SB20 World Championship at the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes - Day 3

SB20 Worlds at Cowes day 3 © Jennifer Burgis

SB20 Worlds at Cowes day 3 © Jennifer Burgis

The great British weather showed her true colours on Thursday with race officials getting sailors out of bed early to make the most of the early morning winds. With grey skies, a slight drizzle and a North Westerly breeze, it was game on!

Having slipped lines at 09:00 the fleet sailed out into the Solent to make the most of the windiest day so far. With the competitive drive and the weather getting hotter it has been all to play for here at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes. There were three good races today in a shifty northerly breeze that decreased throughout the day, keeping crews busy with the shifting wind and tide.

Competitors have now finished qualifying having completed five races in total. This now separates crews into Gold and Silver fleets, with the top 40 moving into Gold and the remaining 40 into Silver. However there is no room for complacency for the top ranking boats, all bets are off as things can still change dramatically over the next few days. There are potentially still seven more races with just one discard in Gold fleet racing.

The top three boats currently stand as Export Roo from Australia in first place, Great Britain's Xcellent in second and Give Me Five from France in third.

We would like to thank our race day sponsor Racegeek for their kind support of the SB20 World Championships, it has been a pleasure having you on-board.

Export Roo on a roll on The Solent (from Peter Campbell)

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.

Overall leader Export Roo powers downwind on day 3 of the SB20 Worlds at Cowes - photo © Jennifer Burgis

Export Roo's scorecard in the Yellow qualifying fleet reads 1-3-1-2-1, 5 points after discarding the third place.

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 on main and forward hand Edward Snowball on the rail of Porco Rosso on day 3 of the SB20 Worlds at Cowes - photo © Jennifer Burgis

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.

Results after Day 3:

http://sb20worlds.co.uk/