SB3's race in Sydney for the first time!

SB3’s are already beginning to arrive in Sydney for the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta on 1st and 2nd March. Teams are trying to keep their training secret as the racing at the inaugural SB3 national championships held during Skandia Geelong Week was so close. Sailors are now focusing on trying to get the upper hand as the fleet in Geelong was often only separated by seconds at the finish.

Early front runners include:

‘Green Machine’
Former Australian Sabot champion Sean O’Rourke has good reason to be excited about his future career in one design fleet racing and the highly competitive IRC class ocean racing. The exceptionally talented Mooloolaba Yacht Club sailor who added the Audi Australian IRC championship to his impressive career as a member of the Rod Jones skippered OceanBuro crew has already shown he can race with the best in the Dart SB3.

‘Team Ocean’s 11’
Skippered by Kai Timm, tactician, top sailing coach and distributor for the SB3 in Australia has sharpened his teeth well before the event. Timm said “We are using this as a training event for the Worlds in Ireland”

‘RGYC1’
Skippered by Brendan Garner, this top Melbourne based sailor just missed out on the top spot at the nationals after a lost protest. Brendan is probably regarded as the man to beat, but he will have his work cut out if he wants to walk away as the winner.

‘Wagop
Skippered by Mike Mclean. If Wagop can produce the same level of performance as they did on the first day of the nationals expect to see them close to the front!


Also in the mix will be the Newcastle fleet of SB3’s sporting their Star Wars names. Rod Jones, Distributor and director of Oceanburo, said “I was delighted to be part of the SB3 event in Geelong and I am excited about the sailors visiting Sydney, which is truly a great venue for this boat; I only wish I was racing!”
Another great event for the SB3.
Everyone is getting onboard! Are you?
To find out more about the Dart SB3, please contact:
Dartsailboats Oceanburo
Tel: +61 (0)3 9016 4151 Tel: +61 (0)404 094244
Email: info@dartsailboats.com Email: kaitimm@oceanburo.com.au
www.dartsailboats.com www.oceanburo.com.au

Star Wars fans have a new reason to celebrate

Star Wars fans have a new reason to celebrate. Newcastle Yachting is busily gathering Dart SB3s together for a corporate racing program and a Star Wars naming craze has hit the fleet. Expect to see ‘Dart Vader’ taking on ‘The Force’ with ‘R2D2’ and ‘SB3PO’ carving up the waters of Newcastle Harbour. The good news is that all the best names aren’t taken…yet. It’s only a matter of time before a Luke Skywalker, Jabba the Hutt or Princess Leia inspired Dart SB3 takes to the water.

Newcastle Yachting is currently trialling their Dart fleet every Thursday from about 5pm on Newcastle Harbour with a formal racing program still in the pipeline. They joke that people are walking out of their waterfront offices, throwing off their suits and hopping on a boat. If you’d like to join the fun ring Newcastle Yachting on (02) 4962 5288 or flick an email to sales@newcastleyachting.com.au

‘We’re always open for people to crew either on our club racing or in the SB3s. With the SB3s they’re sometimes looking for some rather light people’ commented Newcastle Yachting’s business manager Elizabeth Kuruilaca.

Well known Newcastle business identities Scott Walkom, of Walkom Real Estate, and Mark Prince of MAP projects are both proud Dart SB3 converts and it is likely that other business people and corporate entities will follow suit. Businesses will be able to advertise on the hulls and kites with plans to set up a live video link so that harbourside spectators can enjoy the racing.

Prince started the Star Wars naming craze after one of his young children thought that Dart sounded like Darth, as in Darth Vader.

‘Mark has got young children so it was ‘Dart Vader.Yeah!’

Dart Vader recently competed in inaugural national championships at Skandia Race Week, Geelong and placed 11th overall.


Recognising the Dart SB3’s potential for fun club racing, Newcastle Yachting started selling the boats alongside their well known Archambault and Jeanneau brands. The first Dart arrived late last year and immediately attracted the attention of punters looking for the convenience of a trailerable yacht coupled with the performance of a sportsboat.

What’s good about the 20 foot Dart SB3s is how easy they are to rig, tow and pop in the water: the manufacturers say that you can be rigged and ready to go within 30 minutes of arriving at your venue. Obviously the time it takes to get a sailing boat ready to go is one of the small but significant factors which impacts on the enjoyment a man or woman gets out of their vessel.

A boat that is always ready to go at a moments notice means that the average owner will spend more time on the water and less on the couch thinking about sailing.

Another common problem that the Dart SB3s solve is the need to round up a large crew. Many keel boat owners find that assembling a crew can be like getting cats to march in formation, it’s even more difficult if you insist on having skilled people on board, and once you’ve trained someone up it’s more than likely that they’ll be poached by another skipper or buy their own boat. Dart SB3s only need three people on board so skippers will not be spending their Saturday mornings on the mobile asking absent crew ‘where are you?’

The strict one design limitations and no hiking rule mean that the Dart breed is popular with older sailors and those wanting serious competition on a budget. These restrictions help level the playing field and mean that teamwork, sail handling and tactics come to the fore. Winning doesn’t rely so much on athleticism and a high budget, whereas cunning and experience will help get you across the line.


‘The Dart SB3s are a very clever design because they cater for the broadest cross section of the sailing market of any boat I’ve ever sailed’ observed Newcastle Yachting broker Glenn Coulton. ‘They have a performance component to the boat: downwind they’ll go quite hard.’

‘There’s a no hiking rule so therefore it takes out that component of having to be fit, young and athletic to perform and to compete well in the class. They’re a very well ballasted boat: they have almost a 60% ballast ratio which means they’re very stable.’

‘Yet you turn the corner and put the asymmetrical spinnaker up in above 10-12 knots and they’ll be planing.’

First Volvo Laser SB3 Middle East Grand Prix outside the U.A.E.

The city of Muscat played host to the fourth round of the Volvo Laser SB3 Middle East Grand Prix which took place from Jan. 25th -26th in the waters near the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa.
Eight boats, two of them with Oman-based crews, had to manage the Grand Prix’s most difficult and stormy weather conditions so far. On the first day, twenty knots of wind and rough seas pushed crews and equipment to their limit. Luckily, some of the teams spent the previous weekend training in high winds with Colin Simonds in Dubai. Colin, 3rd at this year’s Cowes Week in the SB3, aided Jonathan Hill’s Team during the weekend to give them two first’s on Friday. Also putting in a good first day performance was Markus Fiala with all results within the top three. Following closely was Team Premier Composites, the only team to beat Jonathan Hill on the first day. Although only stepping on an SB3 for the first time the day before, one of the Omani teams skippered by Fran2 van Beek managed a respectable performance with a third place in the first race.
The second day began much calmer with clear skies and a lighter breeze. This allowed for much closer tactical racing in the first race. The second race however saw the winds increase dramatically with 15-18 knots. This made an thrilling finish to the last two races, even creating the first “man over board” situation of the series: thanks to the experienced crew on board Men On Pause, the incident ended quickly and safely. Even the increasing wind strength in the last race could not deter Team MacLaren, the all female team, from clearly winning their first race, which proves “girls can do it”.
In the end, the third place of this exciting racing weekend went to Team Premier Composites, second was Markus Fiala on Petit Tazo and the overall winners of the fourth round of the Volvo Laser SB3 Middle East Grand Prix were Men On Pause skippered by Jonathan Hill.
To further develop sailing in the Oman, the whole event was enthusiastically being supported by the Ministry of Sports Affairs, Sultanate of Oman (Mr. Mohammed Bin Ahmed Al-amri and Mr. Saif Al –Shibli), the Marina Bandar Al-Rowdha (Mr. Bob Looker), the Ras al-Hamra PDO Recreational Centre( Mr. Tony VanThiel) and the Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa.