Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club Short Course Pointscore Day 3
by Adam Lucius 30 Oct 08:02 GMT
25 October 2025
13ft Skiff fleet during Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club Short Course Pointscore Day 3 © SailMedia / Michael Chittenden
Thirteen-footers have been around since 2002, originally introduced to bridge the gap from a Flying 11 to a 16. It was a slow burn for a while, with Manly Skiff Club doing a lot of the heavy lifting early to ensure fleet numbers stayed at a respectable level. Now it's exploding in popularity.
This season promises to see a record number of 13s compete at the state and national championships, with 21 boats registered at Manly, eight at Belmont, three at St George and up to four in Queensland.
Just about every 16ft sailor of a certain age would have had a taste of life on a 13ft Skiff. It's the sailing class delivering on its promise.
Interestingly, the class has proved particularly popular among young girls, with 30 per cent of the Manly fleet featuring female skippers. And the majority of sailors are in the 13-19 age bracket, capturing the all-important youth market.
Olympic competitor and current Manly/St George sailing manager Graham Biehl believes the introduction of the 13s class is one of the best things to happen to skiff sailing.
"The 13 offers a really fun time for skiff sailing within a club environment," he said. "The boat was pitched and designed as a stepping stone to the 16s and it's been a natural fit.
"We are looking at a fleet of around 30 for the nationals, which is a fantastic result and a reward for all the work a lot of people have put in over the years."
New to Manly - but not the 13s class - and already making a noise are teenagers Byron Lowe and Lachlan Favaloro is on Bigfoot Bags & Covers (BBC).
The pair was after consistent competition, so made the move from Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Sailing Club to Manly at the start of the season.
Two third places - behind dual heat winner Buckingham Marine (Ash Napper/ Theo Franklin) and runner-up IMEI (Ollie Ross/Charlie Snell) - in Saturday's two short course pointscore races was further illustration BBC aren't here just to make up the numbers.
"We only had two (13s) boats at Hornsby so were looking at more competition and we've got that at Manly," Byron said. "We're really enjoying the competitiveness, the friendliness and the community... everyone has made us feel really welcome.
"There's such a good vibe around the 13s and the sailing is pretty intense."
Promising results over the first few weeks of the season has convinced BBC it can make an impact at the major regattas, building on a fifth and ninth respectively at the NSW and Australian 13ft Championships last summer.
Both 16s races on Saturday featured capsizes and mixed results as the conditions took hold in the 10-18 knot NNE.
Underlining the "Chook Lotto" randomness of the day, Modern Concept Construction (Spencer McKay, Chris Williams, Kurt Hansen) led the first race from start to finish but had to settle for 10th in the follow-up heat after capsizing.
The second race saw friend turned foe Buckingham Marine (Tom Slingbsy) hunt down runaway leader Red Pumps Red (Zoe Dransfield) to claim a narrow win. It had only been a week since the decorated Slingsby had crewed with RPR to score a memorable club championship win.
Seven days is a long time in sailing!
Another highly credentialed skipper - Imagine Signage's Nathan Wilmot - finished as the most consistent on the day, pocketing a second and third.