By Ian Grant.
English skippers Geoff Carveth, Robert Greenhalgh and Craig Burlton expressed their one-design fleet racing skill to fill the major places in the Zhik SB3 Laser World championship on the Royal Torbay Yacht Club course last week
Geoff Carveth steering Race Team Gill claimed his second World championship in three years when he and crew produced a near faultless display to win the title by four points from Robert Greenhalgh at the helm of Red while Craig Burlton completed the English team dominance with Gill Racing Team finishing another 26 points of the pace.
However while the racing on home waters favoured the English crews the ‘makeshift’ Queensland combination of master tactician Glenn Bourke (Hamilton Island ) and Sunshine Coasts Audi Australian ocean racing champions Rod Jones and Greg MacAllansmith prevented England from completing a clean sweep of the top five places.
Glenn Bourke a triple World Laser Olympic dinghy champion overcame limited racing experience with Rod Jones and Greg MacAllansmith showed why he is ranked among Australia’s best helmsmen when he steered Club Marine into fourth just seven points behind the Bronze Medallist Gill Racing Team.
For Rod Jones the result was a fitting reward for introducing the high performance class into Australia through his Sunshine Coast based OceanBuro Performance Racing syndicate
Collectively the top three British crews set a vice like grip on the championship winning eight of 12 races but in the end Geoff Carveth who also won the pre-world Gold Medal proved with his 4-2-3-4-1-2-6-9-1-8-4-2 score that consistency has its rewards.
The Race Team Gill combination finished all fourteen races in the top 14 discarding a 9-14 while the Red racing team winner of four races placed their title winning prospects in damage control when they finished the critical final four races with an 11-7-17-4 compared with a 1-8-4-2 by Geoff Carveth.
Placing fourth overall was similar to winning a medal with the Club Marine crew gaining Australia’s best ever result at an Laser SB3 World championship.
Their top four finish has set the foundation for an even stronger result when the next World championship regatta is decided at Hamilton Island in December 2012.
Sure the Club Marine crew deserve to be happy with their result but it will take a super human effort to prevent the strong English team from ruling on the warm waters of the Whitsunday Islands when the battle lines are drawn to decide to next World champions.
The next four months will provide Glenn Bourke, Rod Jones and Greg MacAllansmith with the opportunity to gain a head start over their English fleet racing rivals with the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in August providing another important step to develop the required boat speed and crew technique to repel Team Britannia from continuing with their undefeated record as the World’s best Laser SB3 sailing nation.