Singapore team takes part in 2018 SB20 Asian Grand Slam Championships

The 2018 SB20 Asian Grand Slam Championships was a great event and a real challenge in many ways.  After winning the SB20 Western Circuit last year, our SEA Service Manager Tony Holman was more than confidant of great results. He relates his experience: “The Practice race on the first day was a good tester to see what the level of completion we had, after leading the fleet to the windward mark was a great start the event. However, the success was not to last!

The next 3 days blow a hard constant 20/27knots of wind, my favourite conditions. We were changing positions from top 4 to mid-fleet constantly. To windward we held steady boat speed and pointed well but down wind it was a different matter for the whole fleet, with the very large asymmetric mast head spinnakers they become very powerful reaching speeds of over 20 knots. As did the rest of the fleet, we suffered some extreme broaches when going through jibes, at one point throwing us all out of the boat and having to swim after it (and still finished the race).

On the second day of the event, we suffered some major equipment failures, during one of the downwind blasts our carbon fibre spinnaker pole exploded like a bomb during a strong gust! I looked behind me and saw two other boats had been dis-masted, another with a snapped rudder, at this point we decided to get our boat fixed overnight and carry on racing the next day.

We had a mid fleet result out of 28 boats, however we had a lot of fun and it was nice to race against some of our clients and enjoy the evening entertainment with some of our clients with smaller yachts”

Its all about the fun anyway, so well done to Tony and his team! If you would like to enjoy our local Singapore events with us, please get in touch at Singapore@simpsonmarine.com