Ex Otters compete in Sydney B14 Worlds 16 Feb 2006

You may never have heard of a B14 although Jamie Mears’ boat has been on view in the Corinthian dinghy park. Its design is based on the popular skiff, sailed largely in Sydney Harbour so it seemed natural for the World Championships to be held there. Jamie and Matt hadn’t sailed together since their Cadet days and it was good to meet up again with Richard Edwards who crewed Jono Hank.

There were ten races scheduled for the meeting but only nine took place. Day Three produced such strong winds that when the fleet eventually started, Jamie lost his mast which just sheered under pressure and the PRO called it a day!

The nine races produced eight different winners. At the end of Day Four Jamie and Matt were more consistent than most and their fifth, first and second places put them in third position overall.

The last race produced so much incident, OCSs and protests that the calculators were needed to sort it all out. The final results were unbelievably close with two points separating the first three places. Jamie and Matt finished in second place to Marr Searle and Andy Ramus from Hayling Island with Jono and Richard in eighth. Congratulations to them.