18ft Skiffs
After being battered by a 20-25 knot southerly wind on Sydney Harbour last Sunday, the Australian 18 Footers League fleet returns to the harbour waters again next Sunday to contest Race 2 of the Sixt Spring Championship and Mick Scully Memorial Trophy.
An early forecast indicated a far more friendly 14 knots breeze from the north-east.
Whatever conditions eventuate, last Sunday’s very impressive Race 1 winner Rag & Famish Hotel (Harry Price, Max Paul, Finn Rodowicz) will find it much more difficult over the 3-buoys course next Sunday as she will have to give at least 2mins start to every other boat in the fleet.
Under the series rules, each race winner is penalised 3mins for the following race. Second placing penalty is 2mins and third placing is a 1min penalty.
It’s a system that goes back over the 90-year history of 18 footer racing at the League and is designed to provide a ‘winning chance’ for EVERY boat in the fleet, so long as she performs up to the expectations of her allotted handicap.
Action, spectacle and competitive racing has been the reason for the success of the 18s as a spectator-friendly class for more than 130 years and the League’s present administrators are determined to uphold the tradition.
Adding to the present racing, there is NO discard in the Sixt Spring Championship.
Trying to gauge the likely performance of most teams next Sunday is difficult, based on what we saw in Race 1, but there were some brief bright spots for a few teams despite their final placing.
Two obvious teams, Lazarus (Tom Cunich) and Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell) were impressing and will be competitive but also have to overcome their respective handicap penalties for finishing second and third last Sunday.
Others to show enough to be a possible winner are Burrawang-Young Henrys (Simon Nearn), Balmain (Henry Larkings), Smeg (Nathan McNamara) and the new The Kitchen Maker (:achlan Steel).
