SB20 World Championship 2021 at Clube Naval de Cascais - Day 3

The third day was full of action in the SB20 World Championship, held in Cascais in this edition of 2021.

The large fleet went to sea around 2pm, but the weather conditions, namely the wind, which blew from the west quadrant with about 6 knots of intensity, was a little less favourable than in the first two days, which led the Clube Naval de Cascais organization to choose to start with only two races, as opposed to the three initially planned, both of which were held in the Guia race area.

SB20 World Championship at Cascais day 3 - photo © Neuza Aires Pereira

With two days of competition still ahead, it is certain that nothing is defined and anything can happen in the fight for the title. However, it is also no less true that, at the top of the league table, some crews are showing signs of wanting to secure at least a place on the podium, and the results they achieved confirm this. Everything points, once again, that consistency tends to override the odd spectacular performances.

This is exactly what the results of this third day of the event indicate. In the first race, Paola Amar's Shifter Pro Youth France, with Gabriel Skoczek, Marine Gauvrit and Timothe Lapaw of Cercle Nautique Caledonien, was the first to cross the finish line, followed by Tonu Toniste's Estonia Delight, with Toomas Toniste and Andres Viisemann, with the Estonian crew being one of those who best proves that consistency can pay dividends. Third place went to Charles Whelan's Breaking Bod, with Richard Mcadam and Chips Howarth, representatives of the British Bough Beech Sailing Club.

SB20 World Championship at Cascais day 3 - photo © Neuza Aires Pereira

In the second race, Clube Naval de Cascais' Open Bar, winner of two of the three races yesterday, and helmed by Olympic sailor Henrique Haddad, accompanied by Mário Trindade, Leonardo Lombardi and Pedro Caldas, got the better of the competition. Second place went to another CNCascais representative, Patris Finance, by Vasco Passanha, with Nuno Bajanca and João Melo, with third place by Edward Russo's Skin in the game, with Gilles Favennec and Jonathan Lobert, of Club Nautique Valeriquals.

The Open Bar team of Henrique Haddad retains the lead of the Cascais SB20 World Championship 2021 with a total of 33 points, and already having an appreciable advantage over his most direct pursuers. With 51 points, second place in the overall classification is now occupied by Madeira Islands, representing the Madeira Nautical Association, with John Tavares at the helm, in the company of two CNC athletes, Bernardo Freitas and Paulo Manso, but with an advantage of just one point over the third place, which continues to be held by the Estonia Delight team of Tonu Toniste, who took advantage of this third day of competition to discard the result achieved in the second race and keep their place on the provisional podium.

SB20 World Championship at Cascais day 3 - photo © Neuza Aires Pereira

Among the female crews, the day was especially favourable for the crew of the Shifter Pro Youth France. And naturally, the victory and fourth place achieved by Paola Amar, Gabriel Skoczek, Marine Gauvrit and Timothe Lapaw had major repercussions for their position in the league table: the Yacht Club de Cannes team leads again among the ladies, in addition to being sixth overall.

The rise to second place in the Madeira Islands overall ranking was, without a doubt, one of the highlights of the day. But John Tavares prefers to adopt a cautious stance:

"Today, as in previous days, light wind and very challenging conditions. The first race was somewhat threatened by the mass of fog that was coming towards the race course, but, fortunately, it dissipated and we were able to compete in two excellent races.

SB20 World Championship at Cascais day 3 - photo © Neuza Aires Pereira

"But, once again, I emphasize, the light wind makes everything a great challenge, it is extremely easy to make a mistake, and, at the end of the fleet, as we could see today, many boats that are regularly in the front end up being left behind, due to a less successful start or a bad tactical decision. The conditions are indeed very challenging.

"For us, from the Madeira Islands team, who have some experience in the SB20, we have already competed in the last World Championship held in Cascais, in 2016, this is our favourite place, the Clube Naval de Cascais, the place where we like to sail the most. We teamed up with Bernardo Freitas and Paulo Manso, it is the first time we are sailing with Bernardo, a top sailor, and today our decisions were quite conservative. We're trying not to take any excessive risks, always trying to achieve stable results, and that's what we've been able to do so far. So we are very satisfied with our performance. There is still a long way to go until the end, we remain cautiously optimistic and hope to have two solid days ahead, as we have had so far. And, of course, we hope to achieve a good result."

SB20 World Championship at Cascais day 3 - photo © Neuza Aires Pereira

For Thursday, the third day of the Cascais SB20 World Championship 2021, the Clube Naval de Cascais has three races scheduled, with the first start signal scheduled for midday. With the participation of some of the main names of the SB20 class, both nationally and worldwide, the event is sponsored by the Municipality of Cascais, Turismo de Portugal, Visit Cascais, IPDJ, Portuguese Sailing Federation, Leitão & Irmão, Vista Alegre, Solyd, Sagres, Simões & Gaspar, Lusíada Saúde, Clarins Men, Clarins and JCDecaux.

Results after Day 3: