Tasmanian crew’s giant-killing run to win SB20 world title

World champions: Hobart’s Will Sargent, Eirini Marios and Eddie Reid have done what Australian sailing royalty could not.

Young Tasmanian sailors Will Sargent (skipper), Eirini Marios and Eddie Reid along with Newcastle sailor Paige Caldecoat made sailing history by winning the 2023 SB20 World Championship in the final race in The Netherlands.

Team Ares is the first Australian team to win the title and to win back-to-back SB20 Youth world titles as well, finishing 12 points in front of runners-up, Another Affair (Tiago Marais, Portugal) and the GBR team, Xcellent (John Pollard).

Tasmanian skipper Will Sargent helms Ares to victory at the SB20 world championships in The Netherlands. Picture Laurens Morel

Olympians Tom Slingsby, Sargent’s long-time hero, Ian Brown, Nathan Outteridge and Glenn Bourke have all come close, but it took the young guns from Tasmania to finally bring the coveted Waterford crystal trophy to Australian shores.

Hobart’s Eddie Reid, Paige Caldecoat, of Newcastle, and Eirini Marios and skipper Will Sargent, also of Hobart, with their world championship prize. Picture Laurens Morel.jpg

It was a tense last day of racing for the 50-strong sportsboat fleet sailing from the Scheveningen Yacht Club in The Hague. The Race Committee brought forward the start time but a deep sea fog, patchy wind and a pressure front passing the Belgian coast saw a two hour postponement to racing and only one race sailed.

With three race wins under their belt and a four-point lead, Team Ares was in the box seat on the final day but knew they would be under pressure from the French youth team, skippered by Ange Declerce and Another Affair, who had led the regatta for two of the five days.

Sailing on the North Sea proved challenging for the fleet with the three-knot current pushing the teams onto the start line. This proved costly for the French Youth team, which was black-flagged, alongside a second French team, after the first upwind leg with both disqualified from the race.

Team Ares and Another Affair were involved in an incident at the bottom mark with the Portuguese copping a penalty from the on-water jury, which was enough breathing space for Team Ares to chase down the fleet to finish in fifth place and take the world titles.

Australian team Porco Rosso, skippered by Hobart eye surgeon Paul McCartney, with Sydney’s David Chapman and the UK’s Cameron Tweedle, negotiated the tricky conditions well, winning the last race and finishing in eighth place overall.

Tasmanian yacht Ares, skippered by Will Sargent, on its way to winning the SB20 world championship in The Netherlands. Picture Laurens Morel

Success is coming thick and fast in 2023 for Sargent and Caldecoat, both members of the Australian Sailing Futures Program (Laser class), with Sargent adding the SB20 Open and Youth world titles to his back-to-back Hardy Cup Sydney International Match Racing title which he won in Sydney earlier this year.

23-year-old Sargent, from the Derwent Sailing Squadron and a member of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Sailing Academy, reflected on his team’s history-making win.

“I first and foremost want to thank my team –– they have made me look like a superstar but all I did was steer straight – they got me round the course – [they] are the best team in the world.”

SB20 Class World and Australian President Scott Glanville from Hobart was elated by their victory.

“This win is fantastic for SB20 sailing in Australia and here in Tasmania. Australia has come close to winning with Tasmanian sailors Andrew Smith and Michael Cooper both on the podium in Hyeres and Cowes, but it was the young Team Ares that finally took the title.

“Will’s success augurs well for the strength of the local Tasmanian SB20 fleet who will be keen to keep him on his toes in the upcoming sailing season. We know he’s very hard to beat but we will be trying. And having the world’s focus on the SB20 talent in Australia places us in a good position to pitch for another SB20 world championship event in 2027 or 2028,” said Glanville.

Sargent now heads to Belgium to train 25 female SB20 Belgian sailors before the 2023 Australian Youth Match Racing Championship in Perth in early July.

Portugal won the Nation’s Cup while runner-up Another Affair took out the Corinthian title. RSZV (Donna-Tinke Huijsmans) from the Netherlands won the Women’s title while GBR’s PB11 Twenty (Marl Gillett) won the Masters title.

Originally published as Tasmanian crew’s giant-killing run to win SB20 world title