Gear guide from the Fireball Worlds

by Cormac Bradley on 21 Apr 2014 Fireball Worlds - Pattaya, Thailand, The table below sets out the various combinations of hulls, sails and fittings, together with crew weights of the top six boats in the recently concluded Fireball Worlds in Thailand.

It is a table that details very few surprises except maybe the use of Irwin sails by Heather MacFarlane and Chris Payne – my recall of the race reports is that they flew a set of Irwin Dacron sails for part of the week.

In terms of all up crew weight is it significant how little variation there is in the six combinations, with the exception of Heather MacFarlane and Chris Payne at the light end and Ben Schulz and Doug Sheppard at the other end of the scale. The average 'all-up' weight of the crew is 146.83 kgs which means that three of the crews were 'on the money' weight wise and the range across the top six was only 30kg. This may have course have been a deliberate ploy as the regatta wasn’t expected to have consistently heavy winds, but it is an indication of how a range of weights can be successful in the top echelons of a Worlds fleet.

Hull choice is consistent but really this isn’t a surprise, nor is the choice of masts. It is however interesting to note the number of combinations who are using North Sails

For the crew writing this short piece to go with this table of data, collated by Chris Payne, there is a salutary lesson…………I am carrying too much weight, and given that our domestic season is imminent, the inference is rather obvious!

Fireball Worlds – RVYC, Pattaya, Thailand, 2014

Skipper Weight                  (kg)

Crew Weight              (kg)

Total Crew Weight (kg)

Hull

Mast

Main

Jib

Spinnaker

Centreboard

Rudder

Boom

Pole

Fit-out

1st

Christian Birrell       (65)

Sam Brearey   (81)

146

Winder

Super Spar M7+

North T10

North

North DS5

Winder

Winder

Superspar

Super Spar

Birrell/Brearey using Allen Fittings and English Braids Ropes

2nd

Nathan Batchelor (68)

Sam Pascoe (82)

150

Winder

Super Spar M7+

North T10

North

North DS5

Winder

Winder

Superspar

Selden

Batchelor fit out with Allan fittings

3rd

Ben Schulz              (78)

Doug Sheppard (85)

163

Winder

Super Spar M7+

North T10

Pinnel & Bax

North DS5

Winder

Hazelgrove Fixed Rudder

Selden

Goldspar

P&B

4th

Tom Gordon             (68)

Jack Fletcher   (78)

146

Winder

Super Spar M7+

Pinnel & Bax

Pinnel & Bax

Pinnel & Bax

Winder

Selden

Goldspar

P&B

5th

Heather Macfarlane (54)

Chris Payne  (76)

130

Winder

Selden Cumulus

Irwin Sails / Pinnel & Bax

Irwin Sails

Pinnel & Bax/Irwin Sails

Winder

Winder

Selden

Selden

Winder

6th

Greg Allison             (66)

Allen Blenkle (80)

146

Winder

Selden Alto

Clifton/Pinnel & Bax

Clifton

Clifton

Winder

Winder-fixed

Selden

Selden

P&B