14/03/2026
The Yandoo team of John Winning Jr, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake became the world 18ft Skiff champions on Sydney Harbour today despite only managing to finish in seventh position in Race 8 of the 2026 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff World Championship, presented by The Winning Group, which was sailed in extremely light conditions.
In one of most incredible sailing races you would ever want to see, the Lazarus Capital Partners team of Tom Cunich, Marc Chapon and Tim Westwood produced a brilliant final lap of the course to defeat Sixt (Jacob Marks, Alex Marinelli and Matt Doyle) by 1m17s, with The Kitchen Maker (Lachlan Steel, George Morton and Jerome Watts) just 9s further back in third place.
Shaw and Partner Financial Services-Australia (Keagan York) finished in fourth place only 1s ahead of Queensland’s GC Sails (Scott Cunningham). Australian champion Balmain (Henry Larkings) was sixth, ahead of Yandoo, Shaw and Partners –New Zealand (Eli Liefting), Rag & Famish Hotel (Ben Crafoord) and Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell) to round out the top-10.
With only tomorrow’s final race of the championship still to be sailed, Yandoo has a net total of 15 points, after discarding her worst result. Regardless of the team’s placing in the final race, it can finish no worse than with a final total of 22 points, which is two better than the best score its nearest rival, Shaw and Partners-Australia can achieve.
Shaw and Partners Financial Services-Australia is presently on 23, ahead of the third placed GC Sails on 39 points, and is assured of second placing overall. GC Sails is in a good position to take the remaining podium place but will need to consolidate to stay ahead of Lazarus Capital Partners (46 points) and Sixt (47 points), which are in fourth and fifth placings respectively.
Shaw and Partners-New Zealand is the leading international team, in sixth place, with a total of 52 points, followed by Germany’s Black Knight (Heinrich von Bayern) on 53, Vaikobi on 55, Smeg (Ash Rooklyn) on 61 and The Kitchen Maker on 62 points.
Today’s race was sailed in extremely light wind, which forced the race officer to shorten the windward-leeward course from four laps to three.
