With two wins and a second, Tasmania’s Export Roo has moved further ahead on the overall rankings after day three of the SB20 world championship on The Solent in England.
Michael Cooper has steered his boat to a net 5 points after Royal Yacht Squadron race officers finally managed to run three races in improved breezes
Export Roo’s scorecard in the Yellow qualifying fleet reads 1-3-1-2-1, 5 points after discarding the third place.
Black (Nick Rogers) finished second in race five of the worlds.
Cooper is a member of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and the Derwent Sailing Squadron which will jointly conduct the SB20 worlds next January.
Five Australian (four Tasmanian) crews have qualified for the Gold fleet at Cowes o decide the 2017 championships over the final two days: Export Roo, Black, Brazen, Porco Rosso and Difficult Woman.
Second overall on 10 points are the British yacht Xcellent (John Pollard) and the French entrant Give Me Five (Robin Follin).
Xcellent’s scorecard to date is 1-6-9-2-1 while Give Me Five has finished 2-5-2-1-6.
Nick Rogers (Black) notched up another second place in his qualifying division after a 10th in in race three and a DNS in race four. Black is 10th overall, still within sight of a higher final placing.
Owner Paul McCartney and forárd hand Edward Snowball on the rail on Porco Rosso
Brazen (Jervis Tilly) from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron is 15th (today’s placings 9-8-27), Difficult Woman (Rob Gough) is 19th (13-18-12), Hypertronics (Stephen Catchpool) is 52nd (22-22-25) and Smigger 56th (19-31-35).
RYS officials got the sailors out of bed early on day three to make the most of the early morning wind and they enjoyed the windiest day so far. There were three good races in a shifty northerly breeze that decreased during the day, keeping crews busy with shifting winds and tide
There are potentially seven more races, with one discard, to decide the world championships among the 40 Gold fleet boats.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Jennifer Burgis
31 August 2017
Tasmanian yachtsman Michael Cooper and his crew of David Chapman and Gerry Mitchell have sailed Export Roo to an overall lead after two days of frustrating competition at the SB20 world championship in England.
So far racing has been limited to just one race each day because of light winds on The Solent, the famous stretch of water between the English south coast and the Isle of Wight.
Export Roo won its first race on Tuesday and placed third yesterday in the Yellow qualifying division.
The SB20 fleet makes a spectacular sight on The Solent.
This has lifted the Tasmanians from equal first to a clear margin of three points from Xcellent. The champion British yacht won the Blue division on day one but finished sixth on day two.
Fellow Tasmanian Nick Rogers and his crew of Robert Jeffreys and Andrew Roberts, sailing Black, are seventh overall with a second on day one but 10th overnight in the Blue division.
An Australian boat won the Blue division race two, victory going to Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron entrant Brazen, skippered by Jervis Tilly. Brazen finished 16th in race one and is now 12th overall.
Difficult Woman (Rob Gough) slipped down the standings today, finishing 13th after an opening race fourth and is now 14th overall.
In other race two results Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye) finished 11th in the Yellow fleet to be 16th overall. Smigger (Andew Smith) is 52nd overall, Hypertronics (Stephen Catchpool) 57th in the 71 boat fleet.
Because of the size of the fleet (71 boats from ten nations) the host club at Cowes, the famous Royal Yacht Squadron, has split the fleet into two qualifying groups.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Jennifer Burgis
30 August 2017
Tasmanian sailors have made a great start to the 2017 SB20 one-design sports boat world championship which began on The Solent off Cowes, England, overnight.
Only one race was sailed because of light winds, with Michael Cooper, at the helm of Export Roo, winning the Yellow qualifying fleet. Nick Rogers finished second in the Blue fleet with his new boat Black.
Finishing a close fourth in the Yellow fleet was Difficult Woman, whose skipper Rob Gough recently won the world masters championship in the foiler Moth singlehanded dinghy class.
In seventh place came Porco Rosso, helmed by young Hobart sailor Elliott Noye who finished runner-up in the recent Cowes Week SB20 grand slam.
Aerial view of the SB20 fleet off Cowes
All four skippers are prominent competitors in Hobart’s 45-boat strong SB20 fleet which next January will host the 2018 world championship for this high-performance class.
Because of the size of the fleet (78 boats from ten nations) the host club at Cowes, the famous Royal Yacht Squadron, has split the fleet into two qualifying group.
Seven of the eight Australian boats contesting the worlds have drawn in the same qualifying fleet, just one in the other. Also in the Yellow fleet, Brazen (Jervis Tilly, RSYS) placed 31st, Smigger (Andrew Smith) 28th and Hypertronics (Stephen Catchpool) 31stvin race one.
In overall scoring between the two fleets, Export Roo is sharing first place with British boat Xcellent. Black is equal second with the German entry Give Me Five while Difficult Woman is equal fourth with another UK boat, Uber. Porco Rosso is ranked equal seventh.
Well-known Hobart yachtswoman Claire Cunningham, a crew member of Difficult Woman, spoke to team press officer Jane Austin after the aborted racing.
“We (Difficult Woman) got a good start…but not as good as Export Crew which started at the pin end and crossed the entire fleet,” Claire said.
SB20s packed the marina at Cowes...waiting for wind.
“We lost a couple of places during the race (to finish fourth) and had a man overboard situation…well not completely.
“We managed to hold onto him and drag him back aboard. It is quite slippery up front and he was rather wet for the rest of the race,’’ Claire added.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Jane Austin, Royal Yacht Squadron
29 August 2017
Eight Australians, seven from Tasmania, are among the 80-plus international helmsmen who will contest the 2017 SB20 one-design sportsboat world championship in the UK next week.
Britain’s most exclusive yacht club, the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes, is conducting the championship on The Solent, the intensely tidal, sandbank-strewn waterway between the Isle of Wight and the South Coast of England.
Apart from sailing to win, the role of the Hobart sailors will be to ‘hard sell’ the 2018 worlds to be sailed on the River Derwent in January next. To be run jointly by the Royal Yacht of Tasmania and Derwent Sailing Squadron, a fleet of at least 65 boats is being predicted.
Porco Rosso placed a close secind SB20 grand slam at Cowes Week.
The 2017 SB20 worlds start on Monday, 28 August (UK time) and run through to the following Friday, 1 September. Twelve races have been scheduled and because of the size of the fleet the RYS may elect to divide it into two qualifying fleets.
The Australian boats entered are: Black (Nick Rogers), Brazen (Jervis Tilly), Difficult Woman (Rob Gough), Export Roo (Michael Cooper), Hypertronics (Stephen Catchpool), Phantom Menace (Andrew Smith) and Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye).
All are from River Derwent fleet except Tilly who sails out of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.
Another prominent SB20 sailor from Hobart, Paul Burnell, will helm a British yacht Marvel, as he did in the recent Cowes Week SB20 Grand Slam.
As a lead-up to the worlds, four other Tasmanian crews contested the Grand Slam with Elliott Noye steered Porto Rosso to a close second to the British yacht Xcellent, scoring two firsts, two seconds and four third places, beaten for first overall by just two points.
Close tacking off Cowes.
Michael Cooper finished a close third in Export Roo, also winning one race, Australian SB20 class president Stephen Catchpool placed ninth in the 31-boat fleet with Hypertronics. Andrew Smith, sailing a boat called Smigger, finished 17 overall.
Rob Gough’s final preparation for the SB20 worlds was to compete in the International Moth worlds on Italy’s Lake Garda where he again the won the world masters championship in the foiler Moths.
Nick Rogers, who introduced the SB20 class to Hobart, is expected to be a strong contender of a new boat called Black. He has won many championships in SB20 as well as world championships in other classes.
While the majority of entries for the worlds are from the UK, other nations represented include Ireland, Portugal, France, Australia, Singapore, Russia, The Netherlands, Germany, Abu Dhabi/Dubai and Italy.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Jane Austin
26 August 2017
The J24 class yacht T42 Another Toy and her crew from the Latham Syndicate, are certainly enjoying Hobart’s winter chill in the Derwent Sailing Squadron/Battery World Winter Series.
T42 Another Toy notched up its fourth successive win of the Winter Series in a 6-10 knot NNW breeze – straight down Mount Wellington..
The mountain was blanketed with snow, the temperature 6 degrees, when race officer Biddy Badenach hoisted the starting signal for the well-rugged crews of a 26-boat fleet.
With just one race day to sail in the Winter Series, T42 Another Toy looks unbeatable in the Division 2 pennant. In today’s race, the J24 scored an outright win, taking handicap honours from Wildfire (John Ettershank) and 42 South (Mark Ballard).
Vistula - winner of race 4 of winter series.
Jeff Cordell’s Mumm 36 scored a comfortable handicap win in Division 1 from War Games (Wayne Banks-Smith) which took line honours. Series leader Juana (Jock Young) placed third on corrected time.
In Division 3, Gregory Biskup’s Vistula also had an outright win today, beating Serenity (Graham Hall) and Trad Jazz-NS (Christopher Thompson).
The SB20 one-design sports boat fleet
had the best turnout today, with 10 starters completing three short windward/return races.
B&G Advantage - won race 4 for Divisiion 1.
Former champion Sharpie sailor Frazer Read dominated one-design results, winning all three races.
In race 8, the first of the morning, Read’s Pinch won from Brainwave (Scott Brain) and Team Musto (George Peacock).
Pinch won race 9 from Team Musto and Paul Burnell’s Honey Badger and in race 10 the runners-up to Pinch were Team Musto and Brainwave.
With one race day to go for the SB20s, George Peacock (Team Musto) leads narrowly from Paul Burnell’s Honey Badger. Colleen Darcey (Pride of Athena) is third overall.
Words and photos: Peter Campbell
13 August 2017
Rio Paralympic silver medallist Matt Bugg has been inducted into the Tasmanian Yachting Hall of Fame and also again named Tasmanian Male Sailor of the Year. (more…)
