SB3 Worlds - Second day of Qualifying

by Sail-World.com/uk on 24 Sep 2008
After the second day of qualifying races at the Laser SB3 World Championships hosted by the National Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire, Craig Burlton with Adam Heeley and Steve White have a three point lead. Second are Mark Richards, Craig Mitchell and Chris Gould.

With three more qualifying races to be held Wednesday the leading group is still very tight with Tim Fells tied on 16 points with Geoff Carveth and then Dave Hudson of South Africa leading a group of eight boats with less than 36 points.

With six races completed and a championship in place, all eyes are focused on the top of the SB3 World Championships fleet as British teams strengthen their grip on the podium. Overnight leaders, Tim and Sue Fells, fell from grace Tuesday after counting an uncharacteristic 20th to land in third overall, with compatriot Craig Burlton leapfrogging them into the lead.

Fells said the sunny but tactically testing conditions on the bay meant there was a hair’s breadth of judgement between greatness and the gutter. 'It was switching probably 40/50 degrees without any particularly obvious pattern, so it was very easy to get on the wrong side of the track and be totally buried,' he said. 'The real challenge was just consistency today.'

The top three boats all took a race win each in the sunny conditions, and Mark Richards used his to move into the silver medal position, completing a 1-2-3 for team GBR as the event approaches the half-way stage.

As a sea breeze kicked in over the course, sailors had to negotiate wind shifting through 40 degrees and a leftover lumpy swell from yesterday, with an easing breeze offering less power with which to push through it. The fleet was evenly split in two this morning using seeding from overall scores from the night before, putting and end to claims that one fleet may have been stronger than the other.

'There was a bit of talk yesterday that the orange fleet had all the good guys and that we were getting away with a bit of an easier time in our fleet,' said Tim Fells, 'but it was just as competitive today. There’s good depth in this fleet and if you make a mistake early on you’re going to be challenged to get back to the front.'

A good starting position and getting in front early was again key, and eagerness saw plenty of boats fall foul of starting penalties, including two of the top three, who now discard an OCS and Z flag penalty apiece. Another to come a-cropper was former 1720 supremo Mike Budd, whose disqualification in race six dropped him to 12th overall.

'We crossed the [finishing] line in the last race in silence, so we were all a bit down about that. We assume we were OCS’d. If we were over the line today that was careless really, because we were in a good position, and we didn’t’ need to do it, we had good speed. Once we’ve got in the lead we haven’t been overtaken all week. We’ve won four races on the water so far this week, and when we get ahead we extend, so we’re a little disappointed.'

Of the Irish boats, Beijing Olympians Peter O’Leary and Tim Goodbody overhauled Peter Kennedy, Ireland’s silver medalist from 1988, to claim the honour of first Irish boat and move into tenth position and put them within shooting distance of the top five.

The last day of the qualification series begins tomorrow, after which the fleet is split top-and-bottom into gold and silver for two days of final racing.

SB3 Worlds - Leading results after second day of Qualifying - 6 races of 9 completed

1	GBR	3042	Craig Burlton	Orange	1	(30.0 ZFP)	2	5	1	2	11	nett pts
2	GBR	3082	Mark Richards	Orange	6	3	1	3	-20	1	14	nett pts
3	GBR	3231	Tim Fells	Blue	2	4	1	1	(67.0 OCS)	8	16	nett pts
4	GBR	3053	Geoff Carveth	Orange	3	2	-16	8	2	1	16	nett pts
5	RSA	3451	David Hudson	Blue	1	6	4	-17	11	2	24	nett pts
6	AUS	3469	Daniel Geoghegan	Orange	4	1	5	9	5	-21	24	nett pts
7	GBR	3106	David Lenz	Blue	4	-7	7	4	7	4	26	nett pts
8	GBR	3027	Chris Darling	Blue	-27	2	2	2	18	4	28	nett pts
9	GBR	3057	Martin Boatman	Orange	12	5	-15	3	1	11	32	nett pts
10	IRL	3307	Peter O Leary	Blue	7	3	-16	15	2	7	34	nett pts
11	IRL	3500	Peter Kennedy	Blue	6	5	3	-24	5	15	34	nett pts
12	GBR	3475	Mike Budd	Blue	3	1	14	1	17	(67.0 OCS)	36	nett pts
13	GBR	3467	Mark Rushall	Orange	11	(67.0 BFD)	4	8	8	10	41	nett pts
14	GBR	3517	Colin Simonds	Orange	14	-17	8	7	12	3	44	nett pts
15	ITA	3543	Caresani Roberto	Blue	-28	9	11	2	9	14	45	nett pts
16	GBR	3134	Jono Shelley	Orange	8	-16	14	6	12	6	46	nett pts
17	GBR	3465	Jerry Hill	Orange	2	6	-38	25	9	7	49	nett pts
18	UAE	3360	Hannes Waimer	Blue	17	14	9.0 RDG	13	3	(67.0 OCS)	56	nett pts
19	IRL	3281	Sean Craig	Orange	(46.0 ZFP)	37.0 ZFP	3	6	4	9	59	nett pts
20	POR	3506	Fernando Belo	Orange	24	-25	13	7	13	3	60	nett pts
21	GBR	3152	Guy Jackson	Blue	-35	10	15	11	3	25	64	nett pts
22	GBR	3462	Paul Lovejoy	Blue	5	8	6	18	27	-41	64	nett pts
23	GBR	3527	Richard Stenhouse	Orange	(67.0 DNC)	14	18	11	15	6	64	nett pts
24	GBR	3336	Adrian Peach	Orange	10	-27	27	14	6	8	65	nett pts
25	GBR	3039	Marshal King	Blue	22	-25	22	5	8	10	67	nett pts
26	GBR	3546	Richard Catchpole	Orange	13	12	9	21	-24	16	71	nett pts
27	NZL	3287	Ben Duncan	Orange	9	10	-35	19	17	17	72	nett pts
28	GBR	3508	Nick Phillips	Blue	19	11	9	20	18	-28	77	nett pts
29	GBR	3060	Stewart Reed	Blue	10	21	18	4	25	-26	78	nett pts
30	GBR	3031	Christina Summerhayes	Orange	7	7	19	-41	28	17	78	nett pts
31	IRL	3501	Emma McDonald	Blue	18	13	13	(67.0 OCS)	7	28	79	nett pts
32	GBR	3509	Nico Honor	Blue	16	16	5	-22	21	22	80	nett pts
33	IRL	3551	Ronan Collins	Orange	5	13	7	38	(67.0 DNC)	23	86	nett pts
34	GBR	3021	Charlie Whelan	Orange	27	8	-28	16	19	19	89	nett pts
35	GBR	3302	Ian Sullivan	Orange	25	-32.5	6	15	14	30	90	nett pts
36	IRL	3257	Colin Galavan	Orange	19	15	20.5	-46	25	11	91	nett pts
37	IRL	3232	Stefan Hyde	Blue	-40	18	35	14	4	20	91	nett pts
38	IRL	3433	Gareth Flannigan	Blue	8	24	12	34	13	(67.0 OCS)	91	nett pts
39	ITA	3187	Luca Bacci	Blue	(67.0 SCP)	28	29	9	16	12	94	nett pts
40	GBR	3149	Mark Gillett	Blue	26	15	17	26	10	-35	94	nett pts
41	GBR	3154	Jeremy Entwistle	Blue	21	27	24	10	16	(67.0 OCS)	98	nett pts
42	IRL	3490	Daragh Sheridan	Orange	-53	19	37	33	6	5	100	nett pts
43	IRL	3260	Adam Winkelmann	Orange	-47.5	18	26	29	19	9	101	nett pts
44	POR	3256	Peter Stratton	Blue	32	(67.0 DSQ)	23	26	21	5	107	nett pts
45	IRL	3283	Gordon Patterson	Blue	12	(67.0 OCS)	31	31	10	25	109	nett pts
46	IRL	3324	Kieran Dorgan	Blue	13	29	27	-35	15	29	113	nett pts
47	IRL	3322	Robert Cahill	Orange	41	(67.0 ZFP)	10	35	11	20	117	nett pts
48	IRL	3272	Christian Donagh	Blue	11	22	37	-42	33	18	121	nett pts
49	GBR	3079	Ann Jackson	Orange	15	9	44	12	45	-47	125	nett pts
50	GBR	3292	Scott Graham	Orange	-37	26	34	29	14	23	126	nett pts