18ft Skiff Club Championship Race 13 - Preview
by Frank Quealey 4 Feb 08:47 GMT
8 February 2026
Harbour traffic and the 18s © SailMedia
With the JJ Giltinan world 18ft skiff Championship set for March 7-15 on Sydney Harbour, Sunday's Australian 18 Footers League Club Championship Race 13, over the same course, will be a critical hit out for all teams as they peak for the major championship.
Two teams hoping for a change of fortune this week are Smeg and Yandoo, which have both lost world champion crew members to serious injury over the past two weekends.
Smeg lost Mike McKensey on Australia Day (January 26) when he suffered a broken jaw and lost teeth, and has had his jaw wired shut for a couple of months. Yandoo's Micah Lane shattered his heel place in last Sunday's race and is also likely to miss the remainder of the season.
Yandoo is yet to name a skipper for next Sunday's club championship race.
Great early season form in extremely difficult conditions sees the Yandoo team holding a big lead over the rest of the fleet but recent form has shown that several teams are beginning to hit their best form and are throwing out a strong challenge to the defending Giltinan champion.
The most impressive of those, to date, has been Balmain, skippered by Henry Larkings, which recently won the Australian Championship.
Larkings, Tom Grimes and Lachlan Pryor are having their first season together in the 18s and the improved performance of the boat over recent weeks indicates that the newly-crowned national champion will be a formidable challenger in March.
The new Shaw and Partners Financial Services skiff, skippered by Keagan York, has yet to show its full potential, but her recent form, when beaten at the national championship on a count back, suggests that Keagan has again left his best performances to the later part of the season, when the big championships come around.
He previously won the 2022-23 Australian Championship and was a narrow runner-up to Yandoo in the 2025 Giltinan Championship in his previous Finport Finance skiff.
Another strong challenger for the coming championship races is Lazarus Capital Partners (Tom Cunich). Although not prominent on the score board for the club championship to date, this team has rarely had a full crew in any race through the season but recent form suggests that a good result is likely at the JJs.
In a fleet which boasts several young champion sailors, two of the leading challengers are skippered by teenagers, who were school mates before tackling the 18s. Ben Crafoord (Rag & Famish Hotel) and Jacob Marks (Sixt) have raced successfully together in the 29ers and now have a friendly rivalry in the bigger boats.
Other teams who have battled to show good consistent form, in a season which has been dominated by strong winds or little wind, are Smeg (Ash Rooklyn), Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell), Club Marine (Emma Rankin) and Fisher & Paykel (Brett Van Munster).
Early predictions of a 13kt Easterly breeze for race time, will give every team a great opportunity to show its true form and a good indication of what is to come.
The present score board in the Club Championship series has Yandoo on 27 points, followed by Balmain on 51, Rag & Famish Hotel on 62, Sixt 74, Smeg 85, Vaikobi 86, Club Marine 90 and Fisher & Paykel on 96 points.
The League's usual spectator ferry will leave Double Bay Wharf at 2pm to follow the race, and SailMedia was live stream the race here.