SB20 World Championships 2019 at Hyères - Day 4
by SB20 Class 25 Oct 2019 11:36 BST
20-25 October 2019
Another day for Robin Follin and Give Me Five FFVoile team with two more bullets and the
worst result in fourth, having gained a massive advantage of 20 points. The RC can breathe
out now as the SB20 Worlds Championships can constitute the series. Four more races
were sailed on Thursday with the overall number of six also allowing one discard.
The morning briefing on Day 4 of the SB20 World Championship started with the PRO
Natalie Peberel announcing a "short" AP before we can get into racing, as the wind was
expected to arrive by noon. RC departed shortly after that to the water to "be proactive in
case it's needed". By this time all the sailors were hungry for some racing having had a lay
day on Wednesday due to storm.
The "short" AP resulted in about 3 hours of waiting until 13:15 when Delta flag was
displayed ashore allowing the fleet to move to the water. A bit more waiting for RC to set
the course and remove some huge logs of wood that had been spread all over the bay
after the storm and the first warning signal for Race 3 was on at around 14:25.
The wind was quite stable around 10 knots, but the shifts were not - mostly within the
240-260 degrees range of shore breeze that stayed like this for the whole afternoon.
Race 3 started clear off the line into the 0.9 mile distance with several boats favouring the
left hand-side, while it was known that the wind would be shifting right, closer to shore.
GBR3017 of Christian Sutherland made it first to the top mark arriving on port tack and
nailing it in front of the event leader. GBR 3754 of John Pollard, who came in from the right
hand-side, rounded second followed by Robin Follin.
On the next upwind and downwind Robin took the lead and was followed by John Pollard
and the French Youth Female team "Have you taken your tickets?" of Paola Amar Lara
Granier. On the downwind gates Sutherland had a situation with French Youth resulting in
360 degrees on the reach towards the finish line. Robin beautifully arrived to the finish line with his
red kite still up, French Female Youth team followed in second and Pollard in third. Finally
Christian Sutherland only managed to finish fourth.
"We managed a good day with good starts and had very good two races, but we are not
consistent enough so we have to work harder for tomorrow," - said Hippolyte Machetti
tactician of the French Youth.
Race 4 started shortly after the first one at around 15:40, this time more boats went left.
First upwind rounding with Gabriel Skoczek leading, followed closely by Robin. Poor Buoy
II of Mark Gillet was in a very good position from the first rounding and continued it to the
finish. Two French champions (2018 and 2018) where almost in match race - Gabriel and
Robin, taking different corners of the course on the downwind, which resulted in Robin's
spectacular win by a boat length. Unfortunately for Gabriel at the finish he discovered a
UFD for his team, which on the Race results made Poor Buoy II who arrived after him
second. Overall six UFDs happened on this race, very disappointing for the teams struggling
through the shifty wind. Good results by Rhapsodie of Hugo Feydit, followed by Australian
The Imp of Andrew Smith who were now third and fourth respectively.
Race 5 clear start, wind at 255 degrees with most of the fleet going left. First upwind rounding has
seen Australian team Aeolus leading the flock, John Pollard and New Caledonia team of
Tugdual Piriou (FRA3309). More pressure on downwind with most of the boats going off
from the shore. Upwind run saw eight leaders with Aeolus continuing the lead, followed by
John Pollard who went right together with New Caledonia and Robin Follin.
Second downwind with the same picture of all boats continuing straight after rounding,
going to the right and off shore. B-team was one of those who gybed to the left, but that
did't pay the game. Australian Aeolus entered the downwind gate again in first heading to
the finish line, followed by French Female Youth team and New Caledonia, while Robin
followed in fourth. The fleet has stretched and the last boat was quite far from the finishing
leader. By this time (17:30) the wind was dropping and the sunset was expected in about
an hour after that, however the RC was unstoppable and called another race!
"It was a very slow start to the day this morning, we were ashore until well into the
afternoon and we obviously needed to get some races in to get some drops happening.
Fortunately PRO managed to get four good races in today. We managed to get it right
most of the times, but we had a mixed day. Overall we had a fairly positive day, we
managed to get a first in the third race [Race 5]. Unfortunately one of the better races was
race two [Race 4], was a UFD, but it was a very good come back in the following race.
Overall we had a really good day, great teamwork, we had fun," - said Brett Cooper,
skipper on Aeolus after the races.
In the final Race 6 of the day the breeze got lighter and continued its shifty pattern getting
to 280 at times. Starting at around 17:40 with two laps as announced on the radio, the
wind shifted to 260. It took the boats almost half an hour to get to the upwind marks and
the downwind was a slow paced game. Shortly after the sun was out and with the
racecourse getting a bit dark the RC decided to shorten the course. The last boat upwind
rounded at around 18:30, while the leading boats were on the reach towards the finish line.
Finally Race 6 was done at 18:38, just in time to get back to the Yacht Club with Ian Ainslie
on Spread 500 arriving first, followed by Robin Follin and Australian The Imp in third. The
day was concluded in beautiful sunset light on the way back to the harbour and resulted in
happy faces on the dock for having managed 4 races on this day after the lay day.
"Day 4 was a great day! We ended up with a 8-4-8-3 for us it's a fantastic result. That
means we don't have a result worse that 10th in the Worlds. That's a huge success for me
coming from Tasmania - my goal was to be Top 10 and we're well inside Top 10. Beautiful
breeze from the shore and compared to the other two days quite flat water. The wind was
very shifty and changing quickly from left to right, so it was a very tactical day. Getting off
the start line in good shape was really important. We have a great team - I'm sailing here
with David Chapman, who's calling tactics, but Louis [Noye] is very capable as well, so
they work very well together. It's a very strong fleet here," - said Andrew Smith, skipper of
The Imp after this long day.
Having a short distance of less than a mile resulted in having a lot of boats rounding the
top mark at the same time. Lots of shouting and collisions and therefore protests, the jury
worked late into the night to finish their work. It was a hard day for all, but it's sail racing as
we love it!