Marney) | | | | | |
| DNS | Rag & Famish (Ben Crafoord / Ryan Ewings / Max Nearn) | | | | | |
| DNS | The Kitchen Maker (Lachlan Steel / Nathan Gulliksen / Hamish Vass) | | | | | |