Two bullets for Carveth

Racing resumes at the UON SB20 World Championship

Tuesday December 18th 2012, Author: Lisa Ratcliff, Location: Australia

Nine sequences, six competitors black flagged and disqualified, two general recalls, two postponements, two course changes, an abandonment and a partridge in a pear tree. A mini-series could be made on the highs and lows of day four of the UON SB20 World Championship at Hamilton Island.

The 42 international crews contesting their world title set off from the marina at 9.30 this morning, most towed to the course area in the light winds. Nearly five frustrating hours later after the race committee twice moved the racetrack further east chasing steady wind, the first race of the day got underway in a building NNE breeze.

Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson finally settled on Chance Bay off Whitsunday Island and that’s where the magic began. After three days of light air the adrenaline was pumping and the spray was flying as the Whitsundays turned put on its best face for the visitors, up to 18 knots of breeze, white caps and sunshine galore.

Race 6 was a thriller, on the risk of a black flag disqualification following two general recalls the fleet judged the current right and got away cleanly in 15 knots of NNE breeze. Glenn Bourke’s Club Marine was first to the top post chased by the two British boats, Robert Greenhalgh’s The Beard and Geoff Carveth’s WKD.

The crews turned the corner and powered up for the downhill slide, bodies crammed at the stern quarter to balance out the pressure over the right shoulder and keep the boat on its feet. By the second top mark rounding places had swapped, WDK led Club Marine and Pietro Negri’s Stenghele (ITA), and this was how they screamed through the finish gate under kite.

Race 7 was another black flag start only this time Thompson’s gavel came down with a bang. Six SB20s were disqualified, including top contenders The Beard, Ian Brown’s One Design Sailing and Ben Saxton’s Bango Powered by SLAM, an expensive penalty which will become their discard race. A number of those disqualified are seeking to be reinstated with ‘night sailing’ about to commence in the jury room.
Carveth and his crew of mainsheet Roger Hudson and bow 1 and 2, Lesley Dhonau and Asenathi Jim, picked up back-to-back wins today to move into third overall.

“Finally some good hard racing, that’s what we came here for,” said an exhausted Carveth this evening. “When the wind came in it was worth waiting for. There were some tense moments with the black flag and in the second race we nearly lost our lead to the French and Rodion [Team Russia], but we climbed back over them and put ourselves in charge again."

Second in race 7 was Thomas Rouxel’ French entry Hyeres 2013, named ahead of next year’s SB20 worlds venue, and again, the Italians in third.

Team Russia’s grip on the pointscore top spot is tightening, their eighth and fourth enough to keep the wolves at bay for another day. After tomorrow’s scheduled race 8 a discard will come into play.

Glenn Bourke, Andrew York and Greg Macallansmith’s Club Marine has moved into second on the overall pointscore after seven races, eight points from the Russian masters and just one ahead of Carveth, a previous SB20 world champion.

One Design Sailing is the next best Aussie boat on the pointscore, currently 10th, followed by Tasmanian Nick Rogers’ Karabos in 13th, Stephen Fries’ WSIWYG V in 17th, Peter Jones’ And Then in 19th, Troy Forrest’s Black Rat in 20th and Victorian Chris Dare’s Flirtatious in 21st place.

It’s been a long day for competitors and officials and as the sun set over Hamilton Island, SB20s and official vessels were still making their way back to the marina.

All crews enjoyed yesterday’s only series layday. Great Barrier Reef tours, a visit to the famous Whitehaven Beach, a round at the stunning Hamilton Island golf course and relaxing crew lunches at the many restaurants were just some of the activities crews opted for before competitors gathered at the main pool for the Bundaberg Rum layday pool party.

With two days and five races of the SB20 world titles scheduled there is still plenty more to come.

Results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Tot
1	Team Russia	Rodion Luka	RUS	6	4	1	3	2	8	4	28
2	Club Marine	Glenn Bourke	AUS	3	10	4	5	6	2	6	36
3	WKD	Geoff Carveth	GBR	17	5	2	1	10	1	1	37
4	Stenghele	Pietro Negri	ITA	5	2	8	15	22.0A	3	3	58
5	Aquaholics	Anna Basalkina	RUS	12	7	14	6	3	9	8	59
6	sportsboatworld.com	Jerry Hill	GBR	2	16	17	2	8	11	7	63
7	Hyeres2013	Rouxel Thomas	FRA	13	6	10	8	11	13	2	63
8	ALTEA	Andrea Racchelli	ITA	10	3	24	7	13	7	5	69
9	Bango Powered bySLAM	Ben Saxton	GBR	1	1	9	11	1	6	43.0B	72
10	One Design Sailing	Ian Brown	AUS	8	15	3	4	5	5	43.0B	83
11	Darling Associates	Chris Darling	SCO	15	9	12	10	7	17	19	89
12	The Beard	Robert Greenhalgh	GBR	4	8	15	9	9	4	43.0B	92
13	Karabos	Nick Rogers	AUS	11	17	21	13	19	10	11	102
14	UBER3	Adrian Peach	GBR	9	11	27	31	20	12	9	119
15	Harry powered by Und	Andrew Oddie	GBR	21	23	6	35	4	16	16	121
16	New Caledonia1	TUGDUAL Piriou	FRANC	22	19	19	28	12	20	14	134
17	WYSIWYG V	Stephen Fries	AUS	20	20	5	20	34	24	12	135
18	Zeus	Ed Russo	FRA	28	14	11	25	21	22	15	136
19	And Then	Peter Jones	AUS	34	12	7	30	17	18	24	142
20	Black Rat	Troy Forrest	AUS	16	21	31	12	18	23	21	142
21	Flirtatious	Chris Dare	AUS	18	18	18	17	33	21	29	154
22	New Caledonia2	Alan Quere	FRANC	31	27	22	14	28	15	22	159
23	Still Out of control	Mark Wolfenden	AUS	14	30	20	24	16	29	27	160
24	Sailboat Deliveries	Sarah Allan	GBR	7	25	32	43.0S	31	14	10	162
25	Typhoon	Craig Nicholls	AUS	33	29	25	21	22	19	13	162
26	Jump!	Dennis Winstanley	AUS	25	33	30	16	24	25	17	170
27	Blue Tac	Trevor Martin	AUS	26	31	13	26	29	28	35	188
28	Geronimo	Simon Hume	GBR	43.0R	40	26	23	14	26	18	190
29	Cube II	Martijn Buitenhuis	NED	24	24	23	22	27	35	43.0B	198
30	Marine Tech	Gareth Owen	UAE	32	22	42	29	25	32	20	202
31	Borgo Scopeto	Giulia Tobia	ITA	38	13	37	27	30	27	31	203
32	Dart Vader	Mark Prince	AUS	23	37	34	18	32	37	25	206
33	Wedgewood	David Graney	AUS	30	28	36	34	23	33	28	212
34	Mountain Goat Racing	Mike McLean	AUS	35	34	16	33	42	31	23	214
35	Chota Hazri	Chris Kameen	AUS	29	35	33	19	41	30	30	217
36	Got a bit on	Matt Wenke	AUS	27	26	40	40	26	43.0F	26	228
37	Purple Patch	Callum Burns	AUS	19	32	28	37	35	43.0B	43.0B	237
38	NURI	Andrea Zanforlin	ITA	37	38	38	38	37	34	32	254
39	UON Hamilton Island	Tim Henderson	AUS	36	36	41	32	39	39	33	256
40	Squalo Bianco	Paris Stowell	AUS	39	42	39	39	36	36	34	265
41	Sidewinder	Declan Keogh	AUS	41	39	29	36	40	38	43.0B	266
42	Oceanburo Discover S	John Gardiner	AUS	40	41	35	41	38	40	36	271