Hayling Island sailors win SB3 World title

by Kate Ashworth on 29 Sep 2008
Geoff Carveth and his Hayling Island crew of Roger Gilbert, Sarah Allan and Roz Allen have been crowned champions at the inaugural Laser SB3 World Championships in Dun Laoghaire after a high-pressure finish in Dublin Bay. After an early dogfight with his closest rivals in the final race, Carveth pulled off a stunning comeback from the bottom half of the fleet to finish second and take the world title.

As far as World Championships go, it was a stunning debut for the Laser SB3 class, a week of blissful weather finishing in a nail-biting climax during the final race.

First race of the day went to an Irish skipper, Peter O’Leary, who would finish top Irish boat in eighth overall.

Then, as the thirteenth race of the series loomed, the overnight leader, Craig Burlton, saw his luck turn when a disastrous 58th place put him twelve points adrift of the lead and out of the reckoning heading into the final two races.

As the countdown began, the top three were gunning for each other and ended up way down the pecking order after hawkish pre-start combat. Carveth, who led by two points going into the last race, describes how the final race played out:

'David Hudson was in the picture and Dave Lenz put a first in during the morning race which then meant he became very strong, and he became the main issue. He was definitely the man we had to worry about. 'We all had a pretty bad start, then we did a 360-degree penalty, and of course that put us that bit further behind.'

'We got to the top mark in the thirties, pretty deep, but David wasn’t that far ahead of us and then Dave Lenz was behind us. That first downwind leg, we were the first boat to go high and hot, and we went from 30th to sixth on that downwind leg, and that was it then, we knew we were safe, as safe could be, as long as we didn’t make silly mistakes.'

Carveth, finishing second, put more distance between himself and Lenz, who finished 28th, and with Dave Hudson six back in eighth place, the title looked to be theirs.

However, with several boats being caught for false starts during the week, the champagne was put on ice on Carveth’s boat and celebrations were muted.

'Although we were aware that we could win, there was also another eight people that could win this morning,' said Carveth, which meant that calculating the points made for mixed emotions. 'Absolute relief, and joy, but as soon as we crossed the line it wasn’t like ‘Woo hoo!’, it was more ‘Let’s just think about this’, what if we were black flagged, what if, what if?'

By the time Carveth came on shore, however, his name was already being etched on the trophy.

'We’re absolutely over the moon about it,' said Carveth, paying tribute to his crew, who all fly off with him to another event which starts in England on Saturday morning. 'It’s really been a massive team effort. Roger Gilbert, who’s been pointing us around the course, is something else to sail with. I have to give him and the girls a lot of the credit.'

Silver fleet glory goes to Ireland, with John Driscoll’s crew taking the overall win.

And as celebrations kick off, the National Yacht Club can put a feather in its cap for having hosted the most smoothly-run event in the country this year.

SB3 Worlds - Gold fleet - Final overall positions

1	GBR	3053	Geoff Carveth	3	2	-16	8	2	1	1	6	8	9	-14	8	2	2	82	52	pts
2	RSA	3451	David Hudson	1	6	4	-17	11	2	1	7	3	-18	11	12	3	8	104	69	pts
3	GBR	3106	David Lenz	4	-7	7	4	7	5	3	5	6	-32	8	2	1	28	119	80	pts
4	GBR	3042	Craig Burlton	1	-17	2	5	1	3	13	4	4	25	2	-58	10	10	155	80	pts
5	GBR	3231	Tim Fells	2	4	1	1	-67	8	7	3	13	21	13	-27	5	3	175	81	pts
6	GBR	3465	Jerry Hill	2	6	-38	25	9	7	8	11	4	6	1	7	-27	5	156	91	pts
7	AUS	3469	Daniel Geoghegan	4	1	5	9	5	-23	4	9	14	13	21	-24	6	6	144	97	pts
8	IRL	3307	Peter O Leary	7	3	16	15	2	8	6	-18	14	2	12	1	-17	13	134	99	pts
9	GBR	3082	Mark Richards	6	3	1	3	-20	2	17	16	1	7	31	-42	8	9	166	104	pts
10	GBR	3475	Mike Budd	3	1	14	1	-17	1	9	2	3	20	-42	21	4	26	164	105	pts
11	GBR	3057	Martin Boatman	12	5	15	3	1	11	6	19	-29	-39	5	9	23	19	196	128	pts
12	GBR	3517	Colin Simonds	14	-19	8	7	12	4	18	13	5	27	-67	5	18	1	218	132	pts
13	IRL	3500	Peter Kennedy	6	5	3	24	5	15	16	4	-44	8	20	18	13	-38	219	137	pts
14	GBR	3152	Guy Jackson	-35	10	15	11	3	25	14	9	5	-31	30	15	7	16	226	160	pts
15	GBR	3134	Jono Shelley	8	18	14	6	12	6	2	-23	22	14	16	-48	29	15	233	162	pts
16	UAE	3360	Hannes Waimer	17	14	9	13	3	-67	13	21	24	17	9	4	20	-31	262	164	pts
17	GBR	3027	Chris Darling	-27	2	2	2	18	4	2	1	27	16	34	38	-43	23	239	169	pts
18	GBR	3039	Marshal King	22	-25	22	5	8	10	4	14	2	-49	10	11	42	24	248	174	pts
19	GBR	3467	Mark Rushall	11	7	4	8	8	11	10	-13	9	-47	22	28	28	36	242	182	pts
20	GBR	3508	Nick Phillips	19	11	9	20	18	-31	8	7	26	44	-57	10	14	7	281	193	pts
21	IRL	3433	Gareth Flannigan	8	24	12	-34	13	-67	25	17	15	3	28	6	34	21	307	206	pts
22	ITA	3543	Caresani Roberto	28	9	11	2	9	16	27	-40	10	-53	47	3	31	17	303	210	pts
23	GBR	3527	Richard Stenhouse	( )	16	18	11	15	7	15	19	12	36	4	20	38	-45	323	211	pts
24	GBR	3509	Nico Honor	16	16	5	22	21	22	12	24	-26	1	7	22	-54	46	294	214	pts
25	IRL	3281	Sean Craig	33	25	3	6	4	10	-35	32	7	37	3	43	-58	22	318	225	pts
26	IRL	3279	Aidan O'Connell	17	28	32	27	-45	16	-38	2	7	5	38	17	25	12	309	226	pts
27	GBR	3546	Richard Catchpole	13	13	9	21	24	18	-27	18	12	26	36	30	9	-40	296	229	pts
28	POR	3506	Fernando Belo	24	-26	13	7	13	3	17	26	25	-63	51	13	37	4	322	233	pts
29	FRA	3024	Luc Videau	39	-67	-67	13	38	18	11	33	16	11	19	26	12	25	395	261	pts
30	GBR	3302	Ian Sullivan	25	-34	6	15	14	30	32	25	19	34	26	-67	24	14	365	264	pts
31	GBR	3149	Mark Gillett	26	15	17	26	10	-35	20	11	33	24	24	19	-49	43	352	268	pts
32	GBR	3031	Christina Summerhayes	7	8	19	41	28	19	-48	46	21	15	-53	16	22	29	372	271	pts
33	POR	3256	Peter Stratton	32	-67	23	26	21	6	32	21	19	23	17	-62	35	18	402	273	pts
34	GBR	3336	Adrian Peach	10	-28	27	14	6	9	28	17	6	46	-59	37	30	44	361	274	pts
35	NZL	3287	Ben Duncan	9	11	-35	19	17	17	32	29	2	40	-61	14	36	49	371	275	pts
36	GBR	3021	Charlie Whelan	27	9	28	16	19	21	3	6	-41	39	60	33	15	-67	384	276	pts
37	IRL	3232	Stefan Hyde	-40	18	35	14	4	20	23	8	11	41	52	-67	16	34	383	276	pts
38	GBR	3462	Paul Lovejoy	5	8	6	18	27	-41	9	5	15	45	35	49	57	-61	381	279	pts
39	IRL	3490	Daragh Sheridan	-53	22	37	33	6	5	31	15	30	-42	29	31	32	27	393	298	pts
40	GBR	3047	Ben Ainsworth	16	( )	39	21	26	33	12	10	1	19	44	-60	44	37	429	302	pts
41	IRL	3551	Ronan Collins	5	14	7	38	-39	23	23	1	25	35	33	51	51	-55	400	306	pts
42	IRL	3283	Gordon Patterson	12	-67	31	31	10	-67	26	23	30	12	6	39	56	33	443	309	pts
43	IRL	3240	Ger Owens	28	23	45	10	-57	34	20	8	8	4	40	52	40	-67	436	312	pts
44	IRL	3501	Emma McDonald	18	13	13	-67	7	28	24	-67	32	30	37	23	53	35	447	313	pts
45	ITA	3187	Luca Bacci	-67	28	29	9	16	12	-67	12	23	10	54	59	60	20	466	332	pts
46	IRL	3257	Colin Galavan	19	17	20	-46	25	12	39	30	34	-51	46	25	26	41	431	334	pts
47	GBR	3060	Stewart Reed	10	21	18	4	25	26	16	27	-31	55	49	34	52	-67	435	337	pts
48	GBR	3154	Jeremy Entwistle	21	27	24	10	16	13	21	-29	13	-64	62	40	50	48	438	345	pts
49	GBR	3292	Scott Graham	38	27	34	29	14	25	22	-44	39	-65	15	57	21	30	460	351	pts
50	GBR	3081	Jonno Brech	18	41	-53	30	27	17	19	37	20	29	23	46	46	-55	461	353	pts
51	GBR	3216	Dave Best	35	49	-50	18	34	30	18	3	24	60	18	-67	11	59	476	359	pts
52	GBR	3038	Duncan Pryde	21	-53	25	39	29	14	23	34	36	54	-55	32	19	39	473	365	pts
53	IRL	3322	Robert Cahill	42	-67	10	35	11	22	21	12	28	-61	44	50	45	52	500	372	pts
54	TBA	3542	Kaity Storck	30	32	30	30	-51	13	36	14	20	48	-56	29	39	54	482	375	pts
55	IRL	3298	Ruselle McGovern	26	21	31	24	47	27	29	-50	9	38	39	41	47	-64	493	379	pts
56	IRL	3324	Kieran Dorgan	13	29	27	-35	15	29	29	16	17	58	45	-76	41	67	497	386	pts
57	IRL	3280	Michael Ennis	31	36	17	22	-49	32	34	22	29	43	41	-56	48	32	492	387	pts
58	IRL	3272	Christian Donagh	11	22	37	42	33	20	30	34	-52	52	50	47	-67	11	508	389	pts
59	GBR	3204	Martin Wadsworth	9	43	50	-51	43	38	18	20	10	28	43	35	-67	57	512	394	pts
60	GBR	3044	Davit Atkinson	-51	42	44	28	22	33	7	31	28	-59	25	44	33	58	505	395	pts
61	GBR	3388	Chris King	31	23	19	33	31	-35	11	35	18	-62	48	36	59	56	497	400	pts
62	IRL	3260	Adam Winkelmann	-48	20	26	29	19	9	43	39	35	33	58	-61	61	47	528	419	pts
63	GBR	3510	Richard Wharram	43	35	33	12	29	37	22	20	-47	56	32	53	-67	53	539	425	pts
64	IRL	3253	Des Faherty / Michael Evans	38	12	26	37	-47	21	26	27	27	50	-64	54	62	50	541	430	pts
65	IRL	3059	David Barry	24	30	25	28	30	40	-41	15	18	57	63	55	-67	62	555	447	pts
66	GBR	3079	Ann Jackson	15	10	44	12	46	-48	33	39	37	-66	65	45	55	60	575	461	pts