New Leader at SB3 Worlds - day 4

by Sail-world.com/uk on 26 Sep 2008
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	20	11	-33	24	24	241	173	nett pts
33	IRL	3232	Stefan Hyde	Gold	-40	18	35	14	4	20	23	8	11	41	-51	265	174	nett pts
34	IRL	3240	Ger Owens	Gold	28	23	-45	10	-57	34	20	8	8	4	40	277	175	nett pts
35	NZL	3287	Ben Duncan	Gold	9	11	-35	19	17	17	32	29	2	40	-60	271	176	nett pts
36	GBR	3047	Ben Ainsworth	Gold	16	( )	39	21	26	33	12	10	1	19	-44	288	177	nett pts
37	IRL	3283	Gordon Patterson	Gold	12	-67	31	31	10	-67	26	23	30	12	6	315	181	nett pts
38	POR	3256	Peter Stratton	Gold	-32	-67	23	26	21	6	32	21	19	23	17	287	188	nett pts
39	POR	3506	Fernando Belo	Gold	24	-26	13	7	13	3	17	26	25	63	-67	284	191	nett pts
40	ITA	3187	Luca Bacci	Gold	-67	28	29	9	16	12	-67	12	23	10	53	326	192	nett pts
41	GBR	3302	Ian Sullivan	Gold	25	-34	6	15	14	30	32	25	19	-34	26	260	192	nett pts
42	GBR	3060	Stewart Reed	Gold	10	21	18	4	25	26	16	27	-31	-55	49	282	196	nett pts
43	FRA	3024	Luc Videau	Gold	39	-67	-67	13	38	18	11	33	16	11	19	332	198	nett pts
44	IRL	3501	Emma McDonald	Gold	18	13	13	-67	7	28	24	-67	32	30	37	336	202	nett pts
45	GBR	3031	Christina Summerhayes	Gold	7	8	19	41	28	19	-48	46	21	15	-52	304	204	nett pts
46	GBR	3154	Jeremy Entwistle	Gold	21	27	24	10	16	13	21	-29	13	-64	61	299	206	nett pts
47	IRL	3322	Robert Cahill	Gold	42	-67	10	35	11	22	21	12	28	-61	27	336	208	nett pts
48	IRL	3490	Daragh Sheridan	Gold	-53	22	37	33	6	5	31	15	30	-42	29	303	208	nett pts
49	GBR	3081	Jonno Brech	Gold	18	-41	-53	30	27	17	19	37	20	29	23	314	220	nett pts
50	IRL	3324	Kieran Dorgan	Gold	13	29	27	-35	15	29	29	16	17	-58	45	313	220	nett pts