Breezy Seaview for the Wight Vodka SB3 series

Adam Heeley reports on the action

A fleet of 35 SB3’s arrived in Seaview on the Isle of Wight over the weekend of 6th/7th June for the second leg of the 2009 Solent Grand Prix series sponsored by Wight Vodka.

For most it was a fairly long haul down the Solent from Hamble on the Friday evening or the Saturday morning, either by rib or under sail, the trip being made harder by 20 knots on the nose. The two Race Ahead teams from South Africa took the opportunity for over 3 hours of two boat tuning and didn’t arrive until 10.30pm but most got there earlier and were happy to be tucked up in the hospitable Seaview YC bar for the evening.

Saturday dawned with 15 to 20 knots from the East and a decent swell which made rigging up on the moorings fairly uncomfortable, but with the exception of a couple of late arrivals from Hamble the fleet set off for the 4 races scheduled for the day. Race 1 got underway after the customary general recall and with the wind building the fleet set about the 2 lap windward leeward course, with the swell there was a premium on keeping the boats driving upwind before the fleet got the opportunity to get some proper surfing in downwind in some of the best conditions of the season so far. Craig Burton’s Gill Race Team took the bullet after being chased hard all the way by Sarah Allen on Sailboats spares with Jerry Hill reunited with the other 2 of the original 3 Sad Old Blokes coming in third.

Race 2 and the breeze had moderated slightly as Mark Rushall and his crew stepped it up a gear and showed solid upwind pace to lead into the windward mark, hotly pursued by Geoff Carveth in Cre8tivity with Gill Race Team and Dave Hudson and crew on City of Cape Town not too far behind. A fairly sizeable overstand on the second windward mark layline by the chasing pack gave Rushall and Carveth a bit of space for the final run, with Carveth looking to pace around the outside of Rushall, however Rushall managed to hold him off as well as a late surge from Burlton to secure the win.

Race 3 and it was Gill Race Team back to the front again after some rapid downwind sailing on the first lap, Andy Oddie and the team on In Your Pocket showed some solid pace up the second beat and with Rushall still on the charge these 3 boats rounded the final windward mark within a few lengths of each other. Burlton and crew managed to hold on down the run, although Rushall closed to almost make things difficult on the last mark, shortly followed by Andy Oddie and crew in third.

The wind increased for the final race of the day, and with the change in tidal flow the waves also became a little more fierce, making the downwind legs even more spectacular, in fact a little too spectacular for Craig and Co, with a demonstration spin out at the end of the first run. Rushall paid little notice to all the entertainment to sail off for his second win of the day. Taariq Jacobs, over from South Africa with his young crew under Dave Hudson’s Race Ahead programme, demonstrated his asymmetric experience from 29ers to send it downwind at a blistering pace to secure second place, with Gill Race Team recovering to take 3rd.

Overnight it was Rushall leading by one point from Burlton with current World Champion Carveth not too far behind in 3rd, and current National Champion Jerry Hill in 4th. A BBQ was put on by the Seaview YC and with the return of Dr C to the bar with the indomitable Lovers aiming to down a drink or two it almost looked like Stuart "The Beard" would have competition for the evening. However Dr C soon got sidelined swapping tales with Dr. Tommo and the natural order of things was returned.
After a pretty ferocious night for the boats on the moorings with one boat coming a cropper on the nearby shore, the wind eased and swung to a tricky offshore direction but still with enough pressure to get racing.

Following a postponement to allow the 30 degree wind shifts to settle down to some relatively more acceptable 15 degree shifts the fleet got underway. With such significant changes in direction and sizeable changes in pressure across the course the key was in staying in the middle of the course and working the shifts as hard as possible. Coming to the top of the first beat it was the three boats of Burlton, Carveth and Chris Jennings in Selden Masts who seemed to have managed this best; into the final approach to the mark the lead changed a few times before Gill Race Team managed to just get under Carveth and shoot the mark, allowing them to gain some separation down the run. Despite the shifts in direction and pressure Burlton managed to hold off the advances of Carveth, Jennings and Hudson to take the win. With Rushall finishing seventh this meant that Gill Race Team took the event with a race to spare and managed to head off early for the trip back to Hamble.

The final race saw a few boats becoming victims of the black flag, with Jerry Hill and his Sad Old Blokes leading for most of the race until local Seaview legends the Simonds brothers on Doolalli stormed through on the final run to take the gun with Andy Oddie, having showed pace all weekend, following Hill home in third.

Thanks must go to the Race Officer and his team who ran a great series of races with decent courses, square lines and quick turnarounds, in spectacular conditions on the Saturday and more trying conditions on the Sunday. Thanks also to Seaview YC, the staff and all the boatmen who made it another great year for the SB3’s in Seaview.

All eyes now turn to the west country and the Torquay Grand prix on the 20th - 22nd June and the build up to the National Championships in Falmouth the following week, entries for which are already topping 50 boats and with all number of past and present National, European and World champions set to race, it promises to be a proper dust up not to mention the promise of another legendary end of regatta knees up on the Saturday night.

	Boat	HelmName	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total	Nett
1st	Gill Race Team	Craig Burlton	1	3	1	3	1	(36.0 DNC)	45	9
2nd	www.rushall.net	Mark Rushall	5	1	2	1	7	(36.0 BFD)	52	16
3rd	Cre8tivity	Geof Carveth	4	2	4	7	2	-8	27	19
4th	3 Sad Old Blokes	Jerry Hill	3	-8	5	4	6	2	28	20
5th	City of Capetown	Roger Hudson	11	4	6	6	4	(36.0 BFD)	67	31
6th	In Your Pocket	Andrew Oddie	(36.0 DNF)	6	3	8	12	3	68	32
7th	sailboatspares.com	Sarah Allan	2	10	8	5	13	(36.0 BFD)	74	38
8th	Spirit of Capetown	Taariq Jacobs	8	5	(36.0 BFD)	2	8	17	76	40
9th	Team McLaren	David Ellis	6	-13	12	12	10	6	59	46
10th	Darling Associates	Chris Darling	9	11	9	(36.0 BFD)	14	4	83	47
11th	Trunk Monkey	Joe Burnie	10	-20	15	10	15	5	75	55
12th	Doolalli	Colin Simonds	13	17	17	(36.0 BFD)	16	1	100	64
13th	Finitor 7	Stuart Reed	12	-22	13	11	18	18	94	72
14th	3-Some	Niall Peelo	14	7	21	14	17	(36.0 BFD)	109	73
15th	Sacre Bleu	Giles Packham	17	18	14	16	-30	9	104	74
16th	Flamin Galah	Jonno Brech	7	14	10	9	(36.0 DNC)	36.0 DNC	112	76
17th	Retail Therapy	Charles Sheppard	-29	9	19	15	19	14	105	76
18th	Rumbleflurg	David Cummins	15	19	18	(36.0 DNF)	9	15	112	76
19th	Outkri	Kit Glover	(36.0 DNC)	36.0 DNC	11	13	5	12	113	77
20th	Red Kite	Roger Harford	21	16	-25	17	22	10	111	86
21st	Flippet	Jonathan Blanshard	22	21	-23	18	20	7	111	88
22nd	Giraffe	Simon Perry	18	12	24	(36.0 BFD)	24	13	127	91
23rd	Hot Pants	Michael Wood	20	-30	20	19	27	16	132	102
24th	Badger Racing	Paul Lovejoy	(36.0 DNC)	15	7	36.0 BFD	11	36.0 BFD	141	105
25th	Barbarian	Ben Sturges	27	-29	28	21	23	11	139	110
26th	Synchro	Kev O'Brien	24	26	-30	20	29	21	150	120
27th	Selden Mast	Chris Jennings	16	(36.0 DNF)	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	3	36.0 BFD	163	127
28th	Bucephalus	Alex Tilley/Will Evans	25	23	22	22	(36.0 DNC)	36.0 DNC	164	128
29th	epitomy.com	TA Vernon	19	24	16	(36.0 DNF)	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	167	131
30th	Headless Chicken	Lucy Wood/Iain Chidgey	(36.0 DNF)	25	27	36.0 DNF	25	19	168	132
31st	Royal Signals	Julian Bunce	26	(36.0 DNF)	31	36.0 BFD	26	20	175	139
32nd	Shark Bite	Tim Cork	28	28	26	(36.0 BFD)	21	36.0 BFD	175	139
33rd	Trio	Gary Baker	23	27	29	(36.0 DNF)	28	36.0 DNF	179	143
34th	Water Music VIII	Jonny Foot	(36.0 DNC)	36.0 DNF	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	31	22	197	161
35th	Eau No!	Mark Stokes	(36.0 DNC)	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	216	180