Tassie sailors survive as wind batters fleet

TASMANIA’S SB20 teams survived a day of mayhem on the second day of the SB20 world championship in France.

After a general recall, the fleet got away in a warm 8-10 knot NNE breeze with the fleet favouring the left-hand side of the course, closer to the shore.

On the first downwind run the wind speed intensified causing carnage on the water with initially 20 knots, then building to 30 knots by the time they finished.

The race saw three boats dismasted, a collision, numerous broaches, spinnakers shredded, retirements and one man-overboard incident, with a successful rescue by another competitor.

The race was won by UK boat Breaking Bod (Charlie Whelan), moving them into third position, however, the Tasmanians survived a few hairy moments to move up the leaderboard.

The Imp, helmed by Andrew Smith with David Chapman and Lewis Noye, felt they had some luck on the weatheraffected course.

“Yesterday’s race was intense, we rounded the top mark the first time in the 40s [in the 65-boat fleet], and with a penalty turn, a difficult hoist with the kite in the water, and a wipeout on the final run, we were lucky to get back into 10th place,” Smith said.

The French are leading the regatta with Give Me Five FFV Youth (Robin Follin) on four points from the Russian B-Team (Aleksey Lesnikov) on six points and Breaking Bod on nine points.

The Imp is in fifth place on 15 points, with fellow Tasmanian Aeolus (Brett Cooper, Darren Jones and Jock Calvert) sixth overall on 15 points.

Tasmania’s Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye, Paul McCartney and Ed Snowball) is in eighth place on 22 points.

Tasmania’s all female-youth team, Essence of Athena, retired from the second race and are now in 44th place on 85 points.