Fireball World Championship - Winners decided in Pattaya

by Cormac Bradley on 5 Apr 2014 In what appears to have been a light wind conclusion to the Fireball worlds in Pattaya, Thailand, hosted by the Royal Varuna Yacht Club, two races were sailed to close out the ten-race series.

A variety of Facebook postings and a transcribed tweet suggested that a long postponement was in place before racing got underway. Thus far, this correspondent has no detail on the actual racing other than what I have stated in this preceding paragraph.

However, final results have been posted and it appears that the new, 2014 World Champions are Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey, GBR 15107, who won on count-back from Nathan Batchelor and Sam Pascoe, GBR 15087, with the Australian combination of Ben Schulz and Doug Sheppard, AUS 15062 in third, five points adrift of the top two.

The top five at the regatta was closed out by Thomas Gordon and Jack Fletcher, AUS 15071 and Heather MacFarlane and Chris Payne, AUS 15048.

Comments (from Facebook):

Chris Payne (AUS 15048) - Another cracking day on the water! Luckily we started early as the wind was gone by 4pm. Boats are all packed up in the container and only the partying to go to finish it off.

Ben Schulz (AUS 15062) – (Before the race!) Can’t lose third so no real pressure! Just go have fun!

Sam Brearey (GBR 15107) – (During the postponement) Light winds and high tide making it tricky for PRO!

Look like the Swiss-French combination of Moser and Nouel didn’t quite make the challenge of beating the quebecois, Joe and Tom today. They scored a 13, DNF in contrast to the Canadians who scored a 12, 5 to put a boat between them.

This report brings the curtain down on the 2014 Fireball Worlds in Thailand. The international Fireball community will reconvene in the Shetlands in late July to contest the Europeans. This correspondent and Fireball International will be keeping you up to speed with the development of this regatta and the news updates as we get closer to the event.

2014 Fireball Worlds, Pattaya, Thailand.			R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	Tot.
1	Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey	GBR 15107	1	1	dsq	1	2	4	2	3	1	dnc	15
2	Nathan Batchelor and Sam Pascoe	GBR 15087	2	2	3	3	3	1	4	1	2	1	15
3	Ben Schulz and Doug Sheppard	AUS 15062	4	4	4	2	1	3	1	2	5	3	20
4	Thomas Gordon and Jack Fletcher	AUS 15071	5	3	5	8	4	2	3	4	3	2	26
5	Heather MacFarlane and Chris Payne	AUS 15048	3	6	1	4	5	6	5	6	6	4	34
6	Greg Allison and Allen Blenkle	AUS 15032	7	5	2	5	dnf	5	6	5	4	6	38
7	Joe Jospe and Tom Egli	CAN 15024	6	11	6	10	7	8	7	9	12	5	58
8	Veronica and Ben Falat	GBR 15092	9	7	9	6	8	11	dnf	7	10	9	65
9	Erich Moser and Jean Francois Nouel	FRA 14793	8	9	8	7	6	9	10	8	13	dnf	65
10	Steve Goacher and Peter Crossley	AUS 14814	10	8	10	9	10	7	9	10	9	7	69

Event website: click here