Chapple's Cairn Curran Estate Fireball Victorian Champs overall report

by Chris Payne on 27 Nov 2014

Ian Lane, Chris Payne, Heather Macfarlane and Mike Rogers show off the Victorian Fireball perpetual Trophy - 2014 Chapple's Cairn Curran Estate Fireball Victorian Championships Chris Payne

2014 Chapple's Cairn Curran Estate Fireball Victorian Championships - It has been almost 30 years, but the International Fireball Association of Victoria headed back to Cairn Curran to run the 2014 state championships. With the wonderful support of Chapple's Cairn Curran Estate, a renowned winery in the area, the fleet competed as a part of the Cairn Curran Classic being run on the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd November.

Arthur 'Smiley' Chapple has been a supporter and sailor in the fireball class for many years and it was fantastic to have him heavily involved again. To help with the enjoyment of the regatta, Smiley provided a number of 2010 Red Ball Shiraz specially labelled for the event with a picture of a Fireball at full stretch. After sampling a couple, the fleet can’t wait for these reds to become available in the shops.

This year we had a number of competitors from interstate, with most notable, being Mike Rogers from South Australia. Mike has won numerous Fireball Australian Championships and won the World Championship at Frankston in 1982 sailing with Chris Tillet.

More recently Mike has been PRO for a number of Fireball World Championships in exotic locations such as Barbados and Thailand. Mike teamed up with Victorian legend, Ian Lane who has also won many Australian Championships over the years. The two showed their class by being the only boat not to capsize over the weekend.

It was also good to have two boats make the 15 hour journey from Gosford, NSW to keep the Victorians honest. They both showed good speed, but Dick McCulloch and Glenn Stewart won the 'upside down labelled' Red Ball wine for the most capsizes on the Saturday.

The class also welcomed Lloyd Collings and Jack Lidgett who sailed the Victorian Fireball Association’s boat and showed that they will be a force to be reckoned with in a few years.

The racing was very intense, particularly on the Saturday with gusts to 30 knots ensuring almost every competitor had a swim. Previous Australian Champion Brendan Garner and Peter Durran, sailing a borrowed boat for the first time in many years, dominated in the windy conditions with two firsts and a third. Philip Peverell and Bruce Shand showed their form to win the last and probably windiest race of the day.

The Sunday started with no wind, and PRO, Mark Teasdale, kept the fleet on shore until a tricky breeze came across the fleet. With two lighter races, Heather Macfarlane and Chris Payne were able to make use of their lighter weight and score a couple of firsts. This gave them a one point win over Brendan Garner/Peter Durran with Nick and Sam Gunner a close third.

A big thank you to Cairn Curran Sailing Club for running a fantastic event on the water and most importantly off the water.

We are now all really looking forward to the hospitality of our NSW brethren at the Australian Championships at Gosford NSW.

For more information please click here.

Complete Results:

Division Fireballs - Yardstick:

Place	Sail#	Name	Class	Crew	Club	Race 1 Race 1 22 Nov 2014	Race 2 Race 2 22 Nov 2014	Race 3 Race 3 22 Nov 2014	Race 4 Race 4 23 Nov 2014	Race 5 Race 5 23 Nov 2014	Score
1	15048	Not Your Average Rock Star	Fireball	Heather McFarlane - F Chris Payne	BRYC	4	2	2	1	1	6.0
2	14972	Smoking Gun	Fireball	Brendan Gunner - M Peter Durran	RGYC	1	1	3	2	5	7.0
3	15049	Scatter Gun	Fireball	Nick Gunner - M Sam Gunner		2	3	4	3	2	10.0
4	15027	The Grey Ghost	Fireball	Phil Peverell - M Bruce Shand		3	4	1	4	4	12.0
5	14812	Viper	Fireball	Glenn Stewart - M Dick McCulloch		7	5	11 (DNC)	5	3	20.0
6	14722	Paranoid	Fireball	Rod Hookway - M Grant Ireland		5	7	5	7	9	24.0
7	14414	Outback Dingos	Fireball	Glenn Peverell - M James Coote		6	11 (DNC)	6	8	6	26.0
8	14218	Back In	Fireball	Lloyd Collins - M Jack Lidgett		8	6	11 (DNC)	6	7	27.0
9	14943	Old Stars	Fireball	Ian Lane - M Mike Rodgers	CYC	11 (DNC)	11 (DNC)	11 (DNC)	9	8	39.0
10	14650	Mrs Palmer	Fireball	Don Allen - M Emily Allen		11 (DNC)	11 (DNC)	11 (DNC)	11 (DNC)	11 (DNC)	44.0

Division Monos - Yardstick:

Place	Sail#	Name	Class	Crew	Club	Race 1 Race 1 22 Nov 2014	Race 2 Race 2 22 Nov 2014	Race 3 Race 3 22 Nov 2014	Race 4 Race 4 23 Nov 2014	Race 5 Race 5 23 Nov 2014	Score
1	453	Mr Plow	Impulse	Paul Farrell - M		1	1	1	2	6	5.0
2	63	TBA	Impulse	Matthew Draper - M	RYC	2	4	16 (DNC)	1	2.5	9.5
3	262		Finn	Craig Ginnivan		9	5	2	4	1	12.0
3	75	Chaddywagon	Finn	Phil Chadwick - M		4	2	3	3	4	12.0
5	1538	Tijuana Taxi	Sabre	Andrew Giles - M		3	7	5	8	7	22.0
6	3	Black Dog	Finn	Jake Gunther - M	HSC	16 (DSQ)	3	16 (DNF)	5	5	29.0
7	545	On A Whim	Impulse	James Rudolph - M		5	6	4	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	31.0
8	60	Finn Edge	Finn	James Maskiell - M		16 (DSQ)	9	16 (DNC)	6	2.5	33.5
9	206397	Hoon	Laser 4.7	Jack Chadwick - M	BRYC	7	16 (DNF)	16 (DNC)	7	8	38.0
10	636	Bathsheba	Impulse	Mal McPherson - M		6	8	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	46.0
11	551	Hard Reign	145	Chris Clarke - M Toby Clarke	BEYC	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	9	9	50.0
12	607	Stampede	Impulse	David Wood - M	LBYC	8	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	56.0
13	617	Muzbe	Impulse	Kayla Gilchrist - F	RYC	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	64.0
13	98955	Flirt	Laser	Sam Doolan - M		16 (DSQ)	16 (DNF)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	64.0
13	1975	Mustang On	Tasar	Chris Green - M Mandy Murray	SYC	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	16 (DNC)	64.0

Division Cats - Yardstick:

Place	Sail#	Name	Class	Crew	Club	Race 1 Race 1 22 Nov 2014	Race 2 Race 2 22 Nov 2014	Race 3 Race 3 22 Nov 2014	Race 4 Race 4 23 Nov 2014	Race 5 Race 5 23 Nov 2014	Score
1	1785	Bear Talk	Mosquito Cat	Garry Johnstone - M	LBYC	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	1	1	16.0
2	313	Goodall Design	Viper Sloop	Robbie Lovic - M Crista Goodall		7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	2	3	19.0
3	261	Go Go Girls	Viper Sloop	Michelle Burger - F Meg Burger		7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	2	23.0
4	967		A Class (Standard)	Graeme Parker - M		7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	28.0
4	907	Bush Object	A Class (Standard)	David McKenzie - M		7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	28.0
4	1808	Grey Matter	Mosquito Cat	Robert Lott - M		7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	7 (DNC)	28.0