INTERNATIONAL BOOST FOR GILTINAN WORLDS

USA challenge adds another country to the 2026 championship

The 2026 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff World Championship, presented by The Winning Group, received a last-minute boost with the entry of the first USA 18 footer team to contest the championship for seven years.  The fleet of twenty-seven teams representing six countries will now contest the 2026 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff World Championship, presented by The Winning Group, which begins on Sydney Harbour on Saturday.

Interestingly, the influence behind the entry was John Winning Jr, the skipper of the championship favourite Yandoo, who will loan his 2022 and 2023 world champion Andoo skiff to three US sailors, who will race it as Andoo-USA in the nine-race regatta.

The Andoo-USA team is Mikey Radziejowski, David Liebenberg and Evan Sjostedt.

Winning’s generous support is a positive move and a great boost for international 18 footers, but now that the arrangement has been completed his total focus will centre on taking his father’s Yandoo to a third consecutive victory in the Giltinan world championship.

John (aka Herman) Winning previously won the 2023 championship in Andoo, and was runner-up in 2019 and 2021, but after taking a break this season has only recently taken over the role of skipper of Yandoo when SailGP commitments of the former skipper, Tom Needham, prevented him from contesting the 2026 worlds.

Since taking over the role less than one month ago, Winning, along with the talented Fang Warren and Lewis Brake, has already shown he has lost none of his skill when he steered Yandoo to two convincing victories in the Australian 18 Footers League Club Championship.

While the overall competitiveness of the fleet is better than it has been since the Pandemic, the powerful Yandoo team rarely makes a mistake and appears to have an edge over its main rivals at the moment.

Supporting this belief, since Fang and Lewis came together in the 2023-24 season Yandoo has won two Giltinan world championships, one Australian and two NSW championships.

The team is particularly strong in most constant wind conditions if there is any vulnerability it could only be in the less-predictable races over the windward-leeward courses in lighter breezes.

Yandoo must be considered a certainty to fill one of the podium positions but nominating the other two is far more difficult and there appears to be little between ten teams if wind conditions are good.  It should produce some of the best 18 footer racing seen on Sydney Harbour for several seasons.

Following their recent Australian Championship win, the Balmain team of Henry Larkings, Tom Grimes and Lachlan Pryor must rate as the more likely to stop Yandoo’s three-in-a-row Giltinan championship victory.

The Balmain skiff has shown she has the boat speed to match Yandoo.  Keeping errors to a minimum and consistency over a range of conditions seems to be what’s required for the Balmain crew.

Germany’s Black Knight team of Heinrich von Bayern and the Martin brothers will be making their sixth challenge.  It is their most professional campaign; they have a brand new hull and equipment and have had their longest pre series preparation on the Sydney Harbour course.

Scott Cunningham’s GC Sails heads a strong 3-boat Queensland challenge, which also includes Big Foot Bags & Covers (Dave Hayter) and Brisbane 18 Footers (Josh Sloman).  The GC Sails team was very impressive in the Australian championship just two months ago and will be very hard to beat in the right conditions if it reproduces that performance at the JJs.

One of the highlights of the championship should be the battle between the two Shaw and Partners Financial Services teams representing Australia and New Zealand.  Both have brand new skiffs and have undeniable chances of making it onto the podium.  With the added incentive of each to become the better Shaw and Partners inter-dominion team, this should produce a must-watch personal battle.

A second ‘personal battle’ within the overall championship is the friendly rivalry between two former 29er champion team mates, Ben Crafoord and Jacob Marks, who will lead two talented young teams on Rag & Famish Hotel and Sixt respectively.

Emphasising the depth of strength in the fleet, at least four other teams with race-winning chances are Lazarus Capital Partners (Tom Cunich), Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell), Smeg (Ash Rooklyn) and Club Marine (Emma Rankin) who have all been in the leading group throughout the 2025-26 championship season.

There is no spectator ferry following Friday’s Invitation Race but you can still catch the SailMedia live stream video coverage on youtube.com/video/bgA8rxUdreA/livestreaming 

There will be a spectator ferry following each of the seven race days of the championship and tickets may be purchased through Buy Ferry Tickets

SailMedia will provide a live stream coverage every race day during the 2026 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff World Championship, presented by The Winning Group.  The link to Race 1 on Saturday, March 7 is youtube.com/video/BUgbCvflX6U/livestreaming

It is also available through https://www.youtube.com/@18footersTV/streams

Race dates for the championship are:

Friday March 6, 2026 Invitation Race

Saturday March 7, 2026 Race 1, George Calligeros Trophy

Sunday March 8, 2026 Race 2, Cliff Monkhouse Memorial Trophy

Tuesday March 10, 2026 Races 3 & 4, Alan Cole Memorial Trophy

Wednesday March 11, 2026 Races 5 & 6, A. J. Reynolds Trophy

Thursday March 12, 2026 Race 7, Bill Miller Memorial Trophy

Saturday March 14, 2026 Race 8, Bill Kite Memorial Trophy

Sunday March 15, 2026 Race 9, Ribbon and J. J. Giltinan Trophy

List of Entries for the championship are:

Yandoo                                                             Aust       John Winning Jr, Fang Warren, Lewis Brake

Shaw and Partners Financial Services         Aust       Keagan York, Max Paul, Tom Anderson

Black Knight                                                     Germany Heinrich Von Bayern, Thomas Martin, Andy Martin

Balmain                                                            Aust       Henry Larkings, Tom Grimes, Lachlan Pryor

Shaw and Partners Financial Services         NZ          Eli Liefting, Sam Street, Josh Schon

Club Marine                                                     Aust       Emma Rankin, Brandon Buyink, Jed Cruikshank

GC Sails                                                             Aust       Scott Cunningham, Joel Turner, Dave Cunningham

Vaikobi                                                              Aust       Kirk Mitchell, Andrew Stephenson, Daniel Barnett

Sixt                                                                     Aust       Jacob Marks, Alex Marinelli, Matt Doyle

Lazarus Capital Partners                               Aust       Tom Cunich, Marc Chapon, Tim Westwood

Smeg                                                                 Aust       Ash Rooklyn, tba, Niall Morrow

Brisbane 18 Footers                                       Aust       Josh Sloman, Ben Roxburgh, Angus Barker

Big Foot Bags and Covers                             Aust       Dave Hayter, Trent Neighbour, Elliott Mahar

Fisher & Paykel                                                Aust       Brett Van Munster, Tom Quigley, Logan Radford

Rag & Famish Hotel                                       Aust       Ben Crafoord, Ryan Ewings, Max Nearn

The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines                        Aust       Hugo Stoner, Zann Scrimgeour, Daniel Watson

ASCC                                                                  NZ          Campbell Stanton, Ollie Gilmore, Pat Morgan

Killer Coffee Co                                               Aust       Jordan Girdis, Max Vos, Nick Rozenauers

The Kitchen Maker                                         Aust       Lachlan Steel, George Morton, Jerome Watts

Sothebys Ballard Property                            Aust       Bec Hancock, Cam Walker, Ed Swain

Gotcha4Life                                                     Aust       Kade Morgan, Graeme Fairbairn, Isaac Marney

Akarana Eatery                                               NZ          Monty Alderson, Levi Jenkins, Marcel van der Voort

18 Footers Bar and Restaurant                    Aust       Luca Gambacorti, Max Herscovics, Nic Livermore

Bar Karate – the Sailing Podcast                 UK          Ian Turnbull, Harvey Hillary, Stuart Keegan

Badnavn the Vikings                                       Denmark   Jesper Brondum, Holdnavn Marvik, Badnavn Marvik

Berlin Bears                                                     Germany Philipp Nocke, Marceli Mierzw, Max Seydl

Andoo-USA                                                      USA        Mikey Radziejowski, David Liebenberg, Evan Sjostedt