The Yandoo team of Tom Needham, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake became the world 18 footer champions after scoring a brilliant victory in the Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship, which concluded on Sydney Harbour last weekend.
Yandoo completed the nine-race regatta with a record of six wins, one sixth placing and a ninth for a total of 21 points, which was five points ahead of the second-placed Finport Finance, crewed by Keagan York, Matt Stenta and Angus Williams.
The boatspeed and crew work on the winner was exceptional throughout the regatta and their tactics could not be faulted as the boat was in or very near the front of the fleet from the start of every race.
Fast and faultless best sums up the Yandoo team of 2025.
Having said that, today’s totally and typically unpredictable westerly wind on Sydney Harbour was going to put Yandoo followers’ hearts-in-their-mouths when they saw their favourite back in 17th place at the first weather mark while Finport Finance was a clear second and challenging for the lead.
Yandoo went into Suday’s race with a nine points lead over Finport Finance and, if Finport Finance won, Yandoo only had to complete the course within the first nine placings to successfully defend the title she won in 2024.
Westerly winds on the Harbour can play terrible tricks on the very best crews and Yandoo’s hopes weren’t all that much better after the first lap of the course as the team still trailed in 14th place while Finport Finance was still second behind a skillfully sailed Rag & Famish Hotel crew of Harry Price, Max Paul and Finn Rodowicz.
Rag & Famish Hotel’s crew were superb in the very tricky, always changing conditions and crossed the finish line a 24s winner over a determined challenging Finport Finance, with Balmain (Henry Larkings, Tom Grimes and Flynn Twomey) a further 34s back in third place.
Germany’s Black Knight (Heinrich von Bayern) finished in fourth place, ahead of Smeg (Nathan McNamara), Yandoo, Sixt (Jacob Marks), New Zealand’s C-Tech (Alex Vallings), Akarana Eatery (Tim Howse, NZ) and Marine Outlet (Josh Porebski).
Obviously, much of the interest for at least half the race, centred on the points battle between Finport Finance and Yandoo as the series leader battled mid fleet, but the performance by the young Balmain team shouldn’t go unnoticed as they pushed the more experienced Finport crew to the limits for much of the race.
But for an unfortunate incident in Race 7, when Balmain’s spinnaker was torn apart, the team could have finished even higher in the overall placings.
Final placings and points were:
1. Yandoo – 21 points
2. Finport Finance – 26 points
3. Rag & Famish Hotel – 31 points
4. C-Tech – 47 points
5. Smeg – 50 points
6. Black Knight – 58 points
7. Balmain – 59.7 points
While defending champion Yandoo won six races in the nine-race championship and the current Australian champion Rag & Famish Hotel won two, the performance of the young Smeg team of Nathan McNamara, Jed Cruikshank and Jack Taylor shouldn’t be forgotten as the only other team to win a race, when they finished at the head of the 28-boat fleet in Race 5.
