SB20S on show

by Jane Austin on 14 Mar 2015 Tasmanian SB20 sailors have ‘caught the fever’ of the ICC Cricket World Cup with the Hobart fleet of exciting one-design sports boats taking to the River Derwent for a three race sprint series starting at 2 pm today.

Still riding the momentum of last week’s national and state titles, the Tasmanian SB20s will contest the sprint series in full view of the world’s media which will be trained on Bellerive Oval and the River during Australia’s World Cup fixture against Scotland.

With a global audience of 1.1 billion, the Tasmanian SB20 Class President Scott Brain is excited about the opportunity to sneak a little air time during Australia’s clash with Scotland. 'We are absolutely thrilled to present Hobart and the River Derwent as a fantastic sailing venue to the world’s media,' said Brain.

'We have just come off a magnificent week of SB20 sailing with the state and national titles, but our fleet, one of the largest in the world, was very keen to get back onto the water to showcase the River with a view to attracting more national and international sailing regattas to Tasmania,' said Brain.

The Hobart fleet of SB20 sports boats will form a backdrop to the on-field action at Bellerive Oval. While the cricketers will be hitting sixes and dodging bouncers, the SB20 fleet will be fighting it out on the water adding colour and excitement to the sporting scene. The SB20 is an established international racing class with 700 of these identical boats sailing world-wide with large fleets in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Russia and Singapore. The Hobart fleet is growing rapidly and currently stands at 24 boats.

The 2015 SB20 Tasmanian and Australian Championships were hosted in Hobart last week and attracted an impressive number of former or budding Olympians and world champion yachtsmen and women. The newly crowned 2015 SB20 Australian Champions were Hamilton Island CEO Glenn Bourke with his crew of Rob Jeffreys (Victoria) and Jake Lilley, a member of the Australian Sailing Team. But Bourke, a former Olympian, had stiff competition from local sailors including former Dragon-class World Champion Nick Rogers and Bourke’s former Laser training partner, Michael Cooper.

Several Australian teams will be heading to Lake Garda in Italy in July for the 2015 SB20 World Championship while another contingent will head to Cascais in Portugal for the 2016 Worlds. The Tasmanian SB20 Association in conjunction with The Derwent Sailing Squadron and The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania will be submitting a bid to the World Council to host the SB20 World Championship in Hobart in 2018.