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Go4 NewsGo4 Multimedia.Donovan Craig <donovan@go4.com.au>
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SB3's at Hamilton IslandA recent fourth place in World SB3 championship in England suggests the talented crew of skipper Glenn Bourke, Rod Jones and Greg MacAllansmith should be the pacesetters in the Queensland championship at Hamilton Island.
Glenn Bourke has proved his skill as one of Australia’s foremost one design racing sailors having represented Australia at the Olympics raced in The Americas Cup besides winning four World Laser championships.
He has formed a strong association with the Sunshine Coast’s Rod Jones and Greg MacAllansmith as the trio prepares to contest the World championship over the physically demanding waters off Hamilton Island in December 2012.
The Club Marine/Hamilton Island racing team have shown their tactical ability to successfully ‘step up to the plate’ after they gained Australia’s best ever World championship result.
There is an element of confidence however the 12 other crews representing Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales also have the proven credentials that are capable of winning the 12 race championship.
Queensland’s World champion Olympic 470 class helmsman Matthew Belcher and his Beijing Olympic Gold Medal winning crew mate Malcolm Page have teamed up with Sydney Olympian Ian Brown.
Both Matthew Belcher and Malcolm Page winners of the 2012 London Games test event at Weymouth earlier this month will be tactically conditioned to enter into a speed sailing test of skill and endurance.
'We are facing a very formidable group of successful one-design racing crews including the former World Dragon class champion Nick Rogers from Tasmania' Rod Jones said.
The international champion from the cold climate port of Hobart is not the only potential challenger with the former Australian 505 champion Phil Gray from the Sunshine Coast also ranked among the skippers who have the experience and the tactical racing knowledge capable of extending the skills of Glenn Bourke, and Matthew Belcher.
However the experience gained from finishing fourth in the 2011 World championship supports the claim for the Glenn Bourke, Rod Jones and Greg MacAllansmith to be named as the pre-regatta favourite.
But that stands to be challenged when the sails are tensioned off Hamilton Island next week.
There is a strong indication that this title battle will be close with Glenn Bourke claiming he was happy with their World championship result however he remained concerned that the downwind spinnaker sailing skills needing refining.
He is a perfectionist and his results at the international level have been achieved through long hours on the training track to make sure he and the crew are physically and mentally prepared to answer all their challengers.
Latest NewsLuke Moulton <luke@go4.com.au>
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4th for AUS Crew at 2011 SB3 WorldsZhik World Laser SB3 championship 2011 has resulted in a fourth place finish for Glenn Bourke and the Sunshine Coast sailors Rod Jones and Greg MacAllansmith when they overcame a relative short preparation to finish fourth in the recent in England.
The crew onboard Club Marine were understandably ranked as with a possible chance to finish in the top twenty but, they expressed their class to overcome the considerable handicap of limited big fleet racing with their chartered SB3 Club Marine.
Glenn Bourke a former Australian Olympian and multiple World Champion had a distinct purpose in mind when he elected to join the dual Audi Australian IRC class ocean racing champions Rod Jones and Greg MacAllansmith for the World championship.
The Chief Executive Officer of the international standard Hamilton Island Resort has a special affiliation with racing in the high performance SB3 one design class and needed the opportunity to experience a World series before the class host their first World championship outside of Europe at Hamilton Island in December 2012.
As expected the tactically strong team of English crews racing with the valued experience of sailing on home waters dominated the medals with former champion Geoff Carveth 46 pts winning the Gold Medal by four points from Rob Greenhalgh with Craig Burlton another 26 points astern third with the crew on Club Marine finishing just seven points away fourth.
This was a remarkable result which has set the foundation for the Australian fleet to show their class when the sails are tensioned for the 2012 series at Hamilton Island.
Meanwhile Rod Jones and his OceanBuro performance racing syndicate have issued the Notice of Race for the 2011 Wintersun regatta to be contested off Mooloolaba on the weekend of July 23-24 followed by the 2011 Queensland championship during the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week on August 22-26.
Both championships have attracted the attention of several World champions including the highly skilled Australian Olympian Nathan Outteridge who clearly won the Australian championship before finishing 12th in the World championship.
However while this was considered to be a disappointing result for Nathan Outteridge he will be personally tactical tuned for a major assault on the World title at Hamilton Island. He and crew mate Ian Jensen are currently ranked as the World’s best in the Olympic 49er class leading into the London Olympics.
Nathan Outteridge has already indicated his intention to contest the 2012 World’s at Hamilton Island while the regatta continues to gain interest with specialist one-design sailors Australia wide.
This has allowed the SB3 to become Australia’s fastest growing One-design fleet with the recent sale of five new boats which will be prepared to contest their boat speed in the Winter sun series off Mooloolaba next month and the Audi Queensland championship at Hamilton Island in August. Latest NewsLuke Moulton <luke@go4.com.au>
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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>