More Races Planned in New Format SB20 Eastern Championships at Royal St. George Yacht Club

15th May 2023

SB20 sportsboats will compete for Eastern Championships honours this weekend on Dublin Bay in a new format event at the Royal St. George Yacht Club Credit: Afloat

Fifteen SB20s are expected to be on the Dublin Bay startline for next weekend's Eastern Championships, which will experiment with a change of race format in the sportsboat class.

The Royal St. George Yacht Club hosted event will see shorter courses and more races – up to ten more – subject to time constraints.

"The courses will be tweaked for flexibility to run one, two or three rounds with a time deadline of 20 to 30 minutes per race", RStGYC Race Officer Barry O'Neill told Afloat.

As regular Afloat readers know, Irish SB20 fans got an early season boost with the news that leading boat TED were runners-up in the Cascais Grand Slam in Portugal this month.

While TED is now in transit to the Worlds in Holland, the crew of Michael O'Connor, David Taylor, and Ed Cook will still compete this weekend on home waters in a second boat, 'Ted Blue'.

April's runaway winners of the Northern Championships at Lough Ree were the Gold Digger crew from Royal Cork Yacht Club, of Mel Collins, Donie Hegarty, and owner Aidan MacSweeney and they are expected to be in Dun Laoghaire.

Also on the form is Richard Hayes, who leads the local DBSC club racing with five wins from six races this season in the AIB summer Saturday Series.

Published in SB20, RStGYC

Published in SB20

Tagged under

Royal St George Yacht Cub

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SB20 (formerly Laser SB3) information

Designed by Tony Castro, the SB20 is a British-built strict one-design 6.15m keelboat conceived as a wide appeal, affordable, competitive sportsboat for teams of three or four sailors. It is also, arguably, the most successful sportsboat in the world with 800 owners competing regularly in a programme of exciting local, national and international events.

Originally known as the Laser SB3, the SB20 continues to deliver on its pioneering promise: a boat that is fun, fast and easy to sail by anyone of any age; the best value-for-money sportsboat in the market.

The Laser SB3 was designed by Castro and launched in 2002. In 2007 the Laser SB3 was awarded ISAF Recognised Status and the first World Championships were held in Ireland in 2008. In 2012, Tony Castro appointed a new builder, Sportsboat World. At this time, the Laser SB3 was renamed the SB20 and building was returned to the UK from Malaysia. The ethos of the class continues.

The boat is a strict one-design class, economic to buy and campaign, easy to sail with a simple deck layout and electric downwind performance delivered by the generous sail plan. The boat has a lifting keel, can easily be launched from a slipway and towed behind a family car.

Previous SB20 World Champions

2008 GBR: Geoff Carveth, Roger Gilbert, Roz Allen & Sarah Allan

Host National Yacht Club, Dun laoghaire, Ireland

2009 GBR: Craig Burlton, Stephen White, Adam Heeley

Host Clube Naval de Cascais, Cascais, Portugal

2010 GBR: Jerry Hill, Grant Rollerson, Joe Llewellyn

Host Circolo Vela Torbole, Lake Garda, Italy

2011 GBR: Geoff Carveth, Andy Ramus, Ian Mills & Emma Clarke

Host Royal Torbay Yacht Club, Torquay, UK

2012 GBR: Geoff Carveth, Lesley Dhonau, Roger Hudson & Asenathi Jim

Host Hamilton Island Yacht Club, Queensland, Australia

2013 GRB: Craig Burlton, Stephen White, Adam Heley Host COYCH Club, Hyeres, France