Club Marine 18ft skiff skipper Emma Rankin is hoping for a big season, with a heavier crew and hard-won confidence.
Club Marine 18ft Skiff primed for success
By Mark Rothfield | Photography: Mark Rothfield and Michael Chittenden | Published 7 October 2026
Quick overview
- New crew, new sails and hard-earned confidence have the Club Marine 18ft Skiff primed for success.
- After a landmark year, Emma Rankin is chasing even greater success aboard the Club Marine skiff.
- History-making skipper Emma Rankin is gearing up for a big 18ft Skiff season with a strengthened Club Marine team.
Over the past 52 years, media veteran Frank Quealey has watched sailing demigods such as Iain Murray, Seve Jarvin, Trevor Barnabas, Rob Brown, David Porter and Michael Spies ply their craft on that most capricious of craft, the 18ft skiff - often through a camera lens, always through a prism of genuine passion for the sport.
And while loathe to compare eras, Frank very much likes the deep pool of talent he sees in this season’s 18-footer’s fleet. New crew combinations and gear upgrades, he believes, will turn up the heat on last year’s benchmark team aboard Yandoo.
New crew for Club Marine 18ft skiff
Firmly in the one-to-watch category is Emma Rankin, 26-year-old skipper of the Club Marine skiff, who won races at both the NSW Championship and Australian Championship last year – the first female skipper to achieve either feat.
Now entering her fourth season, Emma has ordered fresh sails and recruited two burly new crew for additional trapezing power. Both changes are aimed at boosting the skiff’s heavy-air performance.
“Last season we did very well initially in light airs but then the weaknesses started to show in windy conditions because other teams had a 20- to 30kg weight advantage,” Emma said. “It made it really difficult at the Worlds to line up and be the same speed or better.
“For this year, we’ve got the right guys, we’ve got experience, we’ve got a great boat, good sails and it’s all well maintained, so we’re already ticking all those boxes.”
To compensate for Emma being relatively light, sheethand Cameron Walker and bowman Daniel Watson both tip the scales at around 100kg and also bring extensive experience in the 18s.
New sails for the Club Marine skiff
Under class rules, the Club Marine team had the option to replace three sails for the new season. Two of those, a mainsail and jib, were allocated to the No.2 rig that generally comes out when the breeze exceeds 16 knots.
Emma chose GC Sails (formerly Evolution Sails) from the Gold Coast, rather than following the established sailmaking route. The loft is co-owned by Joel Turner, with whom she sailed in the 2024-25 JJ Giltinan championship.
“Joel is new to making sails for the 18s but with his experience and knowledge, and the team that’s up there in Queensland, I think it’ll be a good product,” explains Emma.
While the spinnakers were built by North Sails, Emma actually cut the cloth for the kites as part of her day job working for a sailcloth company.
Confidence at the helm
Perhaps the biggest performance additives, however, will be psychological: the confidence and self-belief generated by last season’s breakthrough victories.
Asked the age-old question ‘how did it feel?’, Emma’s face lights up. “Gosh, it feels good,” she beams.
“For me, the states represented three years of working towards trying to win a race, and to achieve it was just fantastic. Then in the Australians we crept our way through the fleet and navigated the lulls and puffs until we hit the lead. At the end it was like ‘Oh my God, we won!’ It’s pretty cool.”
Coaching-wise, the crew can tap into the services of Euan McNicol, who skippered a Club Marine-sponsored skiff back in 2005 and 2006, achieving an overall victory and third placing respectively in the Worlds.
Given that connection, Emma says it means a great deal to her personally to again fly the Club Marine flag. “When the sponsorship was announced on the opening night, it just got a huge round of applause,” she says.
Voice of 18ft skiff sailing
Also cheering on Emma will be Frank Quealey, the fount of skiff knowledge who has watched both her highs and occasional lows from the sidelines.
“Emma had Cam McDonald and Tom Quigley as crew in her first year and they did pretty well,” he recalls. “The next year she didn’t have them, and it became more of a struggle.
“It shows how important it is to get the crew balance and consistency right and the sail package right. I’m really looking forward to seeing how they progress this year.”
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