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Airborne © Frank Quealey Current JJ Giltinan world champion, Michael Coxon has been sailing 18s for around 20 seasons and during that time has won four JJ world titles and five Australian Championships as well as numerous other major titles, but even the world's best can have good and bad days when you are racing an 18ft Skiff around Sydney Harbour. Michael, a member of one of Australia's most respected sailing families of world and international champions and Olympians, says that "it's critical to stay focused to the best of your ability at all times." "Naturally, you are always...

When Michael Walsh, Phil Barnett and Neil Paton teamed in the 18ft Skiff Prudential and won the 1989 JJ Giltinan World Championship on Sydney Harbour, they equalled the 1981 record set by the legendary Color 7 team of Iain Murray, Andrew Buckland and Don Buckley. The Prudential team won all seven races of the championship, with margins ranging from 1m40s to 7m, in a boat which had previously won the prestigious event at Perth, WA in 1987. This achievement, however, is just part of an intriguing story of boat and skipper. In 1987, 18ft skiff administrators decided to take the JJ Giltinan world...

Whether it's a high-performance sport or a small, local sporting club, to be successful, the organisation needs the support of commercial sponsorship or, at least, one major benefactor. Since the mid-1960s, the Australian 18 Footers League has been fortunate to benefit from the generosity of numerous large, and not so large, sponsors to help maintain the high level of competition in the club's 18ft Skiff fleet, and its attempt to promote the sport to the rest of the world. Travelodge Hotels was the first sponsor when it supported Bob Holmes in 1965 then continued its sponsorship of the 18s in...

The recent death of Robert Joseph (Bob) Holmes was the passing of one of the truly great Australian 18ft Skiff champions. Bob was five times JJ Giltinan world champion and five times Australian champion, and won many other state and club championships over a ten year career in the class. He was also the first Australian skipper to win more than one JJ Giltinan world Championship. After competing for several seasons in the 16 footers, at the Middle Harbour club, Bob joined the 18ft skiff ranks in the 1964-1965 season and immediately had success when he won both the 1964-1965 NSW and Australian...