Fifth Endeavour victory for Gill Race Team member Geoff Carveth!

Posted on 12/10/2009 in Team Gill

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Fifth Endeavour victory for Gill Race Team member Geoff Carveth!

Forty-nine –year-old Geoff Carveth, who last sailed the event seven years ago, has won the coveted Endeavour Trophy for the fifth time. He and his crew Emma Clarke representing the RS200 class stole the show today and finished the eight-race series, nine points clear ahead of Lark sailors Alan Krailing and Ed McArdle.

Krailing and McArdle may have led the event at close of play yesterday but the invincible Carveth/Clarke duo – just one point behind overnight – were ready to pounce this morning, notching up their second win of the series in race 7. This was the defining moment for Carveth and Clarke who, with just one race to go, led the overall series by eight points from Fireball representatives Matt Burge and Richard Wagstaff. Krailing and McArdle (Lark) were lying third at this stage but a fifth place in the last race elevated them once again to second place overall.

Chatting about his win as he crossed the finish line today a proud Carveth commented: “It’s a great thing to have done. And I’m glad to have sailed with Emma, keeping our golden team – our championship-winning team – together for this event. It’s often tempting to swap crew for potentially more suitable heavier weight crew for this event particularly when you know you are a bit on the light side but Emma’s a great crew and we work well together. Going into the last race we had a fair idea of what we had to do, so it was a matter of keeping a close eye on those nearest on points to us and sailing as fast as we could.”

Carveth’s fifth Endeavour Trophy win now puts him in a record-breaking tie position with Mike Holmes, the only other person to have matched this scoreline. It will be interesting to see if Carveth can break the record at next year’s grand 50th anniversary event.

Lt. Emma Clarke from the Royal Army Medical Corp in Aldershot who’s been crewing for Carveth all season, and on and off for the last three years, was also thrilled with today’s result, commenting: “It’s absolutely amazing and I really never thought this would happen. I love sailing with Geoff because we work so well together. This result is an amazing culmination of a fantastic year’s sailing.”