With Tuesday's protests completed, the Gold and Silver Fleets were decided for the Volvo Laser SB3 World Championships finals and a further three races were scheduled for each of the fleets yesterday, taking the Championship race tally to nine.
Top Irish boats are skipperd by Dave Cheyne and Gareth Flannigan, in 27th and 31st respectively. The Gold Fleet is incredibly strong, including many great sailors with past Laser SB3 pedigree as well as a number of strong contenders from the wider sailing world. A measure of that is Geoff Carveth, who won the inaugural Laser SB3 Worlds in Dun Laoghaire, in 21st overall in Lake GardaThe Silver Fleet may not be racing for the Waterford Championships Trophy, but do not be fooled, their fleet will be competitive to the very end.
On the third attempt, the Gold Fleet were successfully away under the fear of a black flag start. The majority of the fleet picked the left hand side of the course, but at the windward mark, the right hand side of the course had clearly paid.
UK Class Chairman, Jerry Hill (GBR) and his crew onboard 3 Sad Old Blokes notched up some great results for their first finals races taking bullets in the first and second races today. Hill lead to the first windward mark in each race and extended his lead on each leg. It was suggested to Hill that he had made it look easy to win those races, his response, “I’m sure we will make it look very hard before the end of the event!”
Geoff Carveth was back in race mode today, having suffered a broken rudder gudgeon yesterday. Ben Saxton and his young crew onboard Rola-Trac are enjoying great consistency during their first season in the Laser SB3, they’ve posted some excellent results so far and are certainly a boat to watch at this event and in the future.
Gill Race Team’s Craig Burlton, Steve ‘AB’ White and Adam Heeley (GBR) had a frustrating first race today, but managed to turn their success around with 2 second places in races 8 and 9. Steve ‘AB’ White said, “It was a tough day at the office today, very few boats managed consistency in all 3 races and only Sarah Allan (GBR) finished in the top 10 in each race. We seem to be a magnet to Luca Rodion (RUS), each race we are sailing in the same piece of water!” Burlton and Rodion lie first and second respective in the Gold Fleet, perhaps that is more of a reason for the 2 teams magnetism!
Boomsticks, helmed by Brian Reilly and crewed by brother Paul Reilly and John O’Dowd (IRL) had a successful day on the Silver Fleet race course finishing the day with a 2, 3, 1 to add to their results. Their closest competition appears to be the Italians onboard Bravi helmed by Vincenzo Graciotti who took two bullets and a fifth today.
Vincenzo Graciotti leads the Silver Fleet overnight, and claims, “I can compete in this fleet because I have silver hair! Today we wore our lucky bear t-shirts, perhaps tonight we will wash them and wear them again tomorrow!”
