Fireball Open at Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club

Chew Valley Lake Fireball Open 2026 © Damian Boreham

The Fireball fleet made it down to Chew Valley for the first open meeting of a 'home worlds' year. The forecast was looking windy but manageable and the temperature meant to be getting close to double digits.

Onshore in the lee of the clubhouse it was warm in the spring sun which lured many sailors into a false sense of security. Once a few hundred metres from the shore the full force of the conditions of the day hit. It was cold, very windy, shifty with big gusts - typical spring in the UK!

Several new boats were on the water including Paul Cullen (Spanner) and Simon Forbes launching the latest Windermark fitted out by the team at Winder Boats. As always with a Winder boat it was looking terrific Spanner having opted for an interesting colour scheme.

Chew Valley Lake Fireball Open 2026 - photo © Damian Boreham

Race 1 started with everyone hitting the line eager to make the most of the conditions and their fresh bodies. At mark one it was Georgia/Olly leading ahead of Dave / Paul. This lead was short lived as after successfully navigating some fruity gusts the leading pair binned it in as they were rounding the leeward mark. From here DJ/Vyv pulled to the front and took control of the race whilst being chased hard by Pete/Rich.

Race 2 was almost a repeat of the first, however, the leaders had an interesting challenge to navigate to the leeward mark through the Scorpions who had just come off their start. This left a few boats having to take a wide line for the mark.

A few teams were caught off guard for the start of race 3 by the quick turn around by the race team. It was Pete/Rich and Spanner/Simon who made the best of it and these two showed some great speed to control the race and close it out for a new boat 1,2.

Chew Valley Lake Fireball Open 2026 - photo © Damian Boreham

For race 4 thankfully the wind had started to ease but still saw some full-on sailing with DJ/Vyv regaining their usual position at the front of the fleet only to have a little mishap when trying to sort out a twisted spinnaker which ended up them using it as a sea anchor instead of a spinnaker. It was Georgia/Olly that inherited the lead and managed to hold on until the finish from a fast-finishing Pete /Rich and Spanner and Simon.

Sunday's forecast was for a building breeze but from the west providing a more stable race course. Everyone had learnt their lesson from Saturday and made sure they wore plenty of warm kit.

DJ/Vyv showed intent on the first beat powering to an impressive lead at the first mark, with a pack of boats racing closely behind them. This chasing pack had lots of place changes with Georgia/Olly managing to find their way to the front of that pack by the finish only to cross the line to the sound of silence as they were deemed over the line at the start. Which left Kev/Andy 2nd and Pete/Rich 3rd.

The first beat of race 6 was a tricky one with the wind dropping slightly and leaving pockets of low pressure that teams could get stuck in. It was Dave/Paul who managed to find a good patch of pressure on the right hand side of the beat and lead round the windward mark. Another notable mention should go to Barry/Rich who also found good pressure on the right and were up with the front group at the windward mark.

Chew Valley Lake Fireball Open 2026 - photo © Damian Boreham

It was once again close racing around the course with places changing on every leg of the course, Georgia/Olly managed to get themselves into the lead at the end of the 3rd lap and happily carried onto the finish only to realise there had been an extra lap add to the previous races. At the finish it was DJ/Vyv from Pete/Rich and Dave/Paul.

This left it all down to the last race as to who would win the event, with DJ/Vyv needed to finish a place behind Pete/Rich and higher than 5th.

The last race followed a similar pattern to the first three with the fleet close at mark one and for the next lap or so. It was Pete/Rich who made a big gain by high wire over to the left hand side of the run and getting into some good pressure. Up the 3rd beat DJ/Vyv had managed to work themselves up from 4th to 2nd only to have a broach (some would say capsize but Vyv was adamant that the mast didn't touch the water and he didn't touch the centreboard) just after hoisting their spinnaker which dropped them back to 4th again.

Up the next beat DJ/Vyv had managed to get back up to 3rd and picked up some great pressure and managed get through to 2nd and secure the event win although by a very tight margin being joint points with Pete/Rich.

A big thanks to Chew Valley and all the volunteers who braved the cold in the rescue boats and tp the race team who turned the races around at a rapid pace.

Overall Results: