SB20 Worlds in Hobart, Tasmania
SB20 World Championship 2018 – Final
1730AEST /11 January 2018
Viva le France at SB20 World sailing
Young French skipper Achille Nebout, sailing Le Reservoir/Mazet & Associase, today brilliantly won the 2018 World championship for the SB20 one-design sports boat class on Hobart’s River Derwent.
With his equally young crew of Gabriel Skoczek, Pauline Mazzocchi and Bruno Mournac , they finished the 12-race series with a first and a second on a sparkling Derwent and hot summer’s day.
Another young French crew, headed by sailor Robin Follin, the 2015 World champion finished second overall, third place going to the British boat Marvel, skippered by Richard Powell.
Top Australian boat was the National champion Aeolus, skippered by Brett Cooper, also from Hobart, who finished a sixth overall.
But it was a sad end to the worlds for fellow Tasmanian Michael Cooper with his boat Export Roo receiving a BFD (Flack Flag) disqualification for a starting line infringement in the last race.
Export Roo had crossed the line in second place in race 12, just seconds astern of another French boat, EOLIFT Racing (Hugo Feydit).
But it was not to be, with Export Roo relegated to seventh. Cooper lodged a claim for redress but the International Jury denied this, Export Roo with a last race BFD,
While the international sailors from France and Britain dominated the top five overall placings, (three French, two Britain) six Australian boats finished in the top 11 placings.
Today’s races were sailed on a sparkling River Derwent in a 10-15 knot ENE breeze on a hot (28 degrees) summer’s day that drew a large spectator fleet out on the water to watch the final races
With the standings so close going into the final race, the start became aggressive with the first attempt being a general recall.
Race officer Nick Hutton then hoisted the Black Flag and four boats were called BFD – Export Roo (AUS) Xcellent (John Pollard, GBR), Provident CRM (Michael O’Connor, IRE) and Ikon20 (Kirwan Robb, AUS).
Export Roo had crossed the line in second place and Xcellent fourth.
The first SB20 World championship in Hobart was conducted with the highest professional standards by the Royal Yacht of Tasmania and the Derwent Sailing Squadron as joint hosts and Nick Hutton, an international race officer, heading up a team of mostly volunteers from both clubs.
Weatherwise, sailing conditions were excellent for the Pre-Worlds and the Worlds, with moderate to fresh breezes ranging from northwest to west and south, to east-north-east on the final day.
The championships drew a fleet of 59 boats, 18 internationals from France, Ireland, Great Britain, Italy, Singapore and New Caledonia.
Great credit for getting the Worlds to Hobart and their organisation cmust go to the two yachts clubs and the Tasmanian and Australian SB20 class associations, headed by Steve Catchpool.
Top ten placings overall:
10, Karabos (Nick Rogers, AUS) (28)-14-25-6-8-(29)-12-2-11-14-14-12, 118 points.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Jane Austin
1800AEST/11 January 2018
SB20 Worlds on the Derwent – Day 4 news update
2030AEST/10 January 2018
Down to the wire in SB20 Worlds on the Derwent
Tasmanian sailor Michael Cooper has fought back in his bid to win the 2018 SB20 World championship, but the competition is fierce with two French and a British boat his rivals for victory on the Derwent today (Thursday)
After races nine and ten yesteday, Cooper has recovered his standing to be just six points behind the young Frenchman Robin Follin, but only one point ahead of another French sailor, Achille Nebout.
And the British sailor Richard Powell is only five points further down the leaderboard. with Australian champion skipper Brett Cooper an outside chance for aa podium finish.
Overall standings changed during the two races sailed in moderate breezes on the Derwent today, and with the two discard rule coming into effect after ten races there were some significant changes in standings.
Michael Cooper, sailing Export Roo, was able to discard his 32nd place in race eight to his earlier UFD disqualification and, with a sixth and a ninth today, has lifted from sixth to second overall on a net 40 points.
Outstanding performer of the day, however, was Robin Follin and his crew of Give Me 5 – French Youth Team, who finished ninth in race nine and then scored a brilliant win in race ten.
Discard his two worst race results, Follin has a commanding net 34 points, six clear of Michael Cooper.
Third in overall standings going into the final day or two scheduled races is another French yacht, the consistently well sailed La Grand Reservoir/Mazet & Associase. Skipper Achille Nebout placed third and fourth today and is on a net 41 points.
Today’s other winner was the British boat Marvel, taking out race nine, followed by a third in race 10. However, Marvel’s consistent places did little to improve its overall status after the discards and the GBR boat is still fourth overall on a net 46 points.
Tasmanian boats fill eight of the first 13 places overall, underlining the depth of talent in the local River Derwent fleet.
Two Unlimited (Greg Prescott) is seventh overall, Karabos (Nick Rogers) ninth and second Masters skipper, Difficult Women (Rob Gough) 10th, Flirtatious/Ambition Sailing Team (Chris Dare) 11th, Honey Badger (Paul Burnell) 12th and Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye) 13th.
Peter Campbell – 0419 385 028
Day 3 summary report – 1900AEST/9 January 2018
Export Roo slides down SB20 leader board
Export Roo, Tasmania’s major hope to win the SB20 World Championship 2018 on Hobart’s River Derwent today slid down the leader board from first to sixth place overall.
Export Roo, skippered by prominent local yachtsman Michael Cooper, began day three with consistent sailing, notching up a second and a seventh place in the 59 boat fleet.
Then came race eight of the 12 boat series with a disastrous 32nd as his British and French opponents turned in high placings.
Unfortunately, Export Roo has to carry the 32nd place in its overall score as Cooper has already used his race five UFD disqualification (60 penalty points) as his discard.
Cooper’s hopes of winning the SB20 World title he lost so narrowly at Cowes, England, last August now rest on at least 10 of the 12 races being completed, allowing skippers to discard two races.
And, of course, Export Roo and her crew must sail as brilliantly as they did earlier in the series.
Export Roo’s sensational fall from grace, hopefully short-lived for the local Hobart fleet, has seen the British yacht Xcellent move to the top of the leader board with a net 41 points after placings yesterday of 10-1-3.
One of skipper John Pollard’s crew is Matthew Johnston, Commodore of the co-host club, the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania. Ironically, Johnston previously sailed with Michael Cooper.
Second overall is the young French sailor Achille Nebout and his crew of Le Grand Reservoir/Mazet & Associes who yesterday had a 3-3-8 result for a net 45 points.
In third place is another young French crew, Give Me 5 - French Youth Team who starred yesterday with two first places and an eighth. Give Me 5 is on 27 points.
Top placed Australian (and Tasmanian) after eight races is Australian Brett Cooper, skippering Aeolus, also from the Hobart fleet, in fourth position on a net 52poinds. Aeolus yesterday placed 11-4-7 to be on 52 points.
In sixth place is the consistent Tasmanian Greg Prescott in 2Unlimited while Elliott Noye had his best race to date with a fourth place, lifting Porco Rosso to eighth overall.
Race six, the first of the day, saw Give Me 5 – French Youth Team win from Aeolus and Le Grand Reservoir/Mazet & Associase.
Race seven went to Xcellent from Ikon20 (Kirwin Robb) and Le Grand Reservoir/Mazet & Associase. Give Me 5 – French Youth Team took out race eight, the last of day three from Karabos, skippered b Nick Rogers, founder of the SB20 class in Hobart. Xcellent placed third.
The SB20 World championship is still wide open with British, French and Australian boats all in contention with four races to sail over the next two days.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Jane Austin
1900AEST/9 January 2018
SB20 Worlds on Hobart’s River Derwent
Day 2 – Races 4 and 5 – summary
Worlds leader Michael Cooper cops UFD
British yachtsman Richard Powell snatched victory on the final spinnaker run of race five of the SB20 Worlds today, ending a boat-for-boat duel between Tasmanians Brett Cooper and Michael Cooper.
As they crossed the finish line it was Powell at the helm of Marvel first by four seconds from Brett Cooper with Aeolus and a further 10 seconds to Michael Cooper’s Export Roo.
However, Michael Cooper’s race had ended at the start of race five where race officials had handed him a UFD disqualification for a breaking the start.
Nevertheless, Cooper’s Export Roo maintains the overall lead, discarding the UFD penalty of 60 points for a net score of 16 points. In race four, the first of the day Export Roo placed ninth.
Results of today’s racing are provisional with several protests lodged between competitors and against the race committee’s decisions.
The UFD penalty has cut Export Roo’s overall lead from 13 at the end of day one to just five at the end of day two, with Marvel moving from tenth in standings to second with a fine day of sailing for a 2-1 result.
Third overall is another British boat, John Pollard’s Xcellent which today placed 14th and third, the 14th its drop race.
Australian SB20 champion Aeolus, skippered by Brett Cooper, had a great day on the water, winning race four and finishing a close second in race five. This, and the discard, has lifted Aeolus from 15th after day one to fourth overall.
Next best Australian boat is Greg Prescott’s 2Unlimited in sixth place, today notching up a 5-7 score.
Robin Follin, the French Youth Team skipper of Take Me 5 and winner of the Pre-Worlds, had two thirds today to be seventh overall but the top French team is Le Grand Reservoir/Mazet & A (Achille Nebout) in fifth place.
Provisionally, the top ten placings after two days and five of scheduled 12 races are:
Xcellent heads the Masters scoring, Give Me 5 the Youth division and Essence of Athena (Clare Dabner) the six Women’s crews.
Two more days of racing remain with seven races scheduled.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Jane Austin
1745AEST/8 January 2018
Mercury – news – sailing - SB20 worlds day one
Export Roo hops to the lead in SB20 Worlds
Peter Campbell
Hobart yachtsman Michael Cooper yesterday made an impressive start to winning the SB20 World championship on the River Derwent that he so narrowly missed at Cowes, England, last August.
Steering Export Roo, with same crew of David Chapman and Gerry Mitchell, Cooper scored two third places and a win on day one of the 2018 World Championship on his home waters.
This has given Export Roo a commanding early lead in the four-day, 12-race regatta for these high performance, one-design sportsboat, crewed by three or four sailors, men, women and teenagers, with skippers ages ranging from 13 to 60 years plus.
Hobart and the River Derwent turned on brilliant sailing conditions for the 59 boats, 18 from overseas, contesting the Worlds – a south-east to south-westerly seabreeze freshening from 12 knot to !8 knots of the end of the day.
After three races, Export Roo has six points on the leaderboard, 13 points clear of his nearest rival, the French boat Le Grand Reservoir/Mazet & A (Achille Nebout) which placed 2-11-7 for 20 points.
Cooper showed his local knowledge by being the first to gybe on the final spinnaker run of the last race and stayed with the breeze while the following boats fell into a ‘’hole.’’
The Hobart businessman lost the 2017 Worlds on The Solent at Cowes to noted British yachtsman Jerry Hill by two points, with Hill using his own local knowledge in the final race.
Cooper has avowed revenge and is not only leading the 2018 Worlds but is also 24 places ahead of Hill, who today placed 4-38-28 in sportsboatworld.com
British sailor John Pollard, sailing Ecellent, is third overall on 24 points (6-12-6) while fourth is race two winner Honey Badger (Paul Burnell) sailing with his sons Oli and Toby and 14-year-old Bailey Fisher.
The Honey Badger’s other placings have been a 19th and a 14th for a total of 34 points.
Yesterday’s three races produced three winners, Export Roo, The Honey Badger and a Russian crew of MST who arrived in Hobart late last week and did not contest the Pre-Worlds.
However, Vasily Grigoriev and his crew showed great downwind speed to snatch victory in race one, crossing the line just seconds ahead of French Youth sailor Robin Follin in Take Me 5 -French Youth Team.
However, the French boat was disqualified under the Black Flag (BFD) rule following a general recall, along with three other boats.
SB20 Pre-Worlds on the River Derwent, Hobart
DAY 3 - 5th Jan 2018
French youth sailor makes his mark on Derwent
French youth sailor and former world champion Robin Follin has emerged as hot favourite for the SB20 World championship on Hobart’s River Derwent, starting on Sunday.
Helming Give Me 5 – French Youth Team, Follin (FRA) this afternoon won his third out of six races in the SB20 pre-Worlds regatta, taking out the last race with French flair.
In 2015 Follin became the first and only youth sailor to win an SB20 World title, at Trentino in Italy, and still qualifies for the youth division at the age of 25.
Follin and his crew also won the Youth and Corinthian trophies for the Pre-Worlds. The Masters went to Jerry Hill (GBR) the current world champion.
In today’s racing in a brisk 10-15 knot south-easterly sea breeze, Give Me 5 finished ninth (their discard) in race five, but there was no question of his dominance as he clinched an overall victory with a last race win.
He finished with a net 9 points from placings of 1-1-2-4-(8)-1, eleven points clear of his nearest rivals, Export Roo (Michael Cooper, AUS) who finished on 19 points with a scorecard of (12)-4-7-1-2- 5.
Third place went to current Australian champion Brett Cooper in Aeolus on 29 points (11-6-3-5-(18)-4) with fourth place going to current world champion sportsboatworld.com (Jerry Hill) who did not compete in the final race.
Two other French boats followed in the final standings, Le Grand Reservoir/Mazet &A (Achille Nebout) on 35 points, EOLIFT Racing (Hugo Feynit) on 37 points.
Next best of the Australian boat was Henty.cc (Matt Pilkington) who placed eighth after winning race five, followed by the Irish entry Sin Bin (Michael Connor) and two Tasmanian boats Karabos (Nick Rogers) and Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye).
In race 5 the Irish boat Binn Eadair (Cillian Dickson) crossed the finish line first only to find he had been called UFD and disqualified for breaking the start.
This resulted in Henty.cc being first, Export Roo second and sportsboatworld.com, third
In race six, Honey Badger (Paul Burnell) was also called UFD.
Tomorrow is a lay day, with the first two races of the SB20 World Championship 2018 scheduled for Sunday, 7 January.
In race 5, the Irish boat Binn Eadair (Cillian Dickson) crossed the finish line first only to find he had been called UFD and disqualified for breaking the start.
This results in Henty.cc being first, Export Roo second and sportsboatworld.com third
In race six, Honey Badger (Paul Burnell) was also called UFD.
News update – day 2 – 4 January 2018
Exhilarating and tough SB20 sailing on the Derwent
Day two of the SB0 pre-Worlds regatta has provided competitors with two exhilarating races on Hobart’s River Derwent today.
A north-west to west-nor’westerly breeze averaging 16-18 knots, with sharp gusts as high as 30 knots, has seen spectacular downwind sailing.
Positions changed as boats picked up the gusts and went surfing past others. Downwind gybing techniques were the key to gaining or retaining fleet positions
The strong wind has caused many retirements from the 33 boat pre-Worlds fleet, among them the French boat EOLIFT Racing which broke a spreader. EOLIFT Racing had been third in overall standings after day one.
Others retired to save damage in the gusty conditions with the 2018 SB20 Worlds only three days away. Hypertronics (Steve Catchpool) retired after a collision at the windward mark in race one with Big Ted (Alice Grubb) taking a penalty turn.
The Victorian Ikon20 (Kirwan Robb) broke its rudder in race four while at least two female crews retired from the last race.
Racing today began after a general recall for race three of the series, race one of the day, and produced two different race winners.
Results are provisional as there are potential protests following a number of collisions in the brisk breezes.
British boat Marvel (Richard Powell) followed his race two second place (he did not start in race one) with a win in race three. A close second was French sailor Robin Follin sailing Give Me 5 – French Youth team, third place going to Australian champion Aeolus (Brett Cooper).
In race four, Hobart’s Michael Cooper sailed Export Roo to victory from another French boat, Le Grand Reservoir/Maze & A (Achille Nebout) and Victorian boat Flirtatious/Ambition Sailing Team (Chris Dare, AUS).
After four races of the SB20 pre-Worlds Give Me 5 (Robin Follin, Fra) is still provisional overall leader on 8 points (1-1-2-4) with Export Roo (Michael Cooper, AUS) moving up to second with 24 points (12-4-7-1).
Australian SB20 champion Aeolus (Brett Cooper, AUS) is now third on 25 points (11-6-3-5) with defending World champion sportsboatworld.com (Jerry Hill, GBR) fourth on 28 points (5-3-8-12).
Words: Peter Campbell – peter_campbell@bigpond.com
Photos: Jane Austin
1800AEST/4 January 2018