18ft Skiffs: Lazarus 18ft Skiff Racing Team
by Frank Quealey 23 Oct 05:10 UTC
The 2025-26 season Lazarus 18ft Skiff Racing Team of Tom Cunich (skipper), Marc Chapon (sheet) and Tim Westwood (bow) are focused on achieving the best Giltinan World 18ft skiff championship result to date for the supporting sponsor Lazarus Capital Partner when they take on some of the best teams from New Zealand and Europe as well as local Australians later in the summer season.
Marcus Ashley-Jones' team finished 5th overall for Lazarus Capital Partners in the 2022 Giltinan Championship and that's the target to beat for the current team when it contests the 2026 Giltinan World Championship on Sydney Harbour next March.
Despite the expected quality at the top end of the 2026 worlds' fleet, Tom, Marc and Tim have both the individual and team ability to achieve their ambitious goal.
Just two years ago, the trio sailed for the first time together when they competed so well at the 2024 Giltinan worlds. The performance was spectacular as the regatta 'warm up' race was the first time the three crew members had sailed together in any class.
They finished 9th overall in the 27-boat fleet which could have been so much better had it not been for gear problems in Race 2 while Lazarus was in clear 2nd place at the end of the first lap of a North-East course.
That problem required the team to carry two large race scores and negated the other six excellent race results - 2nd, 2x4th, 6th, 7th and 8th.
Their individual appearances in the 18s leading up to the Giltinan that season were also limited due to various 49er campaigns leading up to the 2024 Olympics.
After the SailGP with Japan ended (due to lack of team sponsorship), Tim partnered up with his long time SailGP friend and teammate Leonard Takahashi (who has also raced the 18s a couple times) jumped in a 49er. Tom Cunich and Tim then raced against each other internationally.
With a full season together in 2025-26, there is every chance that the 2026 performance in the 'big one' should put the Lazarus boys in the thick of the action at the top end of the fleet.
Skipper Tom Cunich agrees, "We are confident in our individual ability and our aim is to build up our team work throughout the season as we head to the Giltinan Championship."
"Tim and Marc are very good sailors. I feel lucky to have them onboard. We've got a great team, and have the best opportunity we've ever had in our 18's career to take on the front-runners like Yandoo and Shaw and Partners (Keagan York)."
"We will be pushing hard, the boys are as enthusiastic as ever, and can't wait to sink our teeth into another season and JJ Gilltinan champions in March."
Despite the opening race being abandoned due to the strong Westerly winds, gusting to 30-knots, sweeping across Sydney Harbour, the Lazarus team was the only one that managed to stay afloat long enough to complete a lap of the course.
It was a show of 'strength' that will be critical when the 2026 Giltinan fleet is asked to contest races in strong winds on the same course.
Tom says it was a tough 'first-up' test but "it shows us what we are capable of when we are required to face the same wind strength in the future."
Last Sunday, with Nathan Edwards replacing Tim Woodward in the bow for the day, Lazarus put in another very good performance in a 20-knot Nor'Easter and finished in second place behind the current world champion Yandoo team.
Tom's career in the 18s began in the 2020-21 season when he came from the 49er class to skipper Vintec, with a rookie team, and finished 15th in the 2021 Giltinan Championship. He duplicated the result in 2022 in Noakes Youth then finished 12th in 2023. These were all achieved with young crews prior to the 2024 regatta.
Marc's career as a professional high performance sailing coach has limited his appearances in the 18s, which have been sporadic and mostly one-offs, but it has always been apparent that when Marc sailed on an 18, it usually improved the boat's regular performance.
He has sailed 49ers and 29ers for Spain and France, including the 29er at the 2014 Worlds in Canada and the 49er at the 2015 European Championships in Portugal.
He sailed the 2020 Giltinan Championship on Dal Zotto, with Jack Sprague and Josh Feldmann, as an international from Spain, while looking to fill in on a 49er during a summer holiday in Australia. After loving his experience, he decided to move out a few years later, and get back into professional sailing, and 18's.
Tim was the first of the Lazarus team to join the 18 footer ranks when he was part of Pedro Vozone's Haier Appliances crew in the 2015-16 season.
He then moved on to join the Japanese Youth Americas Cup team in 2017 and the Japan SailGP team in 2019. He joined Kirk Mitchell and Daniel Barnett for two seasons in Vintec prior to achieving his best result with James Dorron and Harry Bethwaite in Shaw and Partners Financial Services during the 2019-20 season.
The Shaw and Partners team finished as runner-up to Jack Macartney's Tech2 team in the 2019-20 Australian Championship and a great 4th in the 2020 Giltinan Championship, behind three world champion skippers, David McDiarmid, Seve Jarvin and Micah Lane.
A good result for the Lazarus team in the 2026 Giltinan Championship would also be a deserving result for the sponsor, who has been a strong contributor to the Australian 18 Footers League fleet for six seasons.
The Lazarus Capital Partners website states, "Lazarus Capital Partners Racing Team is our contribution to a historical and prestigious institution in Australia - an endeavour which we invite our stakeholders to share in our successes and be a part of."
According to Dale Kynhout, Managing Director of Lazarus Capital Partners, "After five years of sponsorship, the Lazarus team are excited to be allocated what seems to be our strongest contingent of sailors; Tom Cunich, Marc Chapon and Tim Westwood, for the 2025 season. They are showing early signs of being a solid contender to challenge the very best of the 18 footers fleet."
"I also wish to give a deservingly warm thank you to John Winning Snr, Simon Nearn, Warren Sare and the rest of the 18 footers League team for their dedication towards the club's sponsors."
Lazarus has already tasted success after the Ashley-Jones team won the 2022 Mark Foy Trophy. As Dale said after that victory, "The extended Lazarus family were ecstatic to win the 2022 Mark Foy Trophy, which was held in Italy. This victory was a great honour to have our beloved brand listed among both previous winners and the namesake of this trophy."
Race 3 of the SIXT 2025 Spring Championship will be sailed on Sydney Harbour on Sunday (26 October) and all teams will be hoping for more favourable conditions than the strong winds that have caused so many problems in the first two weeks of the present season.
The Australian 18 Footers League spectator ferry will depart from Double Bay Public Wharf, alongside the clubhouse, at 2pm. SailMedia livestream video team will also be right amongst the fleet to capture all the action, which everyone can be seen here: