Fireball World Championship - Leader board shakeup on day 2
by Fireball International Class (As Amended by ISAF) on 1 Apr 2014
Ben Schulz and Doug Sheppard (AUS) - 2014 Fireball World Championship Fireball International
Day two at the Fireball Worlds brought shifty conditions and a shakeup at the top of the leader board.
Overnight leaders Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey (GBR) dropped down to sixth after a DSQ in the first race of the day. Their British rivals Nathan Bachelor and Sam Pascoe moved into the top spot after a consistent day of two third positions, followed closely by a chasing pack of five Australian pairings.
Conditions in Thailand were sunny with 10 knots of breeze with up to 20 degree wind shifts on some parts of the course. It was wind wide tide meaning the windward legs were hard on all the sailors, as everyone worked hard to keep their boat moving forwards through the water through the water.
Race 1 saw Birrell and Brearey first around the windward mark, taking off on the first reach to extend their lead. Following closesly behind in second were Batchelor and Pascoe then Heather MacFarlane and Chris Payne (AUS) in third.
The positions held through much of the race, until Birrell and Brearey decided that they wanted to practice their match racing tactics with Batchelor and Pascoe. A couple of dozen tacks ensued, letting MacFarlane and Payne slip through and get ahead of both of them. In their hurry to catch up, Birrell and Brearey decided to get physical and ended up getting whistled for kinetics, their penalty turns on the starboard layline were some cause for concern eventually leading to a DSQ in the protest room.
MacFarlane and Payne had no trouble for the rest of the race and took first very comfortably. The battle for second and third between Batchelor and Pascoe and Greg Allinson and Allen Blenkle (AUS) was where the real fight was, Allinson and Blenkle managed to catch them on the final hitch to the line for a second place finish.
First around the windward mark in Race 2 was Schulz and Sheppard followed closely by Birrell and Brearey, both teams taking advantage of the increase in wind speed and smaller waves on the left hand side of the course. The rest of the fleet rounded the windward mark within a couple of boat lengths of each other, the fleet split going down the first run with Thomas Gordon and Jack Fletcher (AUS) making a substantial gain.
The second beat saw some of the early front runners fall back and let the usual suspects make their way to the front. The two reaches caused some problems for the top sailors, Schulz and Sheppard broke a kite sheet and dropped to third while Allison and Blenkle had to drop their spinnaker to make the gybe mark.
The last couple of legs saw a number of position changes. Schulz and Sheppard recovered from their breakage to sneak up to second again, Birrell and Brearey held onto to their lead with Schulz and Sheppard in second and Batchelor and Pascoe kept MacFarlane and Payne at bay on the final run to take third.
Results subject to gear weight confirmation
No
|
Sailno
|
Name
|
Scores
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
1
|
GBR 15087
|
Nathan Batchelor, Sam Pascoe
|
10.0
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
2
|
AUS 15048
|
Heather MacFarlane, Chris Payne
|
14.0
|
3
|
6
|
1
|
4
|
3
|
AUS 15062
|
Ben Schulz, Doug Sheppard
|
14.0
|
4
|
4
|
4
|
2
|
4
|
AUS 15032
|
Greg Allinson, Allen Blenkle
|
19.0
|
7
|
5
|
2
|
5
|
5
|
AUS 15071
|
Thomas Gordon, Jack Fletcher
|
21.0
|
5
|
3
|
5
|
8
|
6
|
GBR 15107
|
Christian Birrell, Sam Brearey
|
25.0
|
1
|
1
|
dsq
|
1
|
7
|
GBR 15092
|
Veronica Falat, Ben Falat
|
31.0
|
9
|
7
|
9
|
6
|
8
|
FRA 14793
|
Erich Moser, Jean-Francois Nouel
|
32.0
|
8
|
9
|
8
|
7
|
9
|
CAN 15024
|
Joe Jospe, Tom Egli
|
33.0
|
6
|
11
|
6
|
10
|
10
|
AUS 14814
|
Steve Goacher, Peter Crossley
|
37.0
|
10
|
8
|
10
|
9
|
11
|
SUI 14859
|
Christina Haerdi-Landerer, Cedric Landerer
|
48.0
|
11
|
14
|
12
|
11
|
12
|
AUS 14812
|
Dick McCulloch, Glenn Stewart
|
51.0
|
12
|
10
|
7
|
dnf
|
13
|
GBR 14887
|
Bryan Sargeant, William Sargeant
|
51.0
|
13
|
12
|
13
|
13
|
14
|
AUS 14510
|
Jim Hughes, Tom Hughes
|
57.0
|
15
|
19
|
11
|
12
|
15
|
RSA 14901
|
David Laing, Mark Dee
|
58.0
|
14
|
13
|
16
|
15
|
16
|
AUS 15076
|
Tim Ninnes, Taylor Neighbour
|
60.0
|
16
|
15
|
15
|
14
|
17
|
AUS 15011
|
Jaline Thompson-Kambas, Cameron Philcox
|
65.0
|
17
|
18
|
14
|
16
|
18
|
SUI 14921
|
Maja Suter, Thomas Boehm
|
69.0
|
19
|
16
|
17
|
17
|
19
|
AUS 14747
|
Daniel Wolch, Alan Schaiars
|
77.0
|
20
|
20
|
19
|
18
|
20
|
THA 10338
|
Jirawat Jodkby, Dylan Whitcraft
|
79.0
|
18
|
17
|
dnf
|
dnf
|
21
|
AUS 14265
|
Kevin Luff, Peta Luff
|
79.0
|
21
|
21
|
18
|
19
|
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