Winning Winning in 18-Footers

With two days of racing in the books, 57-year-old Australian John Winning’s Yandoo is holding a one-point margin over Howie Hamlin’s Team Harken at the St. Francis YC’s 18-ft Skiff International Regatta. Scoring a 1-3-5-1, Winning — along with crew David Gibson and Andrew Day — has been dialed into the 14- to 20-knot breeze that has thus far shown for the fleet.

A two-time world champion in the class, Hamlin and his crew of Matt Noble and Paul Allen — all of whom just finished sailing the 2009 SAP 505 World Championship — are definitely a threat. Equally so is Winning’s son Herman and his Appliances Online team, which is currently lurking in third, two points back of Team Harken. With the racing held right on the Cityfront, this is a great event to watch from shore and you only have three more days to see it. Tomorrow is a double feature; the skiffs will square off with the sailboards and the kiteboards in the 2009 Ronstan Bridge to Bridge race.