Fireball World Championship - Birrell and Brearey back on top
by Fireball International Class (As Amended by ISAF) on 2 Apr 2014
Fireball World Championship Fireball International
After two days of light winds, the third day at the Fireball Worlds had stronger winds across the race track.
Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey (GBR) took back their lead at the top followed by Nathan Batchelor and Sam Pascoe (GBR) with Ben Schulz and Tom Sheppard (AUS) taking third.
First to the windward mark in Race 1 was Schulz and Sheppard, following just two boat lengths behind was the chasing British teams Birrell and Brearey then Batchelor and Pascoe. The fleet order remained unchanged for the rest of the race with these top three boats staying within six boat lengths of each other at every mark rounding.
As winds increased to an unstable tropical 20 knots the second race got underway with the usual suspects at the top of the fleet. The fleet split up the first beat with boats converging at the first mark, the opportunistic Batchelor and Pascoe came from the left to round in first place followed by Schulz and Sheppard in second then Gordon and Fletcher (AUS) in third who came from the right.
Schulz and Sheppard got into the lead on the upwind leg to go ahead of Bachelor and Pascoe but lost it just as quickly on the downwind leg. This seems to be the order of things this week with the Australian's being quick upwind and the British having the advantage downwind.
The two boats had a great scrap until Schulz and Sheppard had gear failure leaving Batchelor and Pascoe to take a solid win. At the last moment Gordon and Fletcher managed to sneak past Schulz and Sheppard and finished in second.
Any of the top three are still in with a chance of winning so the final four races are all to play for.
Results After Six Races
|
1
|
GBR 15107
|
Christian Birrell, Sam Brearey
|
9.0
|
1
|
1
|
(dsq )
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
|
2
|
GBR 15087
|
Nathan Batchelor, Sam Pascoe
|
11.0
|
2
|
2
|
(3 )
|
3
|
3
|
1
|
|
3
|
AUS 15062
|
Ben Schulz, Doug Sheppard
|
14.0
|
(4 )
|
4
|
4
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
|
4
|
AUS 15048
|
Heather MacFarlane, Chris Payne
|
19.0
|
3
|
(6 )
|
1
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
|
5
|
AUS 15071
|
Thomas Gordon, Jack Fletcher
|
19.0
|
5
|
3
|
5
|
(8 )
|
4
|
2
|
|
6
|
AUS 15032
|
Greg Allison, Allen Blenkle
|
24.0
|
7
|
5
|
2
|
5
|
(dnf )
|
5
|
|
7
|
CAN 15024
|
Joe Jospe, Tom Egli
|
37.0
|
6
|
(11 )
|
6
|
10
|
7
|
8
|
|
8
|
FRA 14793
|
Erich Moser, Jean-Francois Nouel
|
38.0
|
8
|
(9 )
|
8
|
7
|
6
|
9
|
|
9
|
GBR 15092
|
Veronica Falat, Ben Falat
|
39.0
|
9
|
7
|
9
|
6
|
8
|
(11)
|
|
10
|
AUS 14814
|
Steve Goacher, Peter Crossley
|
44.0
|
(10 )
|
8
|
10
|
9
|
10
|
7
|
|
11
|
AUS 14812
|
Dick McCulloch, Glenn Stewart
|
51.0
|
12
|
10
|
7
|
(dnf )
|
9
|
13
|
|
12
|
GBR 14887
|
Bryan Sargeant, William Sargeant
|
61.0
|
13
|
12
|
13
|
13
|
(14 )
|
10
|
|
13
|
SUI 14859
|
Christina Haerdi-Landerer, Cedric Landerer
|
61.0
|
11
|
14
|
12
|
11
|
13
|
(15)
|
|
14
|
AUS 14510
|
Jim Hughes, Tom Hughes
|
64.0
|
15
|
(19 )
|
11
|
12
|
12
|
14
|
|
15
|
RSA 14901
|
David Laing, Mark Dee
|
65.0
|
14
|
13
|
(16 )
|
15
|
11
|
12
|
|
16
|
AUS 15076
|
Tim Ninnes, Taylor Neighbour
|
76.0
|
16
|
15
|
15
|
14
|
16
|
(dnf)
|
|
17
|
AUS 15011
|
Jaline Thompson-Kambas, Cameron Philcox
|
80.0
|
17
|
18
|
14
|
16
|
15
|
(dns)
|
|
18
|
SUI 14921
|
Maja Suter, Thomas Boehm
|
86.0
|
19
|
16
|
17
|
17
|
17
|
(dnf)
|
|
19
|
AUS 14747
|
Daniel Wolch, Alan Schaiars
|
94.0
|
20
|
20
|
19
|
18
|
(dns )
|
17
|
|
20
|
AUS 14265
|
Kevin Luff, Peta Luff
|
95.0
|
21
|
21
|
18
|
19
|
(dnf )
|
16
|
|
21
|
THA 10338
|
Jirawat Jodkby, Dylan Whitcraft
|
101.0
|
18
|
17
|
(dnf)
|
dnf
|
dnc
|
dnc
|
ISAF Fireball website
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