SB20 World Championship at the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes - Day 1

A packed marina waiting for the wind on day 1 of the SB20 Worlds at Cowes © Jane Austin

Hyde Sails race day

Today saw the start of the first day of the 2017 SB20 World Championships. Based in Cowes and organised by the Royal Yacht Squadron, the fleet was a hive of activity this morning in anticipation of the day ahead. Sadly the wind had other ideas and by mid morning racing was delayed. Sailors eagerly waited for the building winds that arrived just after lunch, which saw the fleet heading quickly out to the start line. With light winds making conditions tricky, and a fleet of some of the world's best sailors, crews had to work hard to keep their boats performing at their best.

With the first race completed further racing was then cancelled with further light winds forecasted and as the sun goes down here in Cowes crews are enjoying a free beer in the sun, courtesy of Racegeek, ahead of another day of competitive racing tomorrow, hopefully with more wind!

We would like to thank our race day sponsor Hyde Sails for their support of the World Championships! We caught up with their Managing Director, Nigel Grogan, earlier today. Find out what he had to say via our race day highlights video below!

Until tomorrow...

Tasmanian sailors to the fore (from Peter Campbell)

Tasmanian sailors have made a great start to the 2017 SB20 one-design sports boat world championship which began on The Solent off Cowes, England, overnight.

Only one race was sailed because of light winds, with RYCT director Michael Cooper, at the helm of Export Roo, winning the Yellow qualifying fleet. Nick Rogers finished second in the Blue fleet with his new boat Black.

Export Roo wins race 1 on day 1 of the SB20 Worlds at Cowes - photo © Jane Austin

Finishing a close fourth in the Yellow fleet was Difficult Woman, whose skipper Rob Gough recently won the world masters championship in the foiler Moth singlehanded dinghy class.

In seventh place came Porco Rosso, helmed by young Hobart sailor Elliott Noye who finished runner-up in the recent Cowes Week SB20 grand slam.

All four skippers are prominent competitors in Hobart's 45-boat strong SB20 fleet which next January will host the 2018 world championship for this high-performance class.

Because of the size of the fleet (78 boats from ten nations) the host club at Cowes, the famous Royal Yacht Squadron, has split the fleet into two qualifying group.

Seven of the eight Australian boats contesting the worlds have drawn in the same qualifying fleet, just one in the other. Also in the Yellow fleet, Brazen (Jervis Tilly, RSYS) placed 31st, Smigger (Andrew Smith) 28th and Hypertronics (Stephen Catchpool) 31stvin race one.

In overall scoring between the two fleets, Export Roo is sharing first place with British boat Xcellent. Black is equal second with the German entry Give Me Five while Difficult Woman is equal fourth with another UK boat, Uber. Porco Rosso is ranked equal seventh.

Well-known Hobart yachtswoman and RYCT past Rear Commodore Claire Cunningham, a crew member of Difficult Woman, spoke to team press officer Jane Austin after the aborted racing.

"We (Difficult Woman) got a good start...but not as good as Export Crew which started at the pin end and crossed the entire fleet," Claire said.

"We lost a couple of places during the race (to finish fourth) and had a man overboard situation... well not completely.

"We managed to hold onto him and drag him back aboard. It is quite slippery up front and he was rather wet for the rest of the race,'' Claire added.

Results after Day 1: