Fireballs at the Dinghy Show - 3 and 4 March

by Tim Saunders on 24 Feb 2007 Its a Fireball bonanza again at this years Dinghy Sailing Show, at the Alexandra Palace - London. As well as a brand new Winder Fireball complete with Rush Sails adorning the UK Fireball Stand, there will be another new boat fitted out by Pinnell and Bax on display on the Holt stand.

You can also pick up some top Fireball tuning tips when Adam Bowers ex Fireball world champion and Olympic coach uses yet another Fireball for his Feeling the Speed talk.

But is not just new boats that will be drawing interest; This year the class will be giving sailors under 21 the chance to race for some great prizes. Top prize will be a place at the 2008 Fireball World Championships in Thailand, with container and entry fees paid! But there will be some other excellent prizes on offer aswell. All I can say now is, the more you sail the more you might win! For full details of the qualifying series the last event of which will also be the Fireball Youth Champs will be available on the class website after the show, if you want know a little more in advance come along and see us on the day.

This year sees the class head east for its National Championships to Brightlingsea, home of a large an enthusiastic club fleet, who are looking forward to welcoming you with some east coast sunshine and hospitality. See www.sailbrightlingsea.com for more details. If you have not competed in a fireball nationals before then make this your first year! Perhaps you need some practice before hand? Well one of the class training weekends to be held at the beginning of May at Shoreham and Draycote Water could be for you.

Then later in the summer comes a two week, three event blowout. Nine races over three days at Riva on Lake Garda will decide the Grand National, following that a quick hop over the Alps to Southern Switzerland will bring you to St. Moritz for the equally compact Alpine Challenge worlds warm up event. The second week at Lake Silvaplana will purely be for the Worlds. Can anyone topple reigning Swiss World Champions and four times European Champions Erich and Ruedi Moser?

But the fun doesn't stop there. 2008 also promises to be a grand year with the Thailand World Championships kicking things off in March. Pattaya was host to a classic shorts and t-shirts worlds in 2000 and with a Strong Australian contingent expected competition will be tough.

Nieuwpoort was the scene of a great worlds in 1993 with big waves and some near gales making for an exciting championship on the water, with Belgium beer doing its bit on the shore. This time the Belgians are promising an even better European Championship at the venue which held the very first Fireball European Championship back in 1969, won by P Bateman and J Brooke-Houghton in GBR4161. Perhaps you could be sailing Fireball 15000 in 2008?

Then to round off the summer the UK Nationals will be at the classic south west sea venue of Mounts Bay. The perfect venue to demonstrate the Fireballs surfboard-like off wind performance on Atlantic rollers. Beyond that the 2009 Nationals sees the fleet travel to South Wales to Mumbles Yacht Club on the edge of the Gower Penisular. All this and some great open meeting racing all year round, isn't it time you got one?

Event website: http://www.dinghysailingshow.org.uk