SB20 sportsboat set for a new lease of life with Devoti Sailing
by Devoti Sailing 22 Jul 2024 11:29 PDT
Tight mark rounding in highly competitive international championships © Jane Austin
The SB20 class is set for a revival and a revamp with Devoti Sailing taking over the build of this popular 21st century sportsboat. Even more than 20 years after designer Tony Castro launched the SB20 (formerly known as the SB3) into the market, the asymmetrically powered sports boat looks bang up to date.
Now that Castro has appointed the new builder, Devoti Sailing will work hard to promote the class internationally and be involved in all aspects of the management and manufacture of this well-proven sports boat.
The existing SB20 dealers will now be complemented by the Devoti worldwide dealer network to build the fleet and provide a comprehensive after-sales service. A new Sport Boat Management group will be formed with its base at Devoti HQ in Valencia, Spain. This venue will also serve as an ideal location for annual events and a European training hub for all SB20 customers.
Chris Caldecoat, Director at Devoti Sailing believes the boat's best years are yet to come. "The promise of quality new boats, a steady supply of spares, as well as technical support means the SB20 will continue to provide cost-effective, international one-design competitive sailing for a long time to come," he said.
"The SB20 has always been a beautiful boat to sail, and the ability to race with three or four on a team gives you lots of options for how best to handle the boat around the race track," said Caldecoat. "We've spoken to a number of owners, past and present, about what they like best about the SB20 and what they'd like to change, and there are some clear upgrades that we're looking forward to making to the boat.
"Obviously it's also super-important we don't make the existing boats obsolete, but we're really looking forward to announcing the changes to the boat because we believe we can get the SB20 back to the high numbers it was experiencing 15 or more years ago when it first burst on to the scene."
Under the guidance of Olympic silver medallist and America's Cup campaigner Luca Devoti, the boatbuilder Devoti Sailing has earned itself a strong reputation for consistently high-quality construction of racing dinghies and sports boats including Melges 24s, 470s, Optimists, D-one and D-Zero dinghies as well as the Finn where Devoti boats won every Olympic and World Championship medal for more than 20 years.
"Even now the Finn is no longer in the Olympics we're still delivering 40 to 60 boats a year because the Masters scene is so strong in the Finn," said Caldecoat. "And our boats are now well established in the Olympic ILCA circuit, including supplying the whole men's fleet at the 2023 Sailing World Championships at The Hague, the first Olympic qualifier for 2024."
Caldecoat is looking forwarding to building and promoting the SB20. "I've got a huge passion for small keelboats," he said, "so the team at Devoti Sailing are really excited to get stuck into building our first SB20s and help breathe a new lease of life into what is still a really fresh boat." With planing speeds of up to 20 knots downwind, in performance terms the SB20 has the measure of pretty much any other modern sports boat, and it's also much more affordable than its closest rivals.
To find out more about future plans for the SB20, go to: devotisailing.com