Preview: B14 World Championships on the Derwent - 5 January 2009

7:47 AM Mon 5 Jan 2009 GMT

'B14s in action' Steve Arkley

Hobart's Derwent River will be host to an intense clash between 100 Australian and British sailors when the 2009 World Championship for the B14 class gets underway tomorrow on Tuesday Jan 5, 2009.

More than 50 B14s, including 11 from the UK, will contest the eight race regatta hosted by the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania on mid-river courses.

A scaled down 18-foot skiff, the B14 is the fastest two-person 'body-swung' sailing boat in the world. Hiking from wide wings, rather than trapezes, the B14 can blast along at 20 knots under its 50 square metres of downwind sail area.

Designed by Australian Julian Bethwaite, creator of the Olympic 49-er class, the B14 is raced in on Sydney Harbour, Canberra's Lake Burley-Griffin, McRae in Victoria and at various Tasmanian clubs, including the RYCT, Deviot, Mersey, Tamar, Midway Point and Kingston Beach sailing clubs.

The class is largely popular with family crews, including husbands and wives, fathers and sons/daughters, and brother/sister combinations, but success requires top team work and sailing skills.

Australian competitors are confident of being able to beat the strong UK contingent following the Australian Championship which ended on Sunday.

While not eligible for the Australian title, most of the visiting crews competed with the top UK crew of Mark Barnes and Peter Nicholson, sailing Searevolution from Whitstable Sailing Club, finishing at the top of the unofficial overall pointscore.

The 2009 Australian champions are Guy Bancroft and Nick Darlow, sailing Sly Bone from McRae Yacht Club on Melbourne's Port Phillip who clinched victory with a consistent series of 1-3-5-3-4-4-1-3 scorecard to finish on 18 points.

Second on 26 points was Pig's Arse, sailed by Nick Richardson and Alan Nicholson from Wynyard Yacht Club in north-west Tasmania, with a scorecard of 2-7-2-3-7-9-5. Richardson won the B14 Nationals two years ago, but is sailing with a new crew in this year's championship regatta.

Third place went to bangbang (Kieran Livermore and Jonathan Branch) from Woollahra Sailing Club on 31 points after being black flagged in the final heat on Sunday.

Guy Bancroft's son, Rhys, sailing with Joey Randall as crew on Bonework, placed fourth overall on 34 points after beating his father in the final heat in a close family duel..

Best placed Hobart entrants in the Australian Championship were two RYCT crews, Adrian Beswick and Josh Phillips who placed ninth with Strait4devils Budget, Simon Morgan and Drew Latham, who placed 10th in Aviva, and Buggar The Bone, sailed byRichard Fisher and Stuart McDonnell from the Port Dalrymple/Tamar Yacht Club fleet, who placed 11th.

by Peter Campbell

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Preview: B14 World Championships on the Derwent - 5 January 2009

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