Setting the record – Part IV


By the end of the 1980s the Sydney Harbour skiffs had become ‘spectacularly extreme’ as budgets headed through the roof and entries tumbled in the opposite direction. It was time for a change, as class historian Frank Quealey explains


1990 – A whole new concept When just 16 teams contested the 1989 JJ Giltinan World Championship on Sydney Harbour the 18 Footers League adminis- trators decided that immediate action was necessary if the future of a then 97-year- old iconic discipline was to be secured. Large sponsorship levels demanded that


Sydney boats must compete for the major championship on Sydney Harbour each year and so, because there was no longer regular racing in other traditional areas of 18-footer activity, the previous rotation system between the various 18-footer centres was no longer possible. The League believed it was its responsi-


bility to take up the challenge of getting the local competition numbers back on track as well as keeping alive James J


56 SEAHORSE


Giltinan’s dream of international expan- sion. The first move to rationalise the cost of top-level competition came from one of the sport’s true champions, Julian Beth- waite, who now produced a competitive new boat, AAMI, for a fraction of the cost of the enormous skiffs of the 1980s. Bethwaite and AAMI duly won the


1991 JJ Giltinan World Championship. When a second AAMI was built and won again in 1992 the League’s committee realised that this ‘new concept’ was the way of the future. (Bethwaite’s new development direction


had begun in the 1988-1989 season when the two-handed 18-footer Prime Com- puter III was used as a plug for the original B18 one-design, which was produced by Starboard Products. The follow-up to Prime III for the 1989-1990 season was Banana Republic – Sweden’s Anders Lewander had recently purchased Star- board Products from the Bethwaite family and came to Australia where he used this boat to contest the 1990 worlds). Once again it was a disagreement that


now led to the creation of a new set of rules to govern the future of 18ft skiff racing but, unlike the past differences between the two Sydney clubs, the 1993 disagreement was mainly between the Australian 18 Footers League and a private company founded by


Bill Macartney to promote his new tele- vised series Grand Prix Sailing. While Macartney’s innovative and very


successful events brought a great deal of welcome publicity to the class, and pro- vided some spectacular competition, it was the drive to reduce costs with a one-design hull that ensured the survival and later prosperity of the 18-footers as a class. Despite the cost involved to the League,


and regardless of the possible split in racing fleets, club administrators had realised that a totally new concept was necessary to regenerate interest both locally and at an international level. They were determined to rationalise the cost of local competition and the competitiveness of both local and international competi- tion, so they introduced an entirely new set of rules for future 18-footer competition. Basis of the new rules was a one-design


hull as well as a reduction in the number of rigs and sails that each boat could use during a season. The club registered a single class boatbuilder and, crucially, the club became the owner of all the hulls produced from the mould. Six times JJ Giltinan World Champion Iain Murray was commissioned to design a suitable hull. The result of that step change in policy


has been spectacular. Construction costs have continued to be more realistic than


JEFF CROW


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