SB3 UK Nationals Update day 3 by Claire Molloy

Glenn Bourke takes the lead in ‘Musto’

Day 3 of the Laser SB3 National Championships at Hayling Island was long, cold, wet and windy. 5 races were sailed in a shifty northerly 20-25 knot breeze. Volvo Ocean Race CEO, Glenn Bourke had another strong day to take the lead from Russell Peters on ‘Tack Tick’. But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the leaders today, as the top three all found themselves black-flagged in the second race. Lawrie Smith took advantage of this to win his first race of the championships. Jono Shelley and yours truly on ‘PricewaterhouseCoopers’ came in second with Jez Entwistle ‘S4B’ close behind in 3rd place.

Paul Lovejoy, ‘Badger Racing’, won the first race, but had mixed results following his OCS in the second, including a rare dead-heat for 13th with Andrew Dallas’s ‘Hullabaloo’ in race 4. An OCS for Craig Burlton’s ‘Team Touareg’ in the second race seemed to spur him on, getting his best results of the championship for the remaining races (2,4,4) and making it into the top 10 overall.

The 2006 National Champion, Geoff Carveth also fell to the black flag in the final race, but with the second discard coming into effect today, moved up to 4th overall. Mark Rushall and his team on ‘Risk Premium’ showed consistently good form to climb up the rankings to 5th place.

With 3 races tomorrow to complete the championships and conditions forecast to ease, we might see Glenn Bourke crowned SB3 National Champion title for the second time.

SB3 UK Nationals Update

'Team Maclaren - Christina Summer, Catherine Williamson, Barbara Watson, Lizzie Vickers' Around The Cans Click Here to view large photo The second day of the Volkswagen Touareg Laser SB3 National Championships was another windy affair. Waking to a northerly breeze gusting over 30 knots, the PRO called a 1-hour postponement allowing competitors to enjoy a leisurely breakfast and the wonderful view at Hayling Island Sailing Club, before tackling the Bay.Images from the days racing - http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=37808 Russell Peters, James Grant and Greg Wells on 'TackTick' were on top form today winning 3 of the 4 races sailed. The all-woman crew on 'Team Maclaren' gained a considerable lead over the rest of the fleet in the third race but were hunted down by 'tacktick' who stole the win from them close to the finish.Glenn Bourke’s 'Musto' continued to do consistently well, with 4, 2, 4, 4. Paul Lovejoy, Rob and Peter Greenhalgh and Sally Wilson on 'Badger Racing' started the day brilliantly with a second place in the first race and a bullet in the second. Having gained a third in the final race they are currently sitting in third place overall.Lawrie Smith’s disasters of yesterday were a distant memory as he Ozzie Stewart and Rob Cruikshank hit the water this morning in 'Alfie'. They also proved that they have not lost their touch posting 6-3-7-10, to be sitting fourth overall going into the penultimate day.After gear failure and running aground after racing yesterday, the current European Champion, Geoff Carveth sailed well today to place fifth overall.With one discard coming into effect today and potentially another eight races to sail, the top ten positions are by no means secure. Peters and Bourke have pulled ahead of the pack with 21 points each, but we are still only at the mid-way stage, with two days to go.Sinking feeling for Lawrie Smith On the first day Lawrie Smith had a major port starboard collision in the third race (Lawrie was on port) and had a huge gaping hole. He managed to limp back to the entrance of Chichester Harbour before he had to abandon ship and his SB3 sank with just the tip of the mast being visible.His boat drifted three miles before it was recovered by Frank in Hayling Rescue. It finally arrived back at the sailing club at 8.30pm whisked into the Scruiteneers shed and worked on by some incredible boat builders overnight with the final polish going on just as the fleet were going out for their second days racing.The other boat that spent the night in the scruiteneers shed was Geoff Carveth's whose SB3, for the second time in three days, had found it's way onto the Winner Bank when returning from the race track and decided that his keel needed some TLC.Full results at: http://www.hisc.co.uk/openresults07/sb3_nats_2007.htmImages from the days racing - http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=37808