Fireball European Championship - Elements halt racing action

by Cormac Bradley on 1 Aug 2014

2014 Fireball European Championship Johnnie Simpson

Thursday’s racing at the Homecoming Scotland 2014 European Championships didn’t happen as Bruce Leask, Principle Race officer was beaten by the elements and was thus unable to get a race in. The fleet set out for the race course shortly after 12 noon for a scheduled 13:00 start, to the backdrop of a third cruise liner in Lerwick Harbour in as many days.

With a forecast of dropping wind strength as the day wore on, the omens were not good. The presence of the second largest floating crane in the world would have influenced where the race course could be set but initially this enormous piece of engineering excellence didn’t influence where we might be sailing.

However, the wind refused to co-operate and despite the persistent attention of the Race Team, they flew racing’s equivalent of the white flag, 'N over A' shortly after 15:00. A long sail home was shortened by the mark boats offering multiple tows to the competitors.

Fireball International Secretary & IJ © Andrew Davies

Tonight we have the UK Fireball Association 'setting out their stall' for the 2015 Worlds in Pwllheli, Wales.

Tomorrow, Friday, is the last day of the regatta and there must be the prospect of an earlier start to the day to try and recover at least one of today’s lost races.

For the present though, the scoreboard stays the same, which means that Matt Burge and Richard Wagstaff (GBR 15093) lead by two points from Tom Gillard and Richard Anderton (GBR 15081).

Overall Results

Sailed: 6, Discards: 1, To count: 5, Entries: 26, Scoring system: Appendix A

Rank	Nat	SailNo	HelmName	CrewName	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total	Nett
1st	GBR	15093	Matt Burge	Richard Wagstaff	(5.0)	1.0	1.0	2.0	1.0	2.0	12.0	7.0
2nd	GBR	15081	Thomas Gillard	Richard Anderton	(4.0)	2.0	2.0	1.0	3.0	1.0	13.0	9.0
3rd	GBR	15113	David Wade	Tim Hartley	2.0	(4.0)	4.0	4.0	2.0	3.0	19.0	15.0
4th	IRL	15114	Barry McCartin	Conor Kinsella	1.0	(6.0)	6.0	3.0	4.0	5.0	25.0	19.0
5th	CZE	15110	Jaroslav Verner	Jakub Nápravník	3.0	3.0	3.0	5.0	(6.0)	6.0	26.0	20.0
6th	GBR	15046	Alex Taylor	Geoff Edwards	6.0	5.0	7.0	7.0	(27.0 DNF)	4.0	56.0	29.0
7th	CZE	14551	Jiri Paruzek	Jakub Kosvica	8.0	7.0	5.0	6.0	5.0	(14.0)	45.0	31.0
8th	SHE	14513	Scott Nicolson	Roger Goudie	(15.0)	8.0	10.0	8.0	7.0	8.0	56.0	41.0
9th	IRL	14713	Frank Miller	Ismail Inan	(13.0)	10.0	11.0	12.0	10.0	9.0	65.0	52.0
10th	SHE	14402	Will'm Mouatt	Neil Fraser	(27.0 DNF)	11.0	8.0	9.0	9.0	16.0	80.0	53.0
11th	SHE	14566	Brydon Leask	Fraser McKenzie	14.0	12.0	12.0	(16.0)	8.0	13.0	75.0	59.0
12th	SHE	14635	David Grant	Andrew Grant	(20.0)	15.0	14.0	14.0	11.0	11.0	85.0	65.0
13th	GBR	14950	Chris Thorne	Russell Thorne	11.0	17.0	15.0	11.0	12.0	(27.0 DNC)	93.0	66.0
14th	CZE	14262	Ondrej Labuda	Karel Otto	9.0	14.0	13.0	(18.0)	14.0	18.0	86.0	68.0
15th	SHE	15022	John Manson	Ivan Fraser	17.0	18.0	(20.0)	13.0	15.0	7.0	90.0	70.0
16th	SUI	14921	Maja Suter	Thomas Boehm	7.0	(27.0 OCS)	18.0	22.0	17.0	10.0	101.0	74.0
17th	SHE	14395			10.0	16.0	19.0	15.0	16.0		103.0	76.0
			Darren Forrest	Craig Forrest						(27.0 DNF)
18th	IRL	15007	Louis Smyth	Cormac Bradley	12.0	19.0	9.0	10.0	(27.0 DSQ)	27.0 DNC	104.0	77.0
19th	IRL	14691	Louise Mc Kenna	Hermine O'Keeffe	16.0	9.0	17.0	17.0	(19.0)	19.0	97.0	78.0
20th	GBR	14872	Barbara Newson	Guy Newson	19.0	13.0	(22.0)	19.0	20.0	15.0	108.0	86.0
21st	SHE	14463	Maggie Adamson	Ian Adamson	18.0	20.0	16.0	21.0	(27.0 DNF)	12.0	114.0	87.0
22nd	SUI	14824	Thomas Gautschi	Getrund Gautschi	23.0	22.0	21.0	20.0	13.0	(27.0 DNC)	126.0	99.0
23rd	CZE	14674	Roman Vasik	Hana Trusikova	21.0	21.0	(24.0)	23.0	18.0	17.0	124.0	100.0
24th	GBR	14499	Andrew Leslie	Edward Johnstone	(27.0 DNF)	23.0	23.0	24.0	22.0	20.0	139.0	112.0
25th	SHE	14755	Magnus Johnston	Nicola Duthie	22.0	24.0	(25.0)	25.0	21.0	21.0	138.0	113.0
26th	SHE	13714	Gary Fullerton	John Allan	24.0	(27.0 DNF)	26.0	27.0 DNC	27.0 DNC	27.0 DNC	158.0	131.0