Royal St. George local trio of Michael O'Connor, Davy Taylor and Edward Cook sailing 'Ted' have moved from 11th to sixth overall as the top Irish boat after day three of the SB20 World Championships on Dublin Bay.
The trio moved up from 11th after day one to be the only Irish from 17 competing in the top after five races sailed.
The Ted crew, who revealed their speed in a pre-worlds joust just a week ago, scored an important third in a breezy race, four to be on 25 points, and one point off fifth overall as the competition enters its penultimate day.
Strong winds and big seas continue to put boat handling at a premium at the Royal Irish Yacht Club-hosted event.
Top Dun Laoghaire youth skiff sailor Nathan Van Steenberge, who is sailing with Portugal's Solyd Sailing Team/ SailCascais is lying fourth overall.
The next best of the Irish team in the 56-boat fleet is the Royal Irish's Bad/Kilcullen sailed by Stefan Hyde Jerry Dowling Jimmy Dowling in 17th.
In 18th is Royal Cork's GoldDigger sailed by Mel Collins, Aidan Mac Sweeny and Ian Heffernan. And in 19th place, new SB20 campaigners Chris and Rob Bateman and Trevor Bolger, sailing Shoestring Express from Monkstown Bay Sailing Club BSC and Royal Cork Yacht Club are As regular Afloat readers will know, this is MBSC's Chris Bateman's third World Championships of the season on Irish waters, having already taken in August's 505 Worlds in Cork Harbour and the Fireball Worlds on Lough Derg.
See other Irish results below
Day 3 of the Provident CRM SB20 World Championship
On the second racing day, third day overall here in Dun Laoghaire the waves were still big and the winds remained in top teens and twenties. After a short wait ashore, the fleet was sent to the water where the start of Race 5 was called already at 13:15.
The 56-boat SB20 World Championship fleet prepare to leave the Royal Irish dock Photo: Afloat
After two general recalls in about 20 knots of breeze Race 4 was underway. In the first upwind rounding 3J’s team from the Netherlands was leading; unfortunately, they haven’t managed to hoist their spinnaker quickly and the top Irish team TED of Michael O’Connor, overtook them, followed by Glasgow Kiss. On the second downwind, positions changed and having gained on the upwind run AP Hotels & Resorts was already rounding in top three. After that, it was a battle to the finish line between them and Glasgow Kiss, resulting in almost a photo finish of the two, AP Hotels being half a boat length closer to the line. TED finished third after gybing too late.
So what do we know about team AP Hotels & Resorts? That they come from Portugal, from a picturesque town and a sailing mecca called Cascais. The local Club has been running Cascais Winter Series for almost 10 years now. The events have become so popular that many Class sailors move their boats there for the cold season back at home.
And that’s where they all meet AP Hotels & Resorts skipper Jose Paulo Ramada. Even if he doesn’t start a regatta with a win on the first day, his name will be among the top results by the end of it.
The story here is one of a movie scene: Zé Paulo (as everyone knows him), one of the best in Cascais, is stuck without a boat ahead of the Worlds. One day after a local regatta he is approached by Artem Basalkin (tactician onboard VIS Sailing team – winner of 2018 Europeans here in Dun Laoghaire), who has a boat ready, and within a week before the Worlds, they make up a team. And after two days of racing in the World Championship, they are leading the fleet!
Does this phenomenon of spontaneous arrangement with the perfect “Cascais weather” in Dublin make it a winning combination? Hard to disagree. This is not the only example, because then we have Vasco Serpa, winner of Race 5, who also comes from Cascais. It seemed that these Cascais sailors feel like home in these conditions and just enjoy this “wet and wild ride”.
In Race 5 you would see Vasco Serpa in the 4th place on the rounding, but already on the second downwind, he would catch up and storm off once the kite was up, surfing through the waves. He had a fantastic race today, resulting in 4th place overall. Glasgow Kiss was second in Race 5 and AP Hotels & Resorts third. Tasmanian Youth team Ares of Will Sargent finished behind them in 4th, placing them 5th overall.
“Lovely day of sailing on the water with the breeze on again between 15 and 25 knots sometimes. It was very good fun, especially downwind, we had good wind and we could surf the waves. It was very exciting! I think the guys from Singapore (Glasgow Kiss) sailed best today. The key was to go on left-hand-side on the upwind, giving good lines approaching the mark. For us playing in the middle, we didn’t have a good chance to get through,” – commented Jonathan Lobert, Olympic Bronze medallist, tactician and coach onboard Skin in the Game.
On the water jury - Brian Mathews (left) and SB20 World Championships Jury chief, Cxema Pico Photo: Afloat
Day 3 made it perfect not only on high competition and adrenaline pumping throughout the racecourse. The Race Committee and the Jury team made it smooth and enjoyable even in the situations of general recall and mark rounding incidents. This is where it feels like we are sailing a World Championship and Chief of Jury Cxema Pico reminded the sailors about it before racing. This level is maintained by the work of PRO David Lovegrove and his team. With the always-present pressure of fitting as many races as possible per day there was almost a sigh of relief when RC decided not run the third race today.
And after all the sailing, sometimes accompanied by friendly dolphins and seals in the bay, we get to come back to the Royal Irish Yacht Club. Here not only the hospitality level, but the work of the operations and office team makes it one of the best places to be – on and off the water!
After two days and five races that give one discard the points game kicks in. We witness the top two teams tied on points with the third only 1 point away from them. With lighter winds on the forecast, let’s see how the game unfolds and who gets the gaming right!
Current top 5 leaders:
1. AP Hotels & Resort – Jose Paulo Ramada, Artem Basalkin, Goncalo Lopes, Carlota Gala – Club Naval de Cascais (10 pts)
2. Xcellent – John Pollard, Jack Wetherell, Henry Wetherell – Royal Torbay YC (10 pts)
3. Glasgow Kiss – Nils Razmilovic, David Salembier, Nik Burfoot – RHKYC (11 pts)
4. Solyd Sailing Team/ SailCascais – Vasco Serpa, Diogo Pinto, Nathan Van Steenberge – CNCascais (21 pts)
5. Ares – Will Sargent, Eddie Reid, Ed Broadby, Eirni Marios – Derwent Sailing Squadron (24 pts)
(report by the class association)
