Sailors from around the world are contesting the SB20 one-design sportsboat world championship on Hobart’s River Derwent, including two young members of the Tamar Yacht Club, Joe Breen and Bailey Fisher.
Bailey Fisher. aged 14, is among the youngest sailors crewing on these high-performance yachts, making up the fourth crew member of The Honey Badger, skippered by Paul Burnell with his sons Oli and Toby making up the crew.
As a teenager, Paul Burnell was an International Cadet dinghy world champion and in Wednesday’s opening day of the SB20 pre-Worlds regatta finished sixth in race one and 19th in race two to be 10th in overall standings.
“It’s fantastic sailing with such a great crew against great sailors from around the world,” said an excited Bailey after day one of racing.
Bailey began his sailing in Optimist dinghies at the Tamar Tacht Club at Beauty Point, graduating to high-performance dinghies and foiler moths and now the SB20 worlds.
Jo Breen (28) is vice commodore of the Tamar Yacht Club and next March will compete in the 5,000 nautical mile Melbourne to Osaka, Japan, two-handed race.
With fellow TYC member Peter Brooks, she will skipper Morning Mist, an S&S34 which is the oldest and smallest boat in the race.
Jo and Peter sailed Morning Mist in last week’s Melbourne to Hobart ocean race down Tasmania’s West Coast, finishing sixth on handicap in the two-handed division, won by fellow TYC member Tristian Gourlay and Jamie Cooper sailing Force Eleven.
“We had really fast reaching in big westerlies down the lower West Coast, once surfing down a wave at 18.2 knots…it was awesome,” Jo said yesterday at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.
Within a day of finishing the gruelling Westcoaster, Jo was down working on the SB20 Fire of Athena with skipper Clare Brown and crew Mollie Grainger as they prepared for this weeks pre-Worlds regatta
Clare and her crew won the women’s division of the SB20 Australian championship on the Derwent in early December, but did not compete on day one of the pre-Worlds, being without their fourth crew member.
Peter Campbell – 0419 385 028
