SB20 World Championship 2025 in Singapore Day 1
by Anna Zyk 21 Jan 00:57 PST
18-25 January 2025
SB20 World Championship 2025 in Singapore - Day 1 © Matteo Garrone
The SB20 World Championship 2025 kicked off at the stunning ONE degrees15 Marina in Singapore, with 55 crews from across the globe battling it out on the tricky waters. The first day of racing featured four intense races, with shifty conditions challenging even the most experienced sailors. Wind shifts and varying pressure across the course tested teams' tactical skills, making positioning and consistency critical to success.
Belgian team Go With The Flow of Bart Tytgat, Marc Braet and Kristof Woutters representing our host venue, the Royal North Sea Yacht Club, for the upcoming Europeans 2025 in Ostend, Belgium. Bart's 100% Corinthian team has emerged at the top of the leaderboard having finished the two opening races with podium results and ending the day with 26 points, a five-point advantage from 2nd placed John Pollard onboard British flagged "Xcellent".
Team Xcellent, sailing with the recent Sydney-Hobart Race winner and a long-time SB20 Class favourite, David Chapman, showed their skills in the extremely challenging pre-Worlds event a week ago winning it. Starting Day 1 of the Worlds on the low score in the first two races, they've caught up as the day evolved, scoring two 2nd results that brought them 31 points overall.
Sitting on a tie with 32 point after four races are two more international teams. In 3rd position is Singaporean Rental Car of Mike Buchanan in a brand new Devoti boat, who is sailing with fellow Aussies, two sailing stars Darren "Twirler" Jones and Sam Tiedemann. They've scored two 3rd finishes on Day 1 and are thoroughly enjoying the Singaporean conditions:
"A game of snakes and ladders today," - commented Twirler, - "never throw your tickets away, that's for sure! It's pretty easy to get a bad one out there."
Placed 4th is the team of the SB20 Class veteran Martijn Buitenhuis on Buitenhuis Advies, who has gathered a new team of Dutch sailing talent including Lennard Bal, Jelle Lourens and Thomas Roggekamp.
Closing top five are the French Sailing Federation Youth Team of Paul Loiseau with his crew Aristide Delin, Maxime Helie and Camille Pfaff, who are currently the Top Youth team overall with 33 points.
"We did our first 3 races in the top 10, and the 2 first in the top 5. A beautiful start to the championship for us," - commented Paul Loiseau.
Proving the difficult conditions on Day 1 the stars shone for four completely different teams to score a bullet on Day 1. The opening race went to Singapore local and another SB20 Class legend - Nils Razmilovic on Glasgow Kiss, sailing with his long-standing crew of Nik Burfoot and David Salembier. An unfortunate UFD in Race 2 pushed them down the leaderboard, but it's only Day 1 on the championship and we will most likely see them back in the top after the discard kicks in.
Race two was won by the Malasian team Ararat of Muhammad Uzair Amin, Ahmad Khairulhafiz, Abdul Latif and Muhammad Dhiauddin who represent Royal Selangor Yacht Club, they are currently 12th.
The young British skipper William Borghesi on Wind Warriors, who is only 10 years old, scored a bullet in Race 3 and with a consistent Race 4 result they are currently sitting 6th overall with 37 points. He sails with two Portuguese sailors Diogo Pinto and Alfonso Leite along with another young Dubai-based sailor Rhys Jones.
Challenging start for the 2023 SB20 World Champion Will Sargent, calling tactics onboard Porco Rosso for skipper Paul McCartney. Sailing together with fellow Tassie sailor Eddie Reid they also got caught with a UFD in Race 2 which pushed them down the leaderboard, but it will not discourage this trio who have sailed well together in a number of races by now.
Defending champion Charlotte Borghesi onboard team Kidzink is currently 8th overall. This year Charlotte is sailing with a 100% female team of Olympic medallists Pippa Kenton Page (Yngling, 2008), Rebecca Netzler (49FX, 2024) and Lovisa Karlsson (470, 2024).
Reflecting on the intense conditions, Lovisa Karlsson commented:
"It's been a tough day out there, amazing racing, super shifty, 50 boats on the line and we have just been enjoying every single race."
Day two is already under way in Singapore with the minimum of three races scheduled. The challenging conditions in Singapore promise to keep the sailors on their toes as the competition heats up. Stay tuned for more updates as the battle for the championship continues!
Full results [PDF]
Event website: Worlds2025.sb20class.org