PBII-Twenty wins the 1st Summer Series at Royal Southern

Written by Mark Gillett, skipper onboard PBII-Twenty

UK class SB20 racing season is in full flight with the 3rd weekend of racing taking place in the Solent as part of the Royal Southern Yacht Club's 1st Summer Series regatta to follow the earlier Spring Championships run across two weekends by the Warsash Sailing Club.

Royal Southern Yacht Club © Paul Wyeth

On PBII-Twenty we had the regular team back on board with Mark Gillett, Paul Hine and Richard Anderton. After a tough battle won by Breaking Bod in the Spring Champs, this May weekend was the Southern Areas Championships and our target was to beat Breaking Bod and use the event for tuning ahead of a busy SB20 season with plenty of travelling events to the North Sea!

With light breezes and sunshine forecast this past weekend there was always a chance of a sea breeze build. Saturday saw the breeze build after a delay for lunch, with a nice shifty southerly and cross tide making the course on Day 1 a good challenge with an extra long start line making the bias and first beat strategy critical to get right. Taking plenty of shifts on the beats and keeping a close cover was the game plan on Day 1, with us taking 2nd place in every race on PBII-Twenty after some very close tussle's with different boats all leading at various points in each race.

It was great to have the Neilson brothers travel down from Cumbria to join the south coast fleets and they were sailing fast at the front with some strong tactical decisions and upwind pace. Breaking Bod of Charlie Whelan and Richard McAdam with guest sailor  onboard - Andrew Dowley from UK SB20 dealer Sailing Chandlery - led overnight by 1 point so lots to fight for on Day 2 of racing.

Selfie onboard Breaking Bod

Sunday dawned cloudy and the northerly breeze vanished as the sun came out, to be replaced by a shifty south westerly of 7-9 knots to enable the race officer to run 3 more races. First race was won by the Neilson's after a great battle with PBII-Twenty who snuck by on the final run to be overtaken at the final gybe mark as the Neilson's nailed their final approach to the mark to stay clear by 0.5m as the 3 boat lengths circle.... well done, lads! For the last 2 races PBII-Twenty had to stay ahead of Breaking Bod in both races to take the overall win.

Plenty of lead swapping ensued with PBII-Twenty taking the lead in Race 2, before getting a nice start in Race 3 and nailing the first two shifts on the first beat to grab a nice lead around the top marks to comfortably take the win in Race 3 on Sunday.

Overall PBII-Twenty in first place followed by Breaking Bod in second and the Neilson's sailed well to take the third. Perfect conditions for extremely close racing, and the SB20s look forward to joining the Royal Thames Yacht Club's 250th Anniversary Regatta from Cowes in June before travelling to Weymouth for the UK National Championships in July. PBII-Twenty will then travel across to Belgium for the pre-event and then European Championships in August before continuing up to Holland for the Dutch event in September. Join us this season for close battles on the water!

Next Summer Series event at Royal Southern YC is coming up on 20th to 22nd June and bring back the Royal Southern Mid-Summer Regatta. This is gearing up to be the centrepiece of the Summer Series, and the biggest event RSYC are hosting in 2025. Sponsored by Key Yachting and, this event will see a record nine classes competing.

Click here for the overall results of the 1st Summer Series.