18s heading to Europe

We discuss the future of the JJ Giltinan Trophy and the potential for a World Championship

Recently news emerged that the 18ft Skiff fleet would be holding the JJ Giltinan Trophy, the class’ effective World Championship, in Europe for the first time ever in Carnac in 2009. However following this there was some debate as to whether the event had previously been held on the European continent.

In fact the JJ Giltinan has been sailed in Europe before; back in 1997 it was held in Sardinia, though exactly how relevant it was as a JJ/World Championship is somewhat debatable. “It has technically been in Europe before,” explains UK Class Chairman, Andy Richards. “In that year they ran the JJ twice, once in Sydney and once in Sardinia as a kind of token gesture to running it in Europe. So you could argue that it has been in Europe before but it was kind of a compromise in this bizarre scenario where there were two runnings of the JJ in a year.”

While the concept was a little half-baked back in the late 90s, for 2009 the JJ Giltinan Trophy is to be fought for in Europe for real, and will not be held in its traditional home of Sydney as well.

The key question then, is why after 70 years of being held on Sydney Harbour is the JJ now beginning to travel the world?

Unsurprisingly, the answer is class growth. The 18ft Skiff fleet seem to be looking towards attaining ISAF recognition, thereby giving the opportunity to hold a officially-sanctioned World Championship. “In a way [the 2009 event] will form the basis for getting ISAF accreditation,” Richards explains. “We need to show we are active in three continents and certainly having the JJ in Europe is a big incentive to worldwide based teams [ie teams outside of Australia]. I think this will be the first time that we truly have the representation we need to go in that direction. The class has yet to make the decision that we definitely want go for recognition. This would certainly be one of the building blocks though.”


Above: Richards and his 18ft Skiff team.

Even if the 18ft skiffs do become ISAF-recognised and can hold their own Worlds, it seems likely that the JJ Giltinan Trophy could continue under a slightly different guise. “I do wonder if they are likely to keep the JJ in Australia and then call the other event the World Championship if the class gets ISAF recognition,” muses ex-JJ Giltinan Champion, Rob Greenhalgh. Richards seems equally as unsure what the end result might actually be. “The JJ trophy itself has ‘World Championship’ embossed on it and it has always been considered the World Championships for the class. There is a debate as to whether we should create a new trophy and have the JJ as a special historical event that is still part of the class like the Bacardi Cup for the Star,” he comments.

In many ways keeping the JJ in Sydney as a separate event may well improve the class’ standing with ISAF, giving two top level international events for crews to attend, but it could also result in reduced numbers at both regattas. Greenhalgh thinks this won’t be the case. “At the moment the class is setting up a bit more of a structured circuit. There is already a European circuit and a World Circuit, but if you start structuring that a bit better then you can start getting people to travel round and all of a sudden you might start to see a lot of boats at both of these events.”

Irrespective of the long-term future of the JJ and the class’ World Championship, the JJ is still going to be held in Carnac next year. With the Sydney-based 18ft Skiff League and Australia in general usually providing the bulk of entrants in the JJ Giltinan - there were 23 AUS boats out of 29 entrants this year – might numbers drop off by removing the event from ‘down under’? Richards thinks not: “If you look at last year, we had about 30 teams in total taking part in one or more events on the European circuit. There were quite a number of UK boats that did not venture into the European foray, but I think a World Championship would attract some of them. I think 30-40 boats would be a conservative estimate of the interest in next year’s event and if we achieved that it would certainly make it one of the biggest events ever in the history of the 18ft skiff.”

So the view is that moving the JJ to Europe could actually breathe new life into the class. At this stage it is hard to discuss actual numbers with any accuracy but with only one European team competing this year in the JJ it is fair to assume the European turnout would be significantly larger in 2009.



Another reason the 18ft Skiff World Council – made up of representatives from the Australian, European, North American and UK fleets – have finally taken the plunge and moved the JJ outside of Australia is the increase in numbers sailing the boat, particularly in Europe. “I know there is a view that the boat is very expensive, but one of the big changes over the last five or so years is the strength of the boat and the rig has increased, meaning breakages are far rarer,” explains Richards.“The longevity of the boats means that we can now sail a regatta without anyone getting major damage. That is mostly because of carbon rigs coming in and the standardised Murray hull. That has encouraged a lot of people in.” He adds by way of an example that Andy Budgen has just bought a boat that he is hoping to campaign for around £8,000 and that £10,000 is a pretty typical price.

Another factor with the JJ coming to Europe is it could well bring a number of old teams out of retirement.

One of those returning to the class after some time out is Greenhalgh who has bought a brand new boat and is busy currently working on the rig. Although he made the decision to return to the class prior to the announcement of the European JJ, he is still very excited about the concept. “For certain I know that I would like to travel to do the World Championships and I would also do the JJ if they were in different place,” Greenhalgh explains.


Above: Greenhalgh at the 2005 JJ Giltinan.

As to the new boat itself he says: “We have started on mast development and are working with Selden who did our 14 mast. We are pretty happy with that, so we’re fairly confident we will get a good product out of them. In the 18 World there has been quite a high level of development recently. We have got to make something pretty special to be competitive. North Sails UK are working with us on a new set of sails as well. That is quite convenient because North and Selden are just down the road from each other so that makes it quite easy to get that whole ball rolling.”

The new boat is expected to hit the water in June, although Greenhalgh notes this is a very busy month, but he is definitely aiming to get to the UK Nationals and the European circuit event held in Weymouth, both in August.

Discussing the UK circuit event with Greenhalgh we start to wonder whether there might be a possibility to hold the JJ in the UK at some point in the future. “The view is that we could certainly see the event rotating around the main areas of focus for the skiff sailors at the moment which would be Australia, Europe and North America. So the next time in Europe would be a few years after 2009. There is nothing to stop the JJ coming to the UK after 2009 and we will certainly put in a bid for it,” confirms Richards. Certainly this would be a fantastic opportunity for the UK to host anything up to 40 18ft Skiffs at what might by then be their official World Championships and it seems most people are excited by this idea. “Maybe one day the Worlds themselves could be in the Solent - that would be fantastic,” enthuses Greenhalgh, who also thinks the class should consider a Grand Prix event near the time of the JJ on the Solent.

The debate as to whether the JJ should stay in Australia or not is likely to continue for some time. However, holding a fair attempt at a World Championships outside of Australia can only be good for the class as a whole. It seems to us holding the JJ in Australia before the class is able to call any other event the official World Championship would only serve to undermine that event. If another event does get the go ahead as the Worlds though we would not be surprised to see the JJ returning permanently to Sydney. After all that is the real home of the trophy.