18ft Skiff SIXT Spring Championship: Impressive start for Smeg's new crew
by Frank Quealey 24 Oct 00:24 BST
Smooth crew work on Smeg © SailMedia
The close fleet racing we've witnessed in the first two weeks of the 2026-27 Australian 18 Footers League racing season on Sydney Harbour has supporters excited at the prospects of the racing to come as the new teams continue to lift their experience and sharper team work.
One of the first of these teams to show how prominent it is going to be in the major titles is the very impressive Smeg team of Ash Rooklyn (skipper), Ricky Bridge (sheet) and Tom Quigley (bow), which finished second, behind Giltinan world champion Yandoo, in last Sunday's club championship race.
Individually, all three crew members are highly skilled 18ft skiff competitors but Sunday was only the second time they have all sailed together.
Rooklyn had every reason to be encouraged by Sunday's performance and commented, "We were happy with the performance which was a reward for the hard work we did during the off season."
"We are a happy team and looking forward to building on the good early start."
Lighter wind conditions than those often experienced at this time of the year in Sydney has allowed all teams to show their potential and resulted in better racing throughout the fleet.
Lazarus Capital Partners (Tom Cunich, Logan Radford and Jack Taylor), which leads the Sixt Spring Championship on 9 points, is another new crew combination which has quickly shown consistency and certainly has the talent for more success.
Two exciting new 18 footer skippers to the League's fleet are Ryan Ewings (Killer Coffee Co) and Joel Beashel (Thurlow Fisher Lawyers) who have champion crew members in their teams and the expectation on both teams is very high.
Add to the new teams, the current and past Australian champions Henry Larkings (Balmain) and Keagan York (Shaw and Partners Financial Services), defending Spring champion Jacob Marks (Sixt), last Sunday's Race 2 winner Emma Rankin (Club Marine), Ben Crafoord (Rag & Famish Hotel) and Jordan Girdis (The Kitchen Maker).
Of course, the Giltinan world champion Yandoo crew of John Winning Jr, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake are always hard to beat but the task of winning from the 'scratch' mark is very difficult against such a talented fleet.
Sunday's Race 3 of the Sixt Spring Championship looks like being a brilliant contest over a 3-buoys course in a 18-knot NE wind.
Progress points after two of the seven-race Sixt Spring Championship are:
- Lazarus Capital Partners 9pts
- Club Marine 11pts
- Rag & Famish Hotel 11pts
- The Kitchen Maker 11pts
- Thurlow Fisher Lawyers 12pts
- Balmain 14pts
- Killer Coffee Co 14pts
- Yandoo 14pts
- Smeg 17pts
- Sothebys-Ballard Property 18pts
- Vaikobi 19pts
- Sixt 20pts
- Shaw and Partners Financial Services 21pts
- 18 Footers Bar & Restaurant 25pts
- Royal Oak Double Bay 28pts
- Fisher & Paykel 30pts
- Ocius 31pts
The League has the 'Royale' spectator ferry to follow the racing, departing Double Bay Wharf at 2:15pm, where patrons can follow the fleet, soak up the views, and enjoy drinks and snacks from the on-board bar. It's "a floating grandstand generations have called their own for generations".
For those unable to take advantage of the spectator ferry, the professional SailMedia Livestream team will be on the course to capture all the action. The team have three cameras feeding into the livestream production; a drone, a main camera mounted on the roof of the Camera Cat, and a commentary team POV camera.
SailMedia's coverage provides viewers with all the close up racing action, along with the beauty of the harbour and the city, all backed up by expert commentary from former competitors who are situated on the Camera Cat - in the centre of all the racing action.