Carveth goes top at SB3 Worlds - day 3

by Event media on 25 Sep 2008
As the qualification stage of the SB3 World Championships at Dun Laoghaire, Ireland came to a close ‘humbling’ was how some crews described the intensity after day three. Until today, the top contenders may not have been on the same course as their nearest rivals in the overall standings, but with nine races now in the bag, the fleet will divide permanently into its gold and silver halves for five final races on Thursday and Friday.

Positions at the top of the fleet are very close. The leading six boats are covered by ten points with five races still to be sailed. At the top of the table is Geoff Carveth with 31 points. Second is Craig Boulton with 33 points, then Mike Budd 34, Dave Hudson (RSA) 35, Tim Fells 39 and Dave Lenz with 41 points.

The sailing by the leading teams has been of the highest quality in the big fleets. In the 18 races, each sailing nine, none of the leading group has a finishing place worse than a 17 and they have racked up ten wins. Expect to see that consistency maintained over the next two days and who ever blinks will be out of the running

Light shifty airs and grey, overcast skies on Wednesday morning warned of what is to come, with high pressure and even lighter winds set to dominate the last two days of racing.

The racing - day 3

The easterly wind never built above ten knots on Dublin Bay, and Hamble sailor Craig Burlton, overall leader going into Wednesday, said that the lighter conditions would make for unpredictable and open racing for the rest of the event.

'We’re okay in the light stuff,' he said. 'We’ve mainly sailed in heavier breezes this year as a team, but it will open the field up a lot more being lighter breeze, although the breeze so far has been better than the forecast, so fingers crossed.'

Despite posting two fourths today, Burlton could only hang on to second overall, while Geoff Carveth slipped past into the overall lead. Mike Budd, in third overall, rounds out the top three, with GBR sail numbers filling four of the top five slots.

Things could change further, however, as protest hearings are scheduled to stretch long into the night. Thirteen disputes, five of those against the race committee, will be heard before results are made final and the gold and silver fleets are split for once and for all.

Burlton and his crew are one of a handful of boats managing to find consistency in very even conditions, with normally steady performers and the bookies’ hot picks posting wildly erratic results.

'It is pretty tough to find lanes and clear breeze,' said Burlton. 'We’re trying to play the middle of the course but it is pretty tough. The courses are pretty good, some of the lines are a little more biased than we might like, but it’s very tight racing and the [race] committee are doing it very well.'

Irish boats again failed to make a dent in the top ten results overall, but there was a rare Irish one-two in the Orange fleet, with Cork helms Ronan Collins and Aidan O’Connell coming out on top in second race of the day.

'We managed to sail around the people who were around us at the first mark,' said O’Connell. 'I think we would have been four or five around the first mark – and then we were very close to Ronan but he managed to clip us at the end, which was unfortunate, but it was great to see a one-two for the Irish boats in that race.'

Among the other overseas boats, Dave Hudson from South Africa is in fourth place, Daniel Geoghegan of Australia is eighth and Hannes Wairner from the United Arab Emirates is 20th. Caresani Roberto of Italy is 21st, Fernando Belo from Portugal is 27th and Ben Duncan of New Zealand is 31st.

Tomorrow’s racing will be scrutinized further, with GPS trackers on the top 20 boats allowing online spectators follow the racing in real time on www.live-regatta.com.

SB3 World Championship - Leading positions after 9 races, 1 discard (132 entries)

1	GBR	3053	Geoff Carveth	Orange	3	2	-16	8	2	1	1	6	8	47	31	nett pts
2	GBR	3042	Craig Burlton	Orange	1	-17	2	5	1	3	13	4	4	50	33	nett pts
3	GBR	3475	Mike Budd	Blue	3	1	14	1	-17	1	9	2	3	51	34	nett pts
4	RSA	3451	David Hudson	Blue	1	6	4	-17	11	2	1	7	3	52	35	nett pts
5	GBR	3231	Tim Fells	Blue	2	4	1	1	-67	8	7	3	13	106	39	nett pts
6	GBR	3106	David Lenz	Blue	4	-7	7	4	7	5	3	5	6	48	41	nett pts
7	GBR	3082	Mark Richards	Orange	6	3	1	3	-20	2	16	15	1	67	47	nett pts
8	AUS	3469	Daniel Geoghegan	Orange	4	1	5	9	5	-23	4	9	14	74	51	nett pts
9	GBR	3027	Chris Darling	Blue	-27	2	2	2	18	4	2	1	27	85	58	nett pts
10	IRL	3500	Peter Kennedy	Blue	6	5	3	-24	5	15	15	4	11	88	64	nett pts
11	GBR	3467	Mark Rushall	Orange	11	7	4	8	8	11	10	-13	9	81	68	nett pts
12	GBR	3057	Martin Boatman	Orange	12	5	15	3	1	11	6	18	-29	100	71	nett pts
13	IRL	3307	Peter O Leary	Blue	7	3	16	15	2	8	6	-18	14	89	71	nett pts
14	GBR	3517	Colin Simonds	Orange	14	-19	8	7	12	4	17	13	5	99	80	nett pts
15	GBR	3039	Marshal King	Blue	22	-25	22	5	8	10	4	14	2	112	87	nett pts
16	GBR	3152	Guy Jackson	Blue	-35	10	15	11	3	25	14	9	5	127	92	nett pts
17	GBR	3462	Paul Lovejoy	Blue	5	8	6	18	27	-41	8	5	15	133	92	nett pts
18	GBR	3134	Jono Shelley	Orange	8	18	14	6	12	6	15	-22	22	123	101	nett pts
19	GBR	3465	Jerry Hill	Orange	2	6	38	25	9	7	-67	11	4	169	102	nett pts
20	UAE	3360	Hannes Waimer	Blue	17	14	9	13	3	-67	12	20	24	179	112	nett pts
21	ITA	3543	Caresani Roberto	Blue	28	9	11	2	9	16	28	-40	10	153	113	nett pts
22	GBR	3527	Richard Stenhouse	Orange	-67	16	18	11	15	7	15	19	12	180	113	nett pts
23	GBR	3336	Adrian Peach	Orange	10	-28	27	14	6	9	27	16	6	143	115	nett pts
24	GBR	3508	Nick Phillips	Blue	19	11	9	20	18	-30	8	7	26	148	118	nett pts
25	IRL	3281	Sean Craig	Orange	33	25	3	6	4	10	-36	32	7	156	120	nett pts
26	GBR	3546	Richard Catchpole	Orange	13	13	9	21	24	18	-26	17	12	153	127	nett pts
27	POR	3506	Fernando Belo	Orange	24	-26	13	7	13	3	17	26	25	154	128	nett pts
28	GBR	3021	Charlie Whelan	Orange	27	9	28	16	19	21	3	6	-41	170	129	nett pts
29	IRL	3232	Stefan Hyde	Blue	-40	18	35	14	4	20	24	8	11	174	134	nett pts
30	IRL	3551	Ronan Collins	Orange	5	14	7	38	-39	23	22	1	25	174	135	nett pts
31	NZL	3287	Ben Duncan	Orange	9	11	-35	19	17	17	31	29	2	170	135	nett pts
32	GBR	3509	Nico Honor	Blue	16	16	5	22	21	22	11	23	-26	162	136	nett pts
33	GBR	3154	Jeremy Entwistle	Blue	21	27	24	10	16	13	21	-29	13	174	145	nett pts
34	GBR	3060	Stewart Reed	Blue	10	21	18	4	25	26	16	27	-31	178	147	nett pts
35	IRL	3433	Gareth Flannigan	Blue	8	24	12	34	13	-67	26	17	15	216	149	nett pts
36	ITA	3187	Luca Bacci	Blue	-67	28	29	9	16	12	22	12	23	218	151	nett pts
37	GBR	3047	Ben Ainsworth	Orange	16	-67	39	21	26	33	12	10	1	225	158	nett pts
38	GBR	3149	Mark Gillett	Blue	26	15	17	26	10	-35	20	11	33	193	158	nett pts
39	IRL	3501	Emma McDonald	Blue	18	13	13	-67	7	28	23	26	32	227	160	nett pts
40	GBR	3302	Ian Sullivan	Orange	25	-34	6	15	14	30	31	24	19	198	164	nett pts
41	IRL	3279	Aidan O'Connell	Orange	17	28	32	27	-45	16	37	2	7	211	166	nett pts
42	IRL	3240	Ger Owens	Orange	28	23	45	10	-57	34	19	8	8	232	175	nett pts
43	IRL	3324	Kieran Dorgan	Blue	13	29	27	-35	15	29	30	16	17	211	176	nett pts
44	IRL	3322	Robert Cahill	Orange	41	-75	10	35	11	22	20	12	28	254	179	nett pts
45	POR	3256	Peter Stratton	Blue	32	-67	23	26	21	6	33	21	19	248	181	nett pts
46	GBR	3031	Christina Summerhayes	Orange	7	8	19	41	28	19	-49	46	21	238	189	nett pts
47	IRL	3257	Colin Galavan	Orange	19	17	20	-46	25	12	38	30	34	241	195	nett pts
48	GBR	3388	Chris King	Blue	31	23	19	33	31	34	10	-35	18	234	199	nett pts
49	TBA	3542	Kaity Storck	Blue	30	32	30	30	-51	13	35	14	20	255	204	nett pts
50	GBR	3216	Dave Best	Orange	34	-49	49	18	34	29	18	3	24	258	209	nett pts

Full results at www.sb3worlds2008.com