UON SB20 World Championships 2012 – Black-flagged Britons reinstated

by Lisa Ratcliff on 19 Dec 2012 The UON SB20 World Championships 2012 took another intriguing turn as the international jury decided to reinstate Britain’s Ben Saxton’s Bango Powered by SLAM and Robert Greenhalgh’s The Beard back to competition after the two crews were black flagged in the event’s controversial Race 7 of at Hamilton Island.

Two of the crews black flagged in race 7 yesterday after being called OCS have been reinstated at the UON SB20 World Championships at Hamilton Island.

Robert Greenhalgh’s The Beard and Ben Saxton’s Bango Powered by SLAM sought redress and the international jury decided in favour of the two British crews.

Both will be given average points up to the end of today’s racing, which has radically changed the pointscore at the top of the pile. The pointscore will be recalculated again for those averages at the end of today.

Bango Powered by SLAM is being crewed by 22 year-old British star Ben on the helm, twin brother Tim on the main, Maria Stanley and Johnny McGovern on the bow. With their eye on the prize they have moved back into second place from ninth, now with 34 points, pushing Glenn Bourke’s Club Marine into third with 36 points.
Greenhalgh’s place also changed significantly following the jury’s decision, moving back up the rankings from 12th to fifth from 42 boats.

Team Russia leads on 28 points.

PRO Denis Thompson is aiming for three races today, the penultimate day at the Whitsunday world titles. Like yesterday the race committee is hoping the northerly influence will make for the sort of conditions that best show off these sporty 20 footers. Light to moderate nor’easters up to 16 knots are forecast.

The fleet is heading to Course A at Turtle Bay.

Results at http://worlds2012.sb20class.com!SB20_World_Championships_2012 and Hamilton Island SB20 World Championship