John ‘Woody’ Winning – JJ Giltinan Championship Veteran

When John (Woody) Winning lines up as skipper of Yandoo for Race 1 of the 73rd JJ Giltinan World 18 footer Championship on Sydney Harbour on Saturday, March 4, it will be for the 36th time for the “70½-year-old” 18ft skiff legend. 

Woody first contested the world’s biggest 18 footer championship in 1977 when, as a 25-year-old, he skippered his Bruce Farr-designed Travelodge into sixth place on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour. 

He had to wait until the year 2000 before he won the championship, in AMP Centrepoint, but it could have been so different had it not been for the famous Iain Murray-led Color 7 team’s run of five successive championship victories between 1978 and 1982. 

Winning, skippering the Travelodge Hotels Group-sponsored Pacific Harbour Fiji (1980) then Yandoo (1981), had to be content with finishing as runner-up to Iain Murray and the Color 7 team. 

Going into the 2023 regatta, Woody’s Yandoo team of Fang Warren and Josh Porebski are rated as one of the top five contenders for the title after some very impressive performances throughout the early championship races this season. 

His biggest threat to victory will be the likely series favourite Andoo, skippered by John (Herman) Winning, son of Woody, who is the current NSW champion. 

Herman and Woody, along with Herman’s Andoo crew, Seve Jarvin and Sam Newton, recently teamed together on AndooComanche to win line honours in the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, but there will be no sign of mateship when the two teams go head-to-head in the JJs. 

The Winning family’s presence at the 73rd JJ Giltinan World 18 footer Championship goes beyond the racing.  The family’s company, The Winning Group is the event sponsor. 

Woody’s longevity at the championship is put into perspective when we recall the major changes to the boats since that first regatta in 1977. 

He recalls, “My first 18 was a plywood Farr-design hull, now all 18ft skiff hulls come from a single shape and are built from a Kevlar Nomex honeycomb paper, which is sandwiched between layers of pre-preg carbon fibre.” 

The design is by Iain Murray and the hulls, built by Van Munster Boatbuilders, have a championship-winning longevity up to around 5-6 seasons, compared to a maximum of 2-3 seasons in the late 70s-early 1980s. 

Soon after Woody came to the 18s, he introduced a small ‘fixed’ outrigger frame on each side of his hull to increase the leverage. 

By 1980, Richard Court introduced a sliding frame to further increase leverage, and this system was immediately superseded by the ‘wings’ style which are still used on the hulls of today.  During ‘crazy’ days in the mid-1980s, the tip-to-tip wing span reached an incredible 29ft at the 1985 Worlds on Moreton Bay, Brisbane. 

In 1983, Andrew Buckland re-designed the rig on the 18s which eliminated spinnaker poles altogether.  He replaced it and its weight, and complicated rigging, with a sliding (later fixed) bowsprit.  An asymmetrical single-luff spinnaker was flown to replace the previous double-luff spinnaker. 

A huge change came in 1993 when the Australian 18 Footers League introduced the single hull design for all future championship racing, then US champion Howie Hamlin introduced the square-topped mainsail on his West Marine skiff at the 2004 Giltinan Championship. 

Aluminium masts and spars used in 1977 are now high modulus carbon. 

Entries for the Winning Group 73rd JJ Giltinan World 18ft Skiff Championship are: 

Andoo                                                John Winning Jr, Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton 

Smeg                                                  Michael Coxon, Ricky Bridge, Tom Anderson 

Yandoo                                              John Winning, Fang Warren, Josh Porebski 

Rag & Famish Hotel                        Harry Price, Josh McKnight, Harry Hall 

Big Pete                                             Sean Langman, Ed Powys, Rhys Mara 

Lazarus                                              Marcus Ashley-Jones, Rob Bell, Jeronimo Harrison 

Shaw & Partners Financial Services        Jim Colley, Max Paul, Tom Quigley 

Finport Finance                                Keagan York, Angus Williams, Phil Marshall 

Black Knight (Team Germany)       Heinrich Bayern, Thomas Martin, Andy Martin 

Fisher & Paykel                                 Jordan Girdis, Jacob Broom, Josh Feldmann 

Balmain Slake                                   Henry Larkings, Miles Davey, Flynn Twomey 

Big Foot Bags & Covers                  Dave Hayter, Ben Roxburgh, Elliott Mahar 

Birkenhead Point Marina               Kirk Mitchell, Andrew Stephenson, Daniel Barnett 

Burrawang-Young Henrys              Simon Nearn, Daniel Phillips, Cameron McDonald 

The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines         Alex Marinelli, Matt Doyle, Darcy McCracken 

Noakes Youth                                   Tom Cunich, Fynn Sprott, Aiden Mansley 

Marine Outlet                                   Cam Gundy, John Walton, Markus Sampson 

The Kitchen Maker-Caesarstone     Lachlan Steel, Jerome Watts, Finn Rodowick 

Noakes Blue                                     Nathan McNamara, Peter McLeod, Jack Taylor 

C-Tech                                               Josh Sloman, George Morton, Angus Barker 

18 Footers Bar & Restaurant        Pedro Vozone, Cam Walker, Paddy Bannon 

Lazarus Youth                                   Hugo Stoner, Hugo Leeming, Hamish Vass 

ASCC                                                   Non-starter 

Hoefle-Haus                                     Holger Hoefle, Cam De Nardis, Eike Dietrich 

Team Japan                                      tba, Takuyou Arita, tba 

 

The race dates for the Winning Group 73rd JJ Giltinan World 18 footer Championship are: 

Saturday              March 4               Race 1 

Sunday                 March 5               Race 2 

Tuesday               March 7               Races 3 and 4 

Wednesday         March 8               Races 5 and 6 

Thursday              March 9               Race 7 

Saturday              March 11             Race 8 

Sunday                 March 12             Race 9 

An Australian 18 Footers League spectator ferry will follow the racing on each of the seven days, leaving from Double Bay Public Wharf, alongside the clubhouse, at 2pm.

Frank Quealey
Australian 18 Footers League Ltd.