Tassie crew hits lead in England

TASMANIAN yachtsman Michael Cooper and his crew of David Chapman and Gerry Mitchell have sailed Export Roo to an overall lead after two days of frustrating competition at the SB20 world championship in England.

So far racing has been limited to just one race each day because of light winds on The Solent, the famous stretch of water between the English south coast and the Isle of Wight.

Export Roo won its first race on Tuesday and placed third yesterday in the Yellow qualifying division.

This has lifted the Tasmanians from equal first to a clear margin of three points from Xcellent.

The champion British yacht won the Blue division on day one but finished sixth on day two.

Fellow Tasmanian Nick Rogers and his crew of Robert Jeffreys and Andrew Roberts, sailing Black, are seventh overall with a second on day one but 10th overnight in the Blue division.

An Australian boat won the Blue division race two, victory going to Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron entrant Brazen, skippered by Jervis Tilly.

Brazen finished 16th in race one and is now 12th overall.

Difficult Woman (Rob Gough) slipped down the standings yesterday, finishing 13th after an opening race fourth and is now 14th overall.

In other race two results Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye) finished 11th in the Yellow fleet to be 16th overall.

Smigger (Andew Smith) is 52nd overall, Hypertronics (Stephen Catchpool) 57th in the 71 boat fleet.

Because of the size of the fleet (71 boats from 10 nations) the host club at Cowes, the famous Royal Yacht Squadron, has split the fleet into two qualifying groups.