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Sail-World.com : New Leader at SB3 Worlds - day 4
New Leader at SB3 Worlds - day 4
'SB3 World Championship 2008'    Gareth Craig (Fotosail)

After a day of snakes and ladders Craig Burlton regains a five-point lead at the top, with Geoff Carveth in second and South African skipper Dave Hudson, winner at Cork Week, nine points adrift of the top slot in third. Ten small points separate Hudson from the boat in eighth place, and another race counted means teams get to discard their worst remaining score, which will tighten things further.

Dublin Bay threw a bone to the locals Thursday as the SB3 World Championships entered its final phase.

Crews were held onshore for the morning, with little wind available to shift the fog that had settled on the water since dawn. Light airs were set to be the order of the day and when the committee finally called everyone out to play, in less than eight knots of wind, knowledge of Dublin Bay’s finicky tidal streams would proved crucial.

The gold fleet, racing in the south-eastern area of the bay, would feel it most pronouncedly, with the course allowing the fleet to split across a major tidal stream. Those who had on board, or who had sought out local knowledge could expect to make big gains if they got things right. In the first race, however, it was all about clean air and boatspeed.

Two of last night’s leaders, Craig Burlton and Mike Budd, failed to find it and tumbled into the twenties, with Geoff Carveth ending up ninth. The top five was, unusually, packed with four Irish skippers and one French helm.

Laser Performance skipper Nico Honor took the gun, followed by Star sailor Peter O’Leary in second. Belfast’s Gareth Flannigan followed, with another Irish Olympian Ger Owens in fourth and Aidan O’Connell one back in fifth. Ian Mills, crew aboard the winning boat, said that going left upwind and keeping clear air helped them nose out in front.

For race two, the tide had turned, and Jerry Hill, skipper of British entry, had also planned out his strategy according to advice from a local . . .

'We’d taken a little bit of advice from a Dragon sailor who sails this bay quite a lot, and he told us that when the breeze is in that quadrant, and you’ve got a north-flowing tide, you really want to tack in towards the Dun Laoghaire shore. 'We hit the right [hand side of the course] pretty hard and we could tell early on that it was paying.'

Hill had to battle with Burlton in the later stages of the race, but held the fleet off to take the win.

In the silver fleet, meanwhile, Tim Cork leads overall.

After today’s delays, things get underway early tomorrow morning to make up for lost time. Whatever happens, the first ever SB3 World Championship will be crowned in Dun Laoghaire’s National Yacht Club tomorrow afternoon.

SB3 Worlds - Leading results after day 4

1 GBR 3042  Craig Burlton Gold 1 -17 2 5 1 3 13 4 4 -25 2 77 35 nett pts
2 GBR 3053  Geoff Carveth Gold 3 2 -16 8 2 1 1 6 8 9 -14 70 40 nett pts
3 RSA 3451  David Hudson Gold 1 6 4 -17 11 2 1 7 3 -18 11 81 46 nett pts
4 GBR 3106  David Lenz Gold 4 -7 7 4 7 5 3 5 6 -32 8 88 49 nett pts
5 GBR 3231  Tim Fells Gold 2 4 1 1 -67 8 7 3 13 -21 13 140 52 nett pts
6 GBR 3465  Jerry Hill Gold 2 6 -38 -25 9 7 8 11 4 6 1 117 54 nett pts
7 GBR 3475 Mike Budd Gold 3 1 14 1 -17 1 9 2 3 20 -42 113 54 nett pts
8 GBR 3082  Mark Richards Gold 6 3 1 3 -20 2 17 16 1 7 -31 107 56 nett pts
9 AUS 3469  Daniel Geoghegan Gold 4 1 5 9 5 -23 4 9 14 13 -21 108 64 nett pts
10 IRL 3307  Peter O Leary Gold 7 3 -16 15 2 8 6 -18 14 2 12 103 69 nett pts
11 GBR 3027  Chris Darling Gold -27 2 2 2 18 4 2 1 27 16 -34 135 74 nett pts
12 GBR 3057  Martin Boatman Gold 12 5 15 3 1 11 6 19 -29 -22 5 128 77 nett pts
13 IRL 3500  Peter Kennedy Gold 6 5 3 -24 5 15 16 4 -44 8 20 150 82 nett pts
14 GBR 3467  Mark Rushall Gold 11 7 4 8 8 11 10 -13 9 -47 22 150 90 nett pts
15 GBR 3134  Jono Shelley Gold 8 18 14 6 12 6 2 -23 -22 14 16 141 96 nett pts
16 GBR 3039  Marshal King Gold 22 -25 22 5 8 10 4 14 2 -49 10 171 97 nett pts
17 GBR 3517  Colin Simonds Gold 14 -19 8 7 12 4 18 13 5 27 -67 194 108 nett pts
18 UAE 3360  Hannes Waimer Gold 17 14 9 13 3 -67 13 21 -24 17 9 207 116 nett pts
19 GBR 3527 Richard Stenhouse Gold ( ) 16 18 11 15 7 15 19 12 -36 4 220 117 nett pts
20 GBR 3509 Nico Honor Gold 16 16 5 22 21 22 12 -24 -26 1 7 172 122 nett pts
21 GBR 3152  Guy Jackson Gold -35 10 15 11 3 25 14 9 5 -31 30 188 122 nett pts
22 IRL 3281  Sean Craig Gold 33 25 3 6 4 10 -35 32 7 -37 3 195 123 nett pts
23 GBR 3462  Paul Lovejoy Gold 5 8 6 18 27 -41 9 5 15 -45 35 214 128 nett pts
24 IRL 3433  Gareth Flannigan Gold 8 24 12 -34 13 -67 25 17 15 3 28 246 145 nett pts
25 GBR 3546 Richard Catchpole Gold 13 13 9 21 24 18 -27 18 12 26 -36 217 154 nett pts
26 ITA 3543 Caresani Roberto Gold 28 9 11 2 9 16 27 -40 10 -53 47 252 159 nett pts
27 GBR 3508 Nick Phillips Gold 19 11 9 20 18 -31 8 7 26 44 -56 249 162 nett pts
28 GBR 3336  Adrian Peach Gold 10 -28 27 14 6 9 28 17 6 46 -58 249 163 nett pts
29 IRL 3551 Ronan Collins Gold 5 14 7 -38 -39 23 23 1 25 35 33 243 166 nett pts
30 GBR 3021  Charlie Whelan Gold 27 9 28 16 19 21 3 6 -41 39 -59 268 168 nett pts
31 IRL 3279  Aidan O'Connell Gold 17 28 32 27 -45 16 -38 2 7 5 38 255 172 nett pts
32 GBR 3149  Mark Gillett Gold 26 15 17 26 10 -35