47 strong outing

Geoff Carveth claims round one of the Laser SB3 Solent Series

After more than six months break since the World Championships, SB3 class racing resumed over the weekend with a solid representation of the UK fleet totalling 47 boats plus two South African teams bucking the effects of the recession.

Mother nature mostly played her part delivering mild conditions but primarily light airs over the course of the weekend, the major challenge, however, was delivered by the thrust of Spring Tides.

Following 20kts plus from the South West on Friday evening, Saturday dawned calm, by the time racing got under way flow had returned with 8kts of South combined with the first of the Ebb tide.

The still cold water and flow off the Isle of Wight caused some instability throughout the day with the first major gain by class newcomer Adam Hoad-Reddick on the first run of the day, initially staying high then choosing some great lanes to progress from 6th to 1st, then handing on to win from Gill Race Team (Craig Burlton) and 3 Sad Old Blokes (Jerry Hill).

Races two and three were both won by Jerry Hill in relative comfort after jumping out of both starts clearly advanced on his nearest rivals. Amongst the fleet plenty of tense words were exchanging particularly at the windward marks with a number of port tack junkies working the Ebb beyond reasons and an unfortunately high number of incidents resulting.

Chris Jennings (Selden) showed form despite being well under the weight limit, using downwind pace to good effect with results including 2, 5 and 2 during the course of the day’s racing. 2008 World Champion Geoff Carveth (Cre8tivity) was also in the frame scoring 3, 4 and 1 after a relatively poor first race result of 15th – getting well clear in the last race to win by a large margin. Gill Race Team struggled to get clear in any of the remaining races and was largely stuck in the pack – victim of a number of windward mark port tack incidents and witness to several more.

Day two again dawned calm with the prospect of 5-8 knots from the East fulfilled after a short delay. Whilst the breeze didn’t disappoint in terms of strength, direction was far from stable moving through 100 degrees during the course of racing. As a result the corners paid heavily with those taking a more conservative approach out of the running.

Geoff Carveth picked up where he left off on Saturday winning Sunday’s first race from Mike Budd (Zimmer). The final heat was an arduous affair with the left paying big dividends on the first beat and similarly again on the second. A sea breeze effect began taking over as the race neared completion and finally swung right – significantly enough to turn the results at the head of the fleet inside out with Jerry Hill taking the lead in the final 100 yards from Mike Budd and Geoff Carveth in third.

Geoff’s final day results were enough to overhaul Jerry Hill while two second places followed a recent half century for Mike Budd, seeing ‘Zimmer’ collecting third place from Gill Race Team and Ferret Racing (Jez Entwhistle) in fifth.

The first event of the year was certainly notable for some ghastly windward mark behaviour - we all know what Didier Drogba would have said - notable beyond the behaviour itself was the lack of presence at the top end of results by the offenders. The fleet is tight in more than one dimension and those that offend will not only carry resulting marks on their boats.

Unusually, despite the spring tides less than a handful of boats were black flagged over the weekend, one might think there is a very limited chance that trend will continue and the PROs in Brest and Seaview will likely receive a more eager fleet.

Results:

Pos	Boat	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot	Net
1	Cre8tivity	Geoff Carveth	-15	3	4	1	1	3	27	12
2	3 Sad Old Blokes	Jerry Hill	3	1	1	13	-20	1	39	19
3	Zimmer	Mike Budd	5	-14	6	6	2	2	35	21
4	Gill Race Team	Craig Burlton	2	4	7	7	5	-12	37	25
5	Ferret Racing	Jez Entwhistle	6	5	-15	8	4	5	43	28
6	Team Solent/ Helly Hansen	Guy Jackson	-17	9	14	3	9	4	56	39
7	Selden Mast	Chris Jennings	-35	2	5	2	22	10	76	41
8		Mark Rushall	9	6	2	10	16	OCS	93	43
9	Shaun Beaver	Tim & Sue Fells	7	12	3	11	14	DNF	97	47
10	Rigging Gurus	Mark Richards	-21	10	13	9	12	7	72	51
11	sailboatspares.com	Sarah Allan	13	13	17	5	6	-19	73	54
12	Doolalli	Colin Simonds	-39	18	9	12	8	9	95	56
13	Orthteam	Adam Hoad-Reddick	1	7	11	15	24	OCS	108	58
14	In Your Pocket	Andrew Oddie	-28	8	10	17	15	13	91	63
15	Sponge Bob	Marshall King	11	-23	18	18	13	8	91	68
16	Spirit of Cape Town	Dirk de Jager & Tom Powrie	14	-28	22	4	18	14	100	72
17	HAS NOT ENTERED	PLEASE SEE SAILING SEC	8	-32	25	19	3	26	113	81
18	Robina	Jo Lloyd & Sue Antonelli	10	15	-23	14	21	22	105	82
19	Team Maclaren	Christina Summerhayes & Catherine Willia	24	17	19	-25	17	6	108	83
20	Trunk Monkey	Joe Burnie	30	21	-35	16	7	17	126	91
21	Team Green	Libby Greenhalgh	23	-26	21	23	23	15	131	105
22	Badger Racing	Paul Lovejoy	19	19	28	-33	31	11	141	108
23	Finitor 7	Stewart Reed	25	16	-38	20	29	18	146	108
24	Outkri	Kit Glover	16	-29	20	21	27	29	142	113
25	Rumbleflurg	David Cummins	29	-33	12	27	19	27	147	114
26	Striptease	Ed Dyer	33	DNF	27	28	11	16	165	115
27	3-Some	Niall Peelo	18	27	16	-31	28	28	148	117
28	Here Comes Bod	Charlie Whelan	26	20	24	24	26	DNF	170	120
29	City of Cape Town	Dave & Roger Hudson	4	BFD	8	BFD	10	DNF	172	122
30	Giraffe	Simon Perry	27	22	-33	29	25	21	157	124
31	eDigitalResearch	Charlie & Alec Russell	22	24	29	-32	32	24	163	131
32	Royal Signals	Julian Bunce & Rachel Thompson	31	25	26	27.3 RDGb	-33	23	165	132
33	Flamin Galah	Magnus Anderson & Jonno Brech	12	11	39	22	DSQ	DSQ	184	134
34	Savage Sailing Team	Liz Savage	20	30	-40	30	34	25	179	139
35	Retail Therapy	Charles Sheppard	32	34	37	-42	36	20	201	159
36	Flippet	Jonathan Blanshard	34	36	32	39	-43	31	215	172
37	Headless Chicken	Lucy Wood & Ian Chidgey	-40	39	30	35	37	33	214	174
38	Odonto Blast	Dudley Stock	41	DNF	36	38	30	36	231	181
39	Ozonic	Tom & Chris Brooks	42	37	34	-43	42	34	232	189
40	Marilyn	Dominic Ford	DNC	35	31	26	DSQ	DSQ	242	192
41	Barbarian	Ben Sturges	44	42	RAF	40	41	30	247	197
42	Speed	Toby Litton	38	31	DNC	41	39	DNF	249	199
43	Denali	Tom Pickford	-45	38	44	44	38	35	244	199
44	Shark Bite	Tim Cork	36	43	43	34	44	DNC	250	200
45	Trio	Gary Baker	43	41	42	36	40	DNC	252	202
46	Scallywag	James Ford/Rob Day	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	35	32	267	217
47	Wet Dream	Robert Dent	46	40	41	DNC	DSQ	DSQ	277	227
48	HAS NOT ENTERED	PLEASE SEE SAILING SEC	37	44	DNF	DNC	DNC	DNC	281	231
49	Eau No!	Mark Stokes	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	300	250