The weekend of 15th & 16th November saw 92 skiffs across the two classes gather at Middle Harbour 16’s for the first round of the 2025 State Championship proudly sponsored by Red Pumps Concrete Pumping Solutions.

Racing was conducted in “The Sound”, between Sydney Heads, on both days and included everything from a 20+ knot gradient Nor Easter on Saturday for the two short course races with “little rigs” the favoured set up, to a fickle and variable North to East to North shifting breeze for the third long course race on Sunday, where the bigger the rig, the better.

With two highly competitive fleets, that were eager to stretch their legs in the first major Championship weekend of the season, CRO Hugh Leicester determined that utilising “U” might help get things away in an orderly manner and it certainly worked with pretty much clean starts for the duration of racing. 

Race 1 in the 16’s saw “Buckingham Marine Services” (Daniel Turner) take the win with “Imagine Signage” (Nathan Wilmot) and “IMEI Barnabas Building” (Joel Beashel) filling the minor placings.

In the 13’s, race 1 went to “Harken” (Heidi Bates) with “Buckingham Marine” (Ash Napper) second and “The Kitchen Maker” (Tayla Lees) third.

To keep things interesting race 2 in the 16’s went to “IMEI Barnabas Building” with “Bosker Building” (Sarah Lee) second and “Shade to Order” (Tom Burton) third. 

The 13’s race 2 had the previous race winner “Harken” relegated to 2nd place with “Buckingham Marine” taking the chocolates and “IMEI” (Oliver Ross) filling 3rd place.

Sunday’s 3rd race, in completely different conditions, showed just why the 16’s are such a strong and competitive fleet.

Race 3 allowed regatta sponsor “Red Pumps” (Tyler Dransfield), to show their stuff with a hard fought win over “Bosker Building” in second and to further rub salt into everyone’s wounds, the sponsor’s sister skiff “Red Pumps Red” (Zoe Dransfield) took out 3rd. A big afternoon for both the sponsor and the Dransfield siblings!

Image credit: Sail Media

In the 13’s, the leaders once again swapped places with “Harken” taking the win and “Buckingham Marine” second followed by Belmont 16’s and upcoming Nationals sponsor “Skelcon” (Hamish Skelton) in third.

The competitive racing in the 16’s means that only 5 points separate the top 5 crews, and this only gets better when, and if, a drop comes into play at round 2 in a couple of weeks.

The 13’s look like it will be a battle between “Harken” and “Buckingham Marine” but with 3 races to go anything could happen.

Current overall handicap results in the bigger skiffs have “Typhoon” (Alex Hart) in the lead, closely followed half a point behind by “All The Gear” (Nick Stabback) in second with another Red Pumps sponsored boat, “Red Concrete” (James Downey) in third place.

Handicap results to date in the 13s have “The Kitchen Maker” leading with the other two protagonists “Harken” and “Buckingham Marine” closely following in second and third. 

Round 2 of the Championships will be hosted by St. George Sailing Club at Sans Souci on the “Bay” over the weekend of 29th & 30th November and, if last weekend is anything to go by, it will be a spectacular couple of days of racing with everything up for grabs.

Full results for all races and sub series can be found at NSW Results | Aussie Skiffs 

Words by Nick Stabback at Middle Harbour 16’s

Image credit - Sail Media