Dart Sailboats
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Go4 NewsGo4 Multimedia.Donovan Craig <donovan@go4.com.au>
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SB3 Audi Victoria WeekJono Shelley and his crew of Clare and Chris Molloy have won the SB3 William Angliss Victorian Championship at Audi Victoria Week after another strong performance in this morning’s final race.
Two years ago the British team raced this event in the one-design SB3 keelboat class at Royal Geelong Yacht Club and had to be content with third place overall. This time around Shelley and his crew signalled their intentions to win from early in the series and went into today’s final racing with a handy eight point lead.
In this morning’s very light and variable conditions, Shelley’s Credo-Group.com placed third in Race 8, enough to clinch the title without having to sail the final scheduled race. In the event, the race committee decided to cancel Race 9, leaving Credo-Group.com six points clear of the Tasmanian entry Wedgewood, skippered by Andrew Crisp.
Crisp is new to SB3s, taking delivery of his boat just in time for the first race of this series, but the former 14ft skiff world champion must be a fast learner as he won two races of this series, including this morning’s tricky light air affair.
Shortly after the start, the breeze swung significantly to the south, turning the first beat into a port-tack fetch and the first run into a close reach. Wedgewood looked buried well back in the fleet, but managed to wriggle through on the second lap to a repositioned windward mark, while the breeze became even trickier with large lulls between new bands of pressure.
Credo-Group.com held third place throughout the race and was only narrowly pipped for second by Club Marine Blue, the third placegetter overall skippered by Rod Jones of Mooloolaba YC.
“We worked out we only needed to finish in the top five to win the series,” Jon Shelley said after crossing the line. Referring to the very light and shifty conditions, Shelley continued, “It was hard work though; was that a race?”
“It’s great to win, especially on Australia Day,” joked for’ardhand Clare Molloy, who like the rest of the crew, is British. She and her husband Chris now live in London, but Jono Shelley is currently living in Wellington, New Zealand for a work contract.
Racing in the 15-boat fleet was extremely close throughout the series. Fifth overall was Club Marine White skippered by Kai Timms of Noosa Yacht & Rowing Club (Qld), who runs the Australian Dart SB3 distributorship Oceanburo in partnership with Rod Jones.
“The class is growing well now,” Timms said while packing up the boats for transport to the next regatta on the class circuit, the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta at the start of March.
“It has taken three years to get up to critical mass; we have 16 boats all going to the next regatta, and whoever steps in likes the boat enough to say they’ll buy a boat or charter one.
“We’re getting more and more enquiries and we have some permanent charterers; we have a limited number of boats that can be chartered and we look after the transport between regattas.”
Timms said that part of the attraction is the world SB3 championship scheduled to be held in Geelong in early 2012.
The 2012 Worlds are definitely on the radar for this year’s SB3 William Angliss Victorian Championship winners, Jono Shelley and Clare and Chris Molloy. “We’re hoping to be back next year to defend the title,” Clare Molloy said. “And we really want to be here in 2012 when the Worlds are in Geelong; that will be a great series.”
View full results at: www.victoriaweek.comLatest NewsLuke Moulton <luke@go4.com.au>
http://www.dartsailboats.com/news/newsitem.html?news_id=32
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http://www.dartsailboats.com/news/newsitem.html?news_id=39
AUS SB3 National Championship VenueThe SB3's will make their way to Sail Port Stephens next year and will call the April regatta on the New South Wales Mid North Coast their National Championships home for 2010 and 2011.
An exciting and exhilarating three man sports-boat with a modern powerful rig, the Dart SB offers enthusiastic one-design and sports-boat racing in comfort.
One of the fastest growing one design classes in the world, there are now 26 SB3’s in Australia, and importer Rod Jones’ Ocean Buro, is confident that a large number of them will compete at Sail Port Stephens next year.
'The owners of the SB3’s are all up and down the east coast, but the towing ease of these boats makes it logistically simple to get to regattas ' he said.
Rod is a strong supporter of Sail Port Stephens, competing in the 2009 event on Alegria – his Archambault 40 that recently took out the Audi IRC National Championship – Rod’s second title.
'The Port Stephens area is great, and the local business and tourism community is very welcoming towards the sailing fraternity – and the options for race courses are many and varied, which makes for good quality racing in a competitive environment' he said.
A great day out on an SB3 - Ocean Buro
The SB3 ownership in Australia is quite family centric, so the holding the National Championships at Sail Port Stephens gives owners and crew the opportunity to turn their sailing regatta into a family holiday that is affordable for all, has plenty of social fun and and provides a fantastic array of kids activities.
Event Manager Jody O’Brien is delighted to have the SB3 Nationals at Sail Port Stephens.
'We’re working closely with Rod and the Ocean Buro team to deliver a quality experience for the fleet, both on and off the water ' she said.
Sail Port Stephens will be held from the 12th to the 18th of April, 2010.
Latest NewsLuke Moulton <luke@go4.com.au>
http://www.dartsailboats.com/news/newsitem.html?news_id=38
UK SB3 National Championships - Burlton comes of age SB3 National Championships - Burlton comes of age
Craig Burlton has won the UK SB3 National Championships in Falmouth, beating some of the country’s best small-boat sailors across a range of wind and wave conditions. Burlton’s Gill Race Team, crewed by Steve White and Adam Heeley, sealed victory in the 68-boat fleet despite their closest rival - Team Zimmer skippered by Mike Budd - winning the penultimate race.
The two protagonists for the title match raced each other at the front of the leading pack, and while Budd’s crew won that race, Burlton’s 2nd place delivered him championship victory with a race to spare. The day after his 40th birthday Burlton had finally won the National title ahead of two of the most eminent sailors in the fleet - Budd and Geoff Carveth’s Team Cre8tivity, the reigning World Champions.
Beautifully managed and organised by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club, the four day event produced perfect West Country weather for the regatta, starting with some high-wind, tall-wave action on day one. Many boats broached spectacularly on the way out to the start of the first race as they struggled to get used to the thrilling conditions but by the start of the first race the fleet was ready and raring for some action.
Mike Budd, a former National Champion who has won national titles in different dinghy and keelboat classes in all of the past four decades, looked like he was back in his as he rolled back the years and rolled effortlessly down the waves, with Team Zimmer planing to victory in race one. Carveth was second and Burlton seventh, a solid but unspectacular start to the Gill Race Team’s championship campaign.
But that would be the last time Burlton would do anything other than excel in Falmouth Bay, whether in the big wave action of the first two days or the lighter, flatter waters of the final two days. The Gill crew would go on to notch up a series that never saw them lower than 4th in any of their remaining races. Budd, the acknowledged ‘Kind of the Pin’, was struggling to find his usual excellent starting form and was relying on great speed and tactics to haul him through the fleet on the hour-long windward-leeward courses.
With seven different winners in the first seven heats of this 12-race series, this was one of the most hotly contested SB3 championships. Budd was the first to win two heats, and he would go on to win a third during the week. But he came unstuck on the third day in the lighter breezes. After winning the first race, his championship hopes took a serious dent with scores of 26,11. At least there were two discards on offer if the series went the full distance - which it did - but Burlton’s consistency made him all but untouchable.
One of the toughest challenges - for competitors and organisers alike - was getting the fleet started. It was rare that principal race officer Jeff Martin managed to get the fleet away on a Blue Peter start. Invariably his crack race team had to resort to the dreaded Black Flag to keep the over-eager fleet in check, and even then there were many casualties who discovered their sail numbers chalked up on the committee boat board. Among the higher profile transgressors were the World Champion Geoff Carveth and the South African team that ran him close for last year’s world title, City of Cape Town, with the father/son team of Dave and Roger Hudson twice falling foul of the black flag. In fact the Hudsons had a lacklustre series to finish 9th overall, although their sistership Spirit of Cape Town skippered by Taariq Jacobs showed some great promise for such a young team, including a race win in one of the windy heats.
Aussie Dan Geoghegan was another double-black-flagger who ruined his chances of a top 10 finish, but the queen of black flags was Libby Greenhalgh’s Team Green with a hat trick of naughtiness in three successive race heats.
Other notable sailors such as reigning National Champion Jerry Hill kept their noses clean but still didn’t manage to threaten for the series. Hill excelled in the windier stuff, including a heat win in race 7, but in his usually favourite lighter conditions he just couldn’t find championship-winning form. “Sometimes you’d get a better start than someone, make them tack away to what you thought was the unfavoured side and then you’d seem them pass way ahead at the next cross,” said Hill, still sounding perplexed. “We just didn’t seem to work it out.”
But if he was disappointed at his own championship result of 7th overall, Hill in his role as class chairman was delighted with the turnout and the influx of new talent into the fleet. Newcomers Andy Oddie and Guy Jackson finished 5th and 6th overall respectively, and there were some other new faces that would be well known to other fleets such as Melges 24 sailor Jamie Lea who chartered a SB3 to come 10th overall. “We’ve also got other sailors like Martin Jones [former International 14 World Champion] coming into the SB3s because they want good tactical racing against the best sailors in the country and this fleet is where you’re guaranteed to get that level of competition,” said Hill.
With a crew weight limit of 270kg, the SB3 appeals either to three large blokes or a crew of four smaller people. Both combinations seem competitive, with the top two in this year’s Nationals being threesomes (Gill Race Team and Team Zimmer), while Geoff Carveth prefers to sail four-up as do the 4th placed InvestwithQ.co.uk owned by Mark and Liz Rushall.
Now that Burlton has won his national title in the class, the next major target is the SB3 World Championships in Cascais, Portugal at the end of August. It’s got a reputation for being a high-wind, big sea venue, and it promises to provide a great test for the fleet.
Whatever the outcome in Portugal, Burlton will look back with fond memories on the week that he turned 40. Royal Cornwall Yacht Club ran a perfect regatta out of what could just be the most beautiful sailing location in the country, and Burlton, White and Heeley put together a near-perfect series to beat some of the biggest names in British sailing.
The SB3 Class Association would like to thank Bolle Sunglasses, Neilson Holidays, Henri Lloyd Clothing and The Daily Sail Website for their generous prizes.Latest NewsLuke Moulton <luke@go4.com.au>