Team Touareg wins Laser SB3 Grand Prix at West Mersea 16/6/06

It was Champagne sailing on the River Blackwater last weekend for the third Volkswagen Touareg Laser SB3 Grand Prix hosted by West Mersea Yacht Club.

Near perfect conditions greeted the sailors on Saturday with enough breeze to put the fast and furious sportsboats through their paces along the Mersea shore packed with people enjoying the first hot and sunny weekend of the summer.

The conditions suited Geoff Carveth on Small But Steamy who finished the day with three firsts and a second ahead of Jon Shelley (Price Waterhouse Coopers) and Jerry Hill at the helm of Team Touareg.

Hamble-based Hill learnt to sail on the River Blackwater and was hoping for a regatta win in his old haunting ground as was local boat Complete Madness (Paul Harrison and Chris Pugh) who began the weekend holding a top ten position in the Grand Prix series. They notched up a third and fifth place on Saturday finishing the day in 5th position.

On day two, light winds and a strong tide tested the sailors with Dan Geoghegan putting in a sound performance to claim two seconds and Mersea’s James Struth (Squat Thrust) claiming a third and fifth. It wasn’t enough, however, to beat Complete Madness who, despite having to do penalty turns in the light and fluky Race 5, finished consistently in the top ten and 7th overall.

The day belonged to Team Touareg and Hill who sailed through a struggling cluster of boats in the light winds and strong foul tide at the first mark to win Race 5. Carveth couldn’t equal his day one performance and finished five points behind Hill, one point ahead of Shelley.

Overall Results
1 Team Touareg 3130 Jeremy Hill
2 Small But Steamy 3053 Geoff Carveth
3 PWC 3072 Jon Shelley
4 Another Naked Blond 3169 Daniel Geoghegan
5 TRAXU.com 3150 Mark Richards
6 Badger Racing 3082 Paul Lovejoy
7 Complete Madness 3011 Harrison/Pugh
8 Kelpie 3041 French/Hunter/Glasgow
9 Bish Bash Bosh 3055 Roger Hexton
10 Squat Thrust 3152 James Struth
11 Hooligan 3067 Nick Glanvill
12 Virtual Human Resources 3173 Danny Brooks
13 Rascal 3158 Ian Sullivan
14 Finator 7 3060 Reed/Maudsley
15 Hobgoblin 3079 Chris Harris
16 Striptease 3075 Venetia Wingfield
17 Laser Sailing 3164 James Lund-Lack
18 Barbarian 3012 Mike Taylor
19 Betty Swollocks 3127 Josh Warren
20 Team JVC 3078 Oli Southgate
21 Make Me Smile 3170 Bob King