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Top Irish SB20 Crew Seeking World Championship Podium in Scheveningen
Irish SB20 team TED of Michael O’Connor, Davy Taylor and Edward Cook from the Royal St. George Yacht Club, who have already shown good speed this season in Portugal and the North Sea Regatta and who just missed the podium last year in home waters, will be fighting for the World Championships title at Scheveningen, Netherlands this week.
Sailing Mecca on the North Sea, the home of the Dutch Olympic team, host of The Ocean Race and World Sailing Allianz Regatta this year, Scheveningen has welcomed the participants of the SB20 World Championship from around the globe.
The Scheveningen Yacht Club is the venue for the 2023 SB20 World Championships Photo: Anna Zyk
The Practice race opened the event yesterday with a light offshore breeze allowing the participants to get the feeling of the turning tide in combination with the wind and swell, all coming from different directions!
These interesting conditions that are new to many SB20 sailors promise some exciting moments on the water this week.
Ten nations are competing this year with a number of overseas teams, including two Australian entries and teams from Singapore and Dubai.
Top Contestants for the 2023 SB20 World Title
Top three in the recent pre-Worlds event here in Scheveningen a month ago will definitely be the ones to watch. Mastering the waves of the North Sea team Xcellent of John Pollard stayed at the top of the leaderboard for three days of the pre-Worlds event. Silver winner of SB20 Worlds 2022 will be racing with the same crew of Finn sailor Henry Wetherell and 49er James Grummett.
Bronze SB20 Worlds 2022 winner team Glasgow Kiss of Nils Razmilovic, Jonathan Lobert OLY and David Salembier, second at the pre-Worlds in the same crew setup. Jonathan sailed with Ed Russo at the last Worlds in Ireland, but joins the Singaporean team instead of Nik Burfoot, who couldn’t come this year.
The 2022 Worlds winning team has split for this year to become competitors! Class veteran and winning helmsman of the SB20 World Championships 2022 Jose Paulo Ramada, is bringing a 100% Portuguese crew. It includes top Cascais sailors Henrique Brites and Luis Pinheiro (10th at the SB20 Worlds 2021 in Cascais) and Sebastiao Ramirez. Jose Paulo is hopeful of claiming the World title for the second time in a row, but agrees that it might be difficult.
2022 winning tactician Artem Basalkin and trimmers Gonçalo Lopes and Carlota Gala will be racing with Martin Estlander representing Finland under the Portuguese flag onboard Freedom.
From Tasmania comes Will Sargent and youth team Ares (Eddie Reid, Paige Caldecoat, Eirini Marios). These young talents have won the AUS National title and finished 7th, also as top Youth team at SB20 Worlds 2022 in Ireland.
This event will see Paul McCartney and Team Porco Rosso back to international racing! Second-placed at the 2018 Europeans, Paul will be on the helm, bringing the star tactician, Class favourite David ‘Chappo’ Chapman, and British Finn sailor Cameron Tweedle as crew.
From Singapore, Team Tara, who won this year’s Asia Pacific Grand Slam & Nationals, will be sailing in a new crew setup of Agoston Sipos, Magnus Ekbom and Andrew Hewson.
The third team from SB20 Singapore belongs to Daire O’Reilly on Sin Bád sailing with Myles Perrin (GBR) and Ben Gunn (AUS), dinghy sailors at their core having progressed to international yacht racing.
SB20 UAE is represented by two teams, superSONIC of Michal Pajak and Yalla Shamal! of Rachel Blackburn, who are starting to prepare for their own SB20 World Championships in less than seven months!
The closest Dutch neighbours from the UK and Ireland are represented by 12 boats in total. Breaking Bod of Charles Whelan, who brings his 2022 Worlds crew of Richard McAdam and Arran Holman, will be a strong contestant on the British side.
Expect team PBII Twenty of UK SB20 Class chairman Paul Hine, Richard Anderton and Mark Gillet on the helm to be in the top of the leaderboard as well.
Team Leviathan of 49ers Tadgh Donnelly, Peter Carvill and Dan Little scored a couple of bullets at SB20 Worlds 2022.
Former Irish SB20 Class chairman Colin Galavan, on Carpe Diem, will be racing with his 2022 Worlds crew of Aaron Jones and Kevin O’Rourke from Greystones.
Four boats from France this year, including two FFVoile Youth teams, have already shown their skills at the SB20 Worlds 2022 and at the Dubai Regatta 2023: skippers Ian Garrett and Ange Delerce from SR Antibes.
Portuguese SB20 racers have signed up with two teams, including SailCascais of Vasco Serpa.
As expected, the majority of the fleet is represented by the Dutch teams, where we will see a lot of familiar names in the SB20 world as well as some young and promising talent from local sailors.
Team 3J’s – local stars and winners of the Masters’ category at SB20 Worlds 2022 of Jeroen van der Velden, Jeroen Kop and Jan van der Meijden.
Marco van Driel on MXTC sailing with Joost Assman and Martijn Worseling will provide strong competition.
Teams Vliegensvlugge Vlieg of Ko Stroo, Koen Verhaeghe de Naeyer and Ralph van Etten and Team Kesbeke of Ronald Veraar, Pim Mommersteeg and Eelco Blok showing strong competition on the local level. Of course, to mention long-standing Class chairman and supporter of Youth SB20 sailing in the Netherlands Martijn Buitenhuis sailing with Gilbert Figaroba and Frank Dobbels.
The organisers have decided to run the event based on crowdfunding and managed to get on board a list of partners and sponsors.
Dubarry of Ireland will contribute to the prize-giving ceremony.
The first warning signal is scheduled for today, 19th of June, at 12:00, with two races scheduled. The wind on the North Sea has turned to its more habitual direction blowing 15 knots from the West, gusting over 20 for the opening day. Racing continues until Friday, 23rd June.
