Zhik SB3 World Championships fourth place for Club Marine

by Ian Grant on 15 Jun 2011 Zhik World Laser SB3 championship 2011 has resulted in a fourth place finish for Glenn Bourke and the Sunshine Coast sailors Rod Jones and Greg MacAllansmith when they overcame a relative short preparation to finish fourth in the recent in England.

The crew onboard Club Marine were understandably ranked as with a possible chance to finish in the top twenty but, they expressed their class to overcome the considerable handicap of limited big fleet racing with their chartered SB3 Club Marine.

Glenn Bourke a former Australian Olympian and multiple World Champion had a distinct purpose in mind when he elected to join the dual Audi Australian IRC class ocean racing champions Rod Jones and Greg MacAllansmith for the World championship.

The Chief Executive Officer of the international standard Hamilton Island Resort has a special affiliation with racing in the high performance SB3 one design class and needed the opportunity to experience a World series before the class host their first World championship outside of Europe at Hamilton Island in December 2012.

As expected the tactically strong team of English crews racing with the valued experience of sailing on home waters dominated the medals with former champion Geoff Carveth 46 pts winning the Gold Medal by four points from Rob Greenhalgh with Craig Burlton another 26 points astern third with the crew on Club Marine finishing just seven points away fourth.

This was a remarkable result which has set the foundation for the Australian fleet to show their class when the sails are tensioned for the 2012 series at Hamilton Island.

Meanwhile Rod Jones and his OceanBuro performance racing syndicate have issued the Notice of Race for the 2011 Wintersun regatta to be contested off Mooloolaba on the weekend of July 23-24 followed by the 2011 Queensland championship during the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week on August 22-26.

Both championships have attracted the attention of several World champions including the highly skilled Australian Olympian Nathan Outteridge who clearly won the Australian championship before finishing 12th in the World championship.

However while this was considered to be a disappointing result for Nathan Outteridge he will be personally tactical tuned for a major assault on the World title at Hamilton Island. He and crew mate Ian Jensen are currently ranked as the World’s best in the Olympic 49er class leading into the London Olympics.

Nathan Outteridge has already indicated his intention to contest the 2012 World’s at Hamilton Island while the regatta continues to gain interest with specialist one-design sailors Australia wide.

This has allowed the SB3 to become Australia’s fastest growing One-design fleet with the recent sale of five new boats which will be prepared to contest their boat speed in the Winter sun series off Mooloolaba next month and the Audi Queensland championship at Hamilton Island in August. Event website