Geoff Carveth and his Hayling Island crew 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.

“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 Ireland this year.

Full results at www.sb3worlds2008.com

Dublin Bay threw a bone to the locals today (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 Olympic 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.

The overall result of today’s proceedings, however, was merely a re-shuffle at the top.
Craig Burlton regains a five-point lead at the top, with 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. 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.

Full results at www.sb3worlds2008.com

All images provided by Gareth Craig, www.fotosail.com

Further images, footage and chat at:
www.offshorerules.com
www.afloat.ie
www.fotosail.com/08sb3worlds
www.oceanimages.co.uk

“SILVER AND GOLD”

‘Humbling’ was how some crews described the intensity after day three of the SB3 Worlds Championships, which enter their endgame tomorrow (THURSDAY) with qualification stages out of the way.

Until today, the top contenders may not have been on the same course as their nearest rivals in the overall standings, but with nine races now in the bag, the fleet will divide permanently into its gold and silver halves for five final races on Thursday and Friday.

Light shifty airs and grey, overcast skies on Wednesday morning warned of what is to come, with high pressure and even lighter winds set to dominate the last two days of racing.

The easterly wind never built above ten knots on Dublin Bay, and Hamble sailor Craig Burlton, overall leader going into Wednesday, said that the lighter conditions would make for unpredictable and open racing for the rest of the event.

“We’re okay in the light stuff,” he said.

“We’ve mainly sailed in heavier breezes this year as a team, but it will open the field up a lot more being lighter breeze, although the breeze so far has been better than the forecast, so fingers crossed.

Despite posting two fourths today, Burlton cold only hang on to second overall, while Geoff Carveth slipped past into the overall lead.

Mike Budd, in third overall, rounds out the top three, with GBR sail numbers filling four of the top five slots.

Things could change further, however, as protest hearings are scheduled to stretch long into the night. Thirteen disputes, five of those against the race committee, will be heard before results are made final and the gold and silver fleets are split for once and for all.

Burlton and his crew are one of a handful of boats managing to find consistency in very even conditions, with normally steady performers and the bookies’ hot picks posting wildly erratic results.

“It is pretty tough to find lanes and clear breeze,” said Burlton.

“We’re trying to play the middle of the course but it is pretty tough.

“The courses are pretty good, some of the lines are a little more biased than we might like, but it’s very tight racing and the [race] committee are doing it very well.”

Irish boats again failed to make a dent in the top ten results overall, but there was a rare Irish one-two in the Orange fleet, with Cork helms Ronan Collins and Aidan O’Connell coming out on top in second race of the day.

“We managed to sail around the people who were around us at the first mark,” said O’Connell.
“I think we would have been four or five around the first mark – and then we were very close to Ronan but he managed to clip us at the end, which was unfortunate, but it was great to see a one-two for the Irish boats in that race.”

They were among the lucky ones, however. Ireland has just one home rep – Peter Kennedy – inside the top ten, and only one more – Olympian Peter O’Leary – inside the top twenty.

Tomorrow’s racing will be scrutinized further, with GPS trackers on the top 20 boats allowing online spectators follow the racing in real time on www.live-regatta.com.

Full results at www.sb3worlds2008.com

Images by Gareth Craig, www.fotosail.com

Further images, footage and chat at:
www.offshorerules.com
www.afloat.ie
www.fotosail.com/08sb3worlds
www.oceanimages.co.uk

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 today (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 137-boat 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.

Full results at www.sb3worlds2008.com

Further images, footage and chat at:
www.oceanimages.co.uk
www.offshorerules.com
www.afloat.ie

If day one is anything to go by, it’ll be five days of nip-and-tuck racing in Dun Laoghaire for the SB3 World Championships, running until Friday out of the National Yacht Club. The 137-boat fleet was split in two today for three races on each course, with tight corners and packed roundings the order of the day.
Twelve knots and blistering sunshine greeted the racers as they exited Dun Laoghaire harbour and veered left and right to the two courses. With the consistent northerly wind oscillating through an arc of 20 degrees, things got underway without delay.
By race two of three, the fleets had found their confidence on the start line, evidenced by a handful of restarts and disqualifications for false starts.
At the top of the blue fleet, South African helm Dave Hudson described as ‘dangerous’ some of the early windward mark roundings, with almost 70 boats converging on the windward mark in tight formation after the first leg.
“If you came in at about five to ten boat lengths below [the mark] you could generally find a gap,” said Hudson, who won the SB3 class at Cork Week in July.
“One to five boat lengths was really dangerous and that’s where a few of the boats got trapped,” he said.
Plenty of boats found themselves doing penalty spins before re-joining the queue – Hudson, however, steered clear of much of the chaos to emerge among the front runners again, with a 1,6, 4 scoreline for the day keeping him in second overall behind British pairing Tim and Sue Fells.
It’s another British boat at the top of the other fleet, Mark Richards holding the top space on equal points with Aussie Daniel Geoghegan.
The top Irish slot falls to Peter Kennedy, an Irish Olympian from 1988, who sits in third overall after a tough first day, with three results inside the top six.
Plenty of spills and knocks on the racecourse will keep the protest teams busy long into the evening, but the overall mood in Dun Laoghaire is hugely positive.
Top Irish helm at the recently-held nationals, Gareth Flannigan, remarked that racing was incredibly close, and that it was ‘all or nothing’ on the first beats of the course, after which finding clear air to mount a comeback was nearly impossible.
Other Irish performances of note included Bád, crewed by Olympians Peter O’Leary and Tim Goodbody, who posted consistent results to leave themselves seventh out of their 67-boat fleet.
Racing resumes tomorrow morning, with three more qualification races.

Full results at www.sb3worlds2008.com

137 Laser SB3 have gathered in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland for the inaugural Laser SB3 World Championships, hosted by the National Yacht Club. 11 Nations are represented at the event. The vast majority of the fleet are fielded from England and Ireland, though some competitors have travelled from as far as Australia, the United Arab Emirates and America.
Dun Laoghaire basked in sunshine as measurement, registration and launching of the 137 boat fleet was undertaken. Now that this is all but complete, there is tangible anticipation as the fleet make final preparations to their boats for the start of racing on Monday. The line up of past Olympians, National, European and World Champions will compete for the title of Laser SB3 World Champion and the honour of lifting the stunning Waterford Crystal World Championship Trophy on Friday 26th September.
14 races are scheduled for the 5 day regatta with a maximum of two discards. Qualifying races will be held on two courses over the first three days before the fleet is split into Gold and Silver Fleets for the final two days racing. Principal Race Officer, Jack Roy has more than 20 years experience as a race officer and will preside over Course 1. The National Yacht Club’s Honorary Sailing Secretary, Con Murphy will take control over Course 2. Over 60 race officials will be afloat to ensure the smooth delivery of this event on the water.
Event Organiser, Rory Byrne has worked tirelessly to ensure that no stone has been left unturned in the organisation of this event, both afloat and ashore. “After a massive amount of planning, far the largest gathering of one design keelboats Ireland has ever seen racing has finally got underway with this afternoon’s Practice Race. The National Yacht Club has drawn together a large team of individual experts in various fields of race management, all of whom are confident of running an event that ranks as high as any on the global stage.”
Dockside banter amongst the fleet is rife and the chat in the bar draws one conclusion; that the book remains wide open for this event. There are obvious favourites, Geoff Carveth, Gareth Flannigan, Jerry Hill, Sean Craig, Dave Cheyne, Craig Burlton, Colin Simonds, Mike Budd, Dave Lenz, Dave Hudson but with a list so long anything could happen, but one thing is for sure, this week is going to see top level sailors competing on the level playing field that the Laser SB3 provides.
A spectacular Gala Opening Ceremony is scheduled for Sunday evening, attended by many of the stakeholders who have made this event possible. The centre piece of the Opening Ceremony is the evocative flag raising ceremony celebrating each Nation’s participation.

The Laser SB3 Irish National Championships took place on Dublin last weekend, 29th to 31st of August. 8 races were sailed over the three days on Windward/Leeward courses. Fridays conditions proved very tricky with light airs and a few punishing shifts. The fleet were very enthusiastic on the start line and PRO Colin McMullan had to use the black flag in most starts. Craig Burlton and his crew had a great start to the regatta with a score of 8, 1, 1. Gareth Flanagan on McCready Sailboats had a good start also but the reigning European Champion, Geoff Carveth, started with a 2, 23, 28. The final race on Friday saw a big shift and lull on the right hand side of the course. This caught out even the most experienced Dublin bay sailors and meant an early pint was the only option.

Saturdays weather was more of the same with lots of general recalls and black flags. Geoff Carveth fought back hard with two race wins whereas Burlton scored a 6, 25, 5. Ian Sullivan on Cheeky Monkey continued a very consistent regatta and by Saturday evening his highest placing was a 15th.

Sunday dawned to a dull grey day but there was a notably stronger breeze and everyone hit the water in anticipation of some downwind planing. The first start was a very frantic affair with the PRO setting a fairly tight line. After a few recalls the breeze gradually dropped to around 10 knots. Carveth and Burlton continued their battle but Burlton couldn’t be caught. McCready Sailboats and Cheeky Monkey had their worst results of the regatta but John Sheehy was delighted to win the final race.

Burlton on Team Gill was crowned Open Winner with Geoff Carveth on Earls Court second. Gareth Flanagan on McCready Sailboats was top Irish boat and was crowned Irish National Champion. Ian Sullivan on Cheeky Monkey had a very consistent event and ended up fourth. Nicky Smith, Dave Quinn & John Malone on Helly Hansen were fifth with Witzmann,Waimer & Waimer from the United Arab Emirates were sixth overall. Emma McDonald from Howth was awarded the Top Lady Helm Award.

Many competitors were using this event as a warm-up for the World Championships due to be held in Dun Laoghaire from the 22nd to the 26th of September.

The Silver Fleet was won by Gordon Patterson and the Bronze fleet was won by John Driscoll, both from RNIYC.

Helly Hansen, the SB3 Ireland clothing sponsor, generously provided prizes for the Gold, Silver & Bronze fleets.

Congratulations to all involved and well done to Don O’Dowd and all his team at the Royal St George Yacht Club.

A full selection of event photographs are available on www.fotosail.com.