2022 SB20 World Championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club - Day 2
by SB20 Class 7 Sep 2022 10:01 BST
5-9 September 2022
Lovely, brutal first day of racing
On the second day of the Provident CRM SB20 World Championships the expectation were high to go out after a day of waiting for the wind to drop. Without a skippers' briefing ashore, the RC headed to the Bay and after a short AP invited the fleet to join. Just as boats started to dock out AP over H was displayed sending the fleet back to harbour to "await further instructions". The wind was blowing 24 and gusting 28 knots at the time. Some boats stayed out on the water to practice manoeuvres, but confirmed afterwards that "it was rather brutal out there". The sailors prepared to wait and after about 2 hours, when the wind dropped to 16-18 knots, they were blessed with the AP flag going down!
First warning signal was given at 14:15 with broaches and breakages happening even before the boats crossed the starting line. Clear on the line 53 boats rushed into the waves in a 20 knots breeze. Right from the start Glasgow Kiss of Nils Razmilovic sailing with Laser World Champion Nik Burfoot took early lead and rounded the windward mark first. They were closely followed by Xcellent of John Pollard with Australian team Ares of Will Sargent behind them. Breaking Bod of Charlie Whelan and AP Hotels & Resort of Jose Paulo Ramada were in close chase. On the first downwind Glasgow Kiss went out to the bay aiming to gybe for the lay line, but Ares chose a more favourable approach, crushing through the waves and nailing their gybes. It resulted in arriving to the bottom mark first, from where they continued to lead until the finish line with significant advantage. After another lap Nils Razmilovic only finished in the 4th place, letting Pollard and Whelan sneak in front of him, who finished second and third respectively. Good race for the Irish team Leviathan, who finished 6th.
Race 2 started at around 15:40 after that the wind has picked up causing a bit of havoc on the racecourse. Glasgow Kiss, Xcellent and French Youth team of Ian Garreta were in the lead, but it was the time for Portuguese AP Hotels & Resort of Jose Paulo Ramada to celebrate the victory. Definitely the experience of sailing SB20 in ocean conditions with big waves and often strong winds pays off. In this tough race AP Hotels & Resort left Xcellent and Glasgow Kiss behind leaving them in second and third place accordingly. After two races John Pollard has already secured overall lead with 4 points, having finished 2 and 2. French Youth team 1 finished 4th followed by fellow French boat New Caledonia of Tugdual Piriou. Top Irish boat TED of Michael O'Connor finished this heavy race in 6th, their best result of the day.
Race 2 was when the first collisions occurred. One of the UAE boats retired from the race with a dent in the hull on the way to the windward mark. Then, on the first downwind the boat of the event sponsor Provident CRM of Jone Malone lost the rig on a strong gust and had to be towed back to the harbour. One more hull was damaged on the downwind rounding and had to be immediately towed back to avoid sinking. The boat was getting a lot of water inside it and thanks to smooth operation of the safety team they were quickly transported to be craned out.
Race 3 started around 17:15 with big waves and for the last race of the day the teams could finally enjoy some sunshine. With a general recall at first the race continued with a clear start. It was John Pollard who was leading the whole race, rounding all the marks in first and securing the lead. In second - Breaking Bod sailing with British Sailing Team crew Aaron Holman. It was a close finish for the third place, but UK team Twenty of Mark Gillett and Paul Hine were faster. French boats Skin in the Game of Ed Russo and FFVoile Youth 1 of Ian Garreta had a good race too, they finished 4th and 5th respectively.
PRO David Lovegrove and his team did a fantastic job on this difficult day resulting in three windy and action-packed races. Upon return to the Club the boats were greeted by live music, delicious Irish stew and whiskey to make their aprés-sail merrier and to prepare them for a new battle next day! Strong winds prevail on Dublin Bay and we all hope that racing will start at 12h00 as scheduled on Day 3 of the championship.
Full results here...
Find out more at www.sb20worlds2022.com