SB20 Short Course Championships at Royal Torbay Yacht Club

by Tom Clay on 1 Oct 2016 Torbay provided champagne sailing for the Sprint National Championships of the SB20 class on 30 September hosted by Royal Torbay Yacht Club. The event comprised six short sharp races, of about 20 minutes each, an ideal warm up for the Stormforce Coaching SB20 UK Nationals this weekend.

The first race started in a Force 4-5 and a lift shortly after the start aided the boats on starboard. On Uber, Class Chairman, Adrian Peach had ceded the helm to James Peters and was in the unfamiliar position of bow. Uber and Forelle Estates were fighting for the lead down the run and the race was decided on the final close reach to the finish under spinnaker when Forelle were almost broached to allow Uber to just plane through for the win with Forelle Estates second and Paul Hine’s Poor Buoy finishing third.

In Race 2 George Barker on Trouble and Strife nailed a port tack start but just failed to cross the fleet. John Pollard on Xcellent came in to his own in this race and sailed away from the fleet to win followed by Uber and Poor Buoy. Positions were reversed in race three where Uber won from Xcellent with Forelle coming in third.

Race 4 brought another boat into the podium positions with Phil Rumbelow on Doris sailing into the lead to win from Forelle Estates and Uber. John Pollard was over the line at the start in race four and was DSQ under the U flag. This left him under pressure if he was to win the event but he came back to win the next two races both times from Forelle with Poor Buoy third in race five and Uber in race six.

This left John Pollard the winner of the Short Course Championships from Uber. Both boats were on ten points and Xcellent won on last race count back with Forelle one further point behind. Many thanks for our supporting sponsors Stormforce Coaching, FSE Robline, Hyde Sails, Harken and Sportsboat World.

Position	Sailors	Boat Name	Overall Points
1	John Pollard/Rob Smith/Steve Proctor	Xcellent	10
2	James Peters/Morgan and Adrian Peach/Emmer Barnett	Uber	10
3	Joe Llewellyn/Nigel Wakefield/Mark Williams	Forelle Estates	11
4	Paul Hine/Mark Gillett/Niki Bronze-Birrell/Heather Ross	Poor Buoy	18
5	Tom Clay/Ed Morris/Tim Goodhew	Whyaduck	27
6	Doug Innes/Martin Fox/Gareth Glover	A New Hope	32