The Singapore SB20 fleet enjoyed some extremely close racing on Saturday 26th May. The “Sarimbun Series”was purely a SB20 affair on the first day of racing as the bigger boats had all disappeared to koh Samui, taking many of the sailors with them. Supporting the crews were a number of SMU students, which led to the five boats taking part being all fully crewed. The fleet has seen an influx of new sails, and also time spent on cleaning hulls, as owners seek that extra speed advantage.
Racing got underway at 1pm, sharp, in a pleasant 8-10knots, with a strong tide with Jonathan on MenOnPause taking the first bullet of the day, from Bill on Katana,. This race was best forgotten by Su Me, who managed to escape serios damage when they wrapped their spinnaker around one of the marks.. The second race saw Bandit round the first mark in the lead, but some dodgy knots saw the spinnaker fly away from the pole, causing him to loose a number of places, John on Su Me, capitalizing to take the gun followed by Katana. Katana, took the third race, from Chris on Bandit. Race 4 saw the closest racing of the day, with Robin, on Pyxis failing to pull out in time, and impaling Katana – breaking his pole in the process. The final race of the day, with a darkening sky, and thunder and lightning in the background, saw Su Me take first from MenOnPause on second.
The overall standings for the day, saw MenOnPause take first place, on count back Katana, with Su Me in third, Bandit fourth and Pyxis in 5th. A great days sailing was had by all, and was rounded of by some cold beers in the club house. Thanks goto Prakhash for running the racing and providing a fast turnaround for all the races, though he was missed at the post event beers, as he too headed for Koh Samui.
