After nine races sailed, Royal St.George's Ted sailed by Michael O'Connor, Davy Taylor, and Ben O'Donoghue are in joint third place, ten points off the SB20 European Championships lead, in Ostend after a bruising test for the fleet on day three with three races in 18–22 knots and a rough sea state that had crews working hard.
Ireland's second boat at the event, Ger Dempsey, Colin Galavan and Artem Basalkin from the Royal Irish Yacht Club are in eighth position in the 42-boat fleet.
Ger Dempsey, Colin Galavan and Artem Basalkin from the Royal Irish Yacht Club competing on day three of the SB20 Euros 2025 in Ostend Photo: Anna Zyk
Three different international teams claimed race wins, including Desert Eagle of Hendrik Witzmann (UAE) in Race 7, Youth team of Paul Loiseau (FRA) in Race 8 and UK's PBII Twenty of Mark Gillett and Paul Hine in Race 9. Regatta leader team Xcellent of John Pollard (GBR) remain at the top of the leaderboard, but the gap is closing as the championship builds towards its climax.
"Hairy and scary today with gusts up to 22 knots and big Belgian swell," – admitted Paul Hine after racing. "I'm really proud of winning a race in this fleet."
"It was pretty breezy when we went out with big waves that had been building overnight," - Mark explained. "I think everyone was on their heavy-weather rig settings and we were encouraging teams on the way out to make sure they'd set up properly. In those conditions your boat trim and tuning become absolutely critical."
After a general recall and restart under black flag in Race 7 the fleet launched into a short but demanding upwind. With tide running strongly with the breeze, laylines were easy to overstand and traffic at the top mark was busy.
"We were a little late off the start, but still managed a clean lane," - said Mark Gillett. "It kind of paid to hit the corners, but you had to be careful. We were probably around 20th, but managed to creep into the low teens on the second beat."
The downwinds were all about finding clear air and keeping the boat powered through the chop. A couple of mistakes cost places, but PBII 20 fought back into the mid-fleet posting a good recovery.
Conditions remained similar for Race 8, with tide again helping the upwind legs. A clean start mid-line and a move to the left put PBII 20 in good shape, rounding the top mark inside top ten.
"We were probably seventh or eighth at the weather mark, which was a good improvement for us," said Mark. "The runs were tricky – we got held out further right than we wanted, but with the tide it actually paid off. By the second beat we'd worked back up to about seventh."
Just as things were looking settled, bad luck struck. "On the final run we were right behind Trio when we hit a plastic bag. It wrapped around the keel and slowed us by a couple of knots. Really frustrating – we knew something was wrong but couldn't do anything about it until after the finish. It took three back-downs to get rid of it."
The final race of the day was where everything came together for Gillett's crew. With the breeze holding at the top of the range PBII twenty made sure they've setup for had maximum rig tension, plenty of vang & backstay and eased cars to keep the boat going and holding on the waves.
"Rig settings were everything today," said Gillett. "The SB20 rewards you if you get the setup right – you've got to be really active with your trim in these waves, keep the boat flat and moving."
A confident mid-line start saw PBII 20 quickly tack onto port and hit the right-hand side of the course, rounding the top mark in top six. From there, the team made their move.
"We had a really nice run down the far right, which was paying all day. George did a brilliant job up the next beat, picking three or four shifts and just sailing really fast. That got us into the lead at the weather mark. From there it was all about covering – one clean gybe, a neat bottom mark rounding and we managed to hold off the UAE boat [Desert Easgle] to finish first. A great race for us."
"Paul H. was fantastic on the bow, Paul R. was working hard on kite trim – he'll have sore arms tonight – and George was superb on tactics, which freed me up to focus on driving. It was a proper team performance."
While the European Championship is still rolling Mark and his team are already looking beyond Ostend:
"We've got the Dutch Nationals coming up in September, so we're going to leave the boat here in Belgium and head up there in a few weeks' time. That's one of the great things about the SB20 – they're easy to trail, easy to launch and it makes doing international events really accessible."
Having competed extensively in the UK, Mark sees plenty of crossover between British and European venues: "Torquay is a fantastic venue and when the breeze is in the right direction you get proper waves, not too dissimilar to what we've had here. Hyeres next year [SB20 Worlds 2026] is also a favourite – when the Mistral blows it's incredible sailing. I'd say these are two of my favourite venues."
With two more days to go the leaderboard was shaken again, but the top teams stay strong. TED had a less successful day with 8,4,4, but still making pressure on the leaders hunting for the podium. Hendrik Witzmann scored 1,5,2 today and is currently second. French Youth team of Paul Loiseau gained a huge lead on the second downwind and crossed the finish line with a big smile - his first bullet at this championship that puts him back into Top 3.
Top 5 results after 9 races:
- Xcellent, John Pollard: 1.0 1.0 1.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 7.0 (43.0)BFD – 23 pts
- Desert Eagle, Hendrik Witzmann: 4.0 6.0 2.0 2.0 (7.0) 3.0 1.0 5.0 2.0 – 25 pts
- French Youth, Paul Loiseau: 3.0 2.0 (7.0) 7.0 6.0 7.0 4.0 1.0 3.0 – 33 pts
- TED, Michael O'Connor: 5.0 3.0 6.0 1.0 2.0 (43.0)BFD 8.0 4.0 4.0 33 pts
- French Youth, Ian Garreta: 7.0 8.0 3.0 (12.0) 4.0 6.0 2.0 6.0 7.0 – 43 pts
