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Sail-World.com : Hayling Island sailors win SB3 World title
Hayling Island sailors win SB3 World title
'Sb3 Worlds 2008 - Geoff Carveth, Roger Gilbert, Sarah Allan, Roz Allen'    Gareth Craig (Fotosail)

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.

SB3 Worlds 2008 - 1st Geaff Carveth sailing Earls Court Boat Show -  Gareth Craig (Fotosail)  

'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