Nov 03 2008
2008 Racing Report
Location –
Date – 28th June
Crew –Ian Gilmour
Ash Holmes
Simon Davies
Result – 2nd
Entries – 17
Website - www.roundtheisland.org.uk
Report
The day started at
We had an average start beating towards the Needles, with over 1800 boats in the race, it was very difficult to spot the other SB3’s. At the Needles, we were still unsure of our position but we had past a couple of boats on the way. Once around, we hoisted the spinnaker and started flying! As we got nearer to St Catherine’s the wind increased as did our boat speed. We were now right on the edge, surfing at speeds of 15-20 knots in a 6-8 feet swell.
After 2 and half hours, we had covered 30 miles and were approaching Bembridge. On the way, we past 5-6 boats and had our sights on the leader.
Around Ryde sands, we found ourselves in 3rd place and catching the 2nd boat. By
By the time we got into the marina, we had all agreed, it was the toughest race of the year!
Location –
Date – 12th July to 18th July
Crew – Ian Gilmour
Ash Holmes
Phil Deveaux
Result – 19th
Entries – 42
Website - www.accbankcorkweek.ie
Report
The week started quite windy with westerlies force 4-5 decreasing during the week with clear skies.
The week started with 3 races a day starting at 1000 and continuing until
It was also the first time we had all raced together and with so many boats around, we had to be quite conservative.
The first race went very well, with a 18th place, our hopes were very high which by the second race were shot down! From there the rest of the week went from bad to worst with our worst result of last place!!
That night, we cleared our heads and evaluated where we were going wrong. On the second to last day, we had a lot to make up. The first race we achieved 16th place, then a 10th, followed by a 5th and 6th!
Unfortunately, it was too late to make a real difference, but we achieve our goal, our final result was in the top half of the fleet!
Date – 2nd to 9th Aug
Location –
Crew – Ian Gilmour
Ash Holmes
Simon Davies
Result – 16th
Entries – 83
Website - www.cowesweek.co.uk
Report
August saw a full mix of wind from very light wind to gale force 8 on the last day! Again,
The tides and local knowledge played a big part in this type of racing so we had a few tricks up our sleeves.
The first day went very well with a 7th place, which put us on a high, again! We then followed it up with all top 30 results which left us in 16th place overall.
The last Saturday of the event saw very high winds, and because the race didn’t count towards the overall stands, there were only 20 boats on the start line.
On the start, we were first off the start line and second around the windward mark. From there, the fun began, we were the first ones to hoist the spinnaker and we were back in first. As the visibility decreased, we found it harder and hard to spot the marks so we stayed in the top 3. By the 3rd mark, everyone had retired apart from 3 boats due to the wind.
We managed to hold our first place all day until the last leg to the finish when we were done by the 3rd boat because we were covering the 2nd boat! Lesson learnt!
We finally came in 2nd.
Date – 20th to 26th Sep
Location –
Crew – Ian Gilmour
Ash Holmes
Simon Davies
Result – 35th (Silver Fleet)
Entries – 150
Website - www.sb3worlds2008.com
Report
The wind for the week was light to moderate and sunny. This is the 1st SB3 Worlds and there was a big entry with some big names from the world of sailing.
The week started with a practice race on the Sunday, again the week started good with an overall result of 37th.
Once again, the racing was very different compared to Cowes Week. It was all on the starts again. If you had a bad start, you would have a bad race. Around the marks, we saw 20+ boats and a lot of crashes.
We decided to play it safe and get round in one piece. Our goal was to get into the gold fleet and get into the top half of the fleet. During the qualifiers, we got average points but with a couple of bad results we found ourselves in the top half of the silver fleet.
When the finals came round, we had a few bad starts which gave us bad points, so we had to step it up on the last day.
It was back on the starts, you were either front row on the start line or Blacked Flagged, which meant disqualification from the race. The first race went Ok with a 35th, then the second race went very bad with a black flag!
We then realized, we had no chance of a result, so we called it a day and packed up the boat.