Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Collins Crew Score Race Win at SB3 Worlds

19th May 2011
Collins Crew Score Race Win at SB3 Worlds

A win for Royal Cork's Mel Collins and his crew on Sibelus today has moved the top Irish boat up four places in the overall rankings. The Crosshaven crew are now in the top ten of the 103-boat fleet going in to tomorrow's final round of the SB3 World Championships in Torquay, England. Scroll down for today's photos, results and video.  All our SB3 coverage here.

Ben Duncan from Howth Yacht Club is 12th. Ross Vaughan is 31st and three Irish boats, Robert howe's Milvus Milvus, Paul McMahon's Quantitive Easing and John O'Driscoll's  Bomchickawahwah are 50-52nd in the gold fleet. The balance of the 11-boat Irish team are in the silver fleet.

Blue skies and brilliant sunshine greeted the 103 boat fleet of Laser SB3s on Day 4 of the Zhik SB3 World Championships 2011. Unfortunately the wind was late arriving and the "AP" was raised for over an hour. Eventually, the wind put in an appearance and as the afternoon went on the pressure increased and as forcast, the direction tracked right.

All eyes were on Robert Greenhalgh (GBR) and the crew this morning after their strong performance yesterday. At the first windward mark "Red" rounded towards the middle of the gold fleet, but the crew managed to pick up the wind shift and improve their position to finish the race in third place. The race was won by Irish entry Mel Collins (IRL) and his crew on Sibelus. Sarah Allan was back in action and finished the race second.

The rock star crew on One Design Sailing, Nathan Outteridge, Ian Brown and Tom Slingsby (AUS), have had a difficult Championship and today was no exception. They were called over the line in race two, but didn't hear the Race Committees radio announcement of their bow number. After leading the fleet all the way around the course, they finished first. The news of their "OCS" was a bitter blow for the Australian team. Having finished tenth in race one and fifth in race three, it's fair to say One Design Sailing's performance was back, but their luck is yet to be found.

Gill Race Team, helmed by Craig Burlton (GBR) have found their form today. The second discard has now been applied to the results which puts Burlton in third position overall. "From the forecast, it looked like it was going to be a really tough day, but we've worked it out today and the breeze was much more consistent. The smiles are back onboard!" said Craig as we had a chat on the harbour-side this evening. Going into the final day, there is a twenty point gap between Burlton and Greenhalgh, "It would be a big call to beat Rob, and we'd have to rely on him having some major errors tomorrow. But we're happy to be in third place this evening."

Yesterday, Rob Gullan (GBR), the helm of Pieter Heyn's "Parkway Pirates" took a great leap up the overall results. This evening Parkway Pirates lie in fifth position, sixteen points behind Glenn Bourke (AUS) in forth. "We don't do a lot of sailing together and it's taken us a bit of time to work out the conditions in Tor Bay. We sailed all of our qualifying races on the Orange course, but our results have improved since we've been sailing in the Gold fleet on the Yellow course." With just two races left to sail, Gullan and crew will be looking to sail two more consistent races to protect their fifth position. "If somebody had said to us before this event we'd be fifth at this stage, we'd have taken that, the competition is the hardest it's been at any of the World Championships so far."

This evening the "WKD Girls" are in town to entertain the competitors at the Zhik SB3 World Championships, though I expect for many at the top of the gold fleet the order of the day will be dinner and an early night ahead of the final battle on Tor Bay tomorrow.

Gold fleet
Series PlaceSail NoBow NoBoatHelmSeries Points
1 GBR3489 19 Red Robert Greenhalgh 35
2 GBR3053 111 Race Team Gill Geoff Carveth 40
3 GBR3042 54 Gill Racing Team
4 AUS3108 70 Club Marine Glenn Bourke
5 GBR3047 95 Parkway Pirates Rob Gullan 75
6 GBR3058 15 Xcellent John Pollard 77
7 GBR3082 68 Henri Lloyd/Forelle Estates Joe Llewellyn 79
8 ITA3073 39 Stenghele Roberto Caresani
9 RSA3469 49 Musto Race Ahead Asenaithi Jim 92
10 IRL3324 22 Sibelus Mel Collins 94
11 RUS3554 109 Team Russia Rodion Luka 95
12 NZL3287 36 Sailing West - Sharkbait Ben Duncan 113
13 GBR3065 65 Rola-Trac Peter Saxton 116
14 GBR3475 57 Perky III Jez Entwistle 124
15 AUS3063 32 One Design Sailing Nathan Outteridge 124
16 ITA3543 101 Bravi Thytronic Giovanni Meloni 140
17 GBR3149 16 Poor Buoy Mark Gillett 141
18 GBR3032 92 Rumbleflurg David Cummins 154
19 GBR3305 55 Rigging Gurus Mark Richards 159
20 GBR3336 8 Uber 3 Adrian Peach 162
21 GBR3575 56 Sailboat Deliveries Sarah Allan 164
22 GBR3292 93 Chill Pill Tich Summers 167
23 GBR3462 58 Underground Toys Andrew Oddie 179
24 GBR3465 26 3 Sad Old Blokes Jerry Hill 182
25 GBR3134 84 Marilyn Dom Ford 197
26 GBR3027 63 Darling Associates Chris Darling 197
27 GER3561 86 Razzmatazz Sebastian Dohrendorf 199
28 GBR3556 69 Herbie Phil Tilley 199
29 GBR3106 37 Tom Clay 203
30 GBR3546 98 Orthteam Richard Catchpole 204
31 IRL3298 64 Toucan 3 Ross Vaughan 204
32 GBR3517 75 Doolalli Colin Simonds 208
33 GBR3079 116 Excuse Me Gents Ann Jackson 213
34 GBR3510 52 Hutton's Richard Wharram 221
35 NED3441 17 Rivium Paul Gast 223
36 GBR3084 1 Eau No! Mark Sotkes 226
37 GBR3029 44 3-Some Niall Peelo 232
38 GBR3021 51 Here Comes Bod Charlie Whelan 245
39 GBR3464 5 Eric Martin Wedge 254
40 GER3402 21 Norah Daniel Spaenle 256.2
41 GBR3041 67 Robina Dan Goodman 259
42 GBR3183 30 Respect John Danby 264
43 ITA3606 114 Lunatico XS Aurelio Bini 264
44 ITA3596 99 Briefing Luca Bacci 266
45 GBR3276 89 Trouble & Strife Ian Armstrong 268
46 UKR3443 78 Transbunker Polovy Valeriy 268
47 AUS3607 104 Wysiwyg VI Stephen Fries 280
48 BEL3472 35 Los Zapateros Alex Schoenmakers 282
49 GBR3468 60 Fully Badgered Paul Lovejoy 297
50 IRL3338 59 Milvus Milvus Robert Howe 319
51 IRL3226 112 Quantitative Easing Paul McMahon 329
52 IRL3312 91 Bomchickawahwah John O'Driscoll 368
Published in SB20
Afloat.ie Team

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

Direct Donation to Afloat button

SB20 (formerly Laser SB3) information

Designed by Tony Castro, the SB20 is a British-built strict one-design 6.15m keelboat conceived as a wide appeal, affordable, competitive sportsboat for teams of three or four sailors. It is also, arguably, the most successful sportsboat in the world with 800 owners competing regularly in a programme of exciting local, national and international events.

Originally known as the Laser SB3, the SB20 continues to deliver on its pioneering promise: a boat that is fun, fast and easy to sail by anyone of any age; the best value-for-money sportsboat in the market.

The Laser SB3 was designed by Castro and launched in 2002. In 2007 the Laser SB3 was awarded ISAF Recognised Status and the first World Championships were held in Ireland in 2008. In 2012, Tony Castro appointed a new builder, Sportsboat World. At this time, the Laser SB3 was renamed the SB20 and building was returned to the UK from Malaysia. The ethos of the class continues.

The boat is a strict one-design class, economic to buy and campaign, easy to sail with a simple deck layout and electric downwind performance delivered by the generous sail plan. The boat has a lifting keel, can easily be launched from a slipway and towed behind a family car.

Previous SB20 World Champions

2008 GBR: Geoff Carveth, Roger Gilbert, Roz Allen & Sarah Allan

Host National Yacht Club, Dun laoghaire, Ireland

2009 GBR: Craig Burlton, Stephen White, Adam Heeley

Host Clube Naval de Cascais, Cascais, Portugal

2010 GBR: Jerry Hill, Grant Rollerson, Joe Llewellyn

Host Circolo Vela Torbole, Lake Garda, Italy

2011 GBR: Geoff Carveth, Andy Ramus, Ian Mills & Emma Clarke

Host Royal Torbay Yacht Club, Torquay, UK

2012 GBR: Geoff Carveth, Lesley Dhonau, Roger Hudson & Asenathi Jim

Host Hamilton Island Yacht Club, Queensland, Australia

2013 GRB: Craig Burlton, Stephen White, Adam Heley Host COYCH Club, Hyeres, France