Fireball World Championship - day 4

by PR on 1 Sep 2007 Lake Silvaplana served up some extremly shifty and gusty winds from 10 to 25 knots which made sailing difficult on day four of the Fireball World Championships. Even some of the top teams couldn’t prevent an unintended bath. On every beat positions changed dramatically and no one could be sure of his position until the finish line.

A lot of teams were surprised to see the first race of the gold fleet cancelled. The finish line was not in position when the first two boats were to cross it. Therefore, the gold fleet had to start again to repeat the first race.

British teams dealt best with the difficult conditions on Lake Silvaplana. The first ten teams were all British. The race was won by Horey/Thompson before Mee/Wagstaff and Edwards/Potts. The actual world champions, Erich and Ruedi Moser (SUI) had a bad day finishing 16th and will probably be unable to defend their title, since only two, maximum three, races are left for tomorrow.

The silver fleet had to struggle with very similar conditions. Their only race of the day was won by Priest/Pepperdine (GBR) before Boyle/Byrne (IRL) and Kelsall/Watson (GBR).

Two more races are scheduled for tomorrow Saturday.

Fireball Worlds - Overall after Friday - Gold Fleet

1 GBR Vince Horey/Andy Thompson 3 6 1 2 1 26 8 27pts
12 GBR Richard Estaugh/Rob Gardner 20 1 3 1 6 43 21 27
12 AUS Heather Macfarlane/Chris Payne 2 4 5 4 13 53 30 31
12 GBR Adam Whitehouse/Mike Pratt 1 10 3 3 9 42 16 37.33
11 GBR Tom Jeffcoate/Mark Hogan 6 6 4 1 5 62 35 42
11 GBR David Edwards/Simon Potts 4 8 6 5 3 75 48 45
11 GBR Matt Mee/Richard Wagstaff 7 21 2 11 2 46 19 46
11 GBR David Wade/Ben Dunton 4 30 2 5 12 66 35 49
10 SUI Erich Moser/Ruedi Moser 11 4 1 10 16 63.33 26 50
10 SUI Frédéric Duvoisin/Laurent Grob 1 14 10 2 35 77 35 50
10 GBR Guy Tipton/Chris Tattersall 48 2 7 3 15 64 19 55
10 GBR Andrew Pearce/Jonathan Bale 6 5 12 19 4 79 33 57
9 CZE Martin Kubovy/Roman Rocek 35 1 4 8 18 98 49 58
9 GBR Grahame Newton/Mark Stevens 17 3 8 9.33 26 73 23 58
9 GBR Derian Scott/Andy Scott 10 35 11 4 17 76 26 58
9 GBR Veronica Falat/Ben Falat 19 11 14 12 8 84 29 64
8 GBR Martin Scarth/Simon Maskel 5 7 15 19 33 82 25 66
8 GBR Tom Foskett/Tim Needham 24 9 49 6 10 107 49 67
8 IRL Kenneth Rumball/David Moran 2 15 17 16 23 91 33 70
8 GBR Mark Maskell/Jon Watkins 24 26 9 10 7 107 49 70
7 SUI Kurt Venhoda/Sonja Zaugg 16 24 8 7 29 97 33 70
7 CAN Robert Levy/Rupert Holmes-Smith 20 13 13 25 11 93 27 70
7 IRL Noel Butler/Seamus Moore 9 8 29 12 49 100 33 72
7 ITA Paolo Brescia/Dario Pagliani 11 24 33 9 14 119 49 73
6 SUI Markus Hofstetter/Nelly Krieg 12 16 16 14 49 106 36 73
6 IRL Simon Mc Grotty/Niall Mc Grotty 14 33 11 14 25 109 39 75
6 FRA Martin Péculier/Thomas Le Seac`h 18 26 9 13 27 101 31 76
6 CZE Eva Skorepova/Viktor Tkadlec 31 33 7 7 22 100 28 76
5 GBR Penny Gibbs/Ian Gibbs 22 2 49 9 37 102 29 77
5 GBR Donald J. Smith/Matthew Richardson 36 30 5 16 19 122 49 77
5 GBR Elaine Tudor/Warren Tudor 15 18 13 24 39 115 40 79
5 IRL Conor Byrne/Karl Cooney 16 31 16 17 21 125 49 79
4 SUI Hansueli Bacher/Mirjam Hollenwäger 8 14 26 28 24 118 42 83
4 GBR Andy Foskett/Lésley Foskett 8 17 29 20 28 118 41 86
4 CZE Verner Jaroslav/Schwarzova Markéza 12 20 15 26 49 108 31 89
4 GBR Becky Priest/Tim Saunders 21 40 18 6 30 115 36 91
3 BEL Wim De Backer/Wilfried De Backer 13 3 24 49 36 113 34 104
3 SUI Kurt Liechti/Gabriela Ernst 15 19 21 21 42 132 49 105