Fireball Open Meeting at Blackwater Sailing Club

Day 2 of the Fireball Open Meeting at Blackwater SC © Chris Nichols

Day 1 of the Fireball Open Meeting at Blackwater SC © Chris Nichols

After last years no wind event, the wind gods made up for it this year and provided heaps of wind and bright sunshine for the Blackwater Open. 31 boats contested the five race event and with two world champions and a national champion amongst the competitors the racing was very close and tight. A strong home fleet were able to put 18 boats on the water and some of them were very pleased to be able to mix it up with the fast boys!

Saturday's conditions ranged from F1 to F5 all in the space of minutes which proved highly challenging for all the competitors and luck undoubtedly played a part in finishing orders, but I can tell you that there were ten very happy boats that finished in front of double World Champion, Tom Gilliard in race 3!

Race 1 was won by Dave Wade and Simon Hibbet from Peter and Tom Kyne with Tom Gilliard and Richard Anderton in 3rd place. The top Blackwater boat in this race was Mark Maskell & Nigel Shepphard who came home 4th.

Race 2 saw the current World Champions, Christian Birrell & Sam Brearey join in the racing, a delayed journey meant that they missed the start of the 1st race. At the front of the fleet the racing was again very tight and on the second beat the wind filled in hard from the right which caught out Tom and Richard who dropped back to 6th place. Birrell & Brearey sailed a great race to win comfortably from Blackwater's local heroes Brett Townsend & Dave Nichols who capitalised on the shift and sailed home in 2nd place, with Dave Wade managing the risks to come home in 3rd place.

Race 3 saw another race winner with Simon Lomas-Clarke and Rob Daniels take the win from Richard Cornes and James Goodfellow with the ever consistent Dave Wade taking another 3rd place. Charlie Stewart and Josh Kuhl were the best placed Blackwater Boat finishing in 6th place.

The fleet enjoyed a fish and chip supper at the Club on Saturday evening, which saw many people crying in their beer about the woes of the day and how they were all set for the win when the wind filled in from the other side of the course! Christian and Sam were taking it very seriously and were bimbling and checking calibrations of their boat late into the evening rather than drinking beer much to the amusement of some of their close rivals!

Sunday brought Champagne sailing conditions with lovely sunshine and winds ranging from 17 to 32 knots, F5 to 7, which proved extremely challenging at times.

Race 4 saw the only general recall of the weekend and Race Officer Barry Foulds went straight to a Black Flag for all subsequent starts as threatened at the briefing. This concentrated people's minds and the fleet subsequently all behaved themselves.

Tom & Richard had obviously given themselves a good talking to and got their minds back in the right place as they and Christian and Sam had an amazingly close battle all the way round the course, it must be said a substantial distance in front of the rest of the fleet. Tom and Richard sailed flawlessly to narrowly take the win with the ever consistent Dave Wade in 3rd place. Top Blackwater boat in this race was Steve Jarred and Nick Collins in 7th place.

Race 5 saw the wind come up another notch or two and the downwind legs became epic. Again Christian and Sam had a close battle with Tom and Richard up the first beat with Christian getting to the windward mark first only for his mainsheet to shred which meant the end of the race for them. Some fellow competitors (who will remain nameless, Richard!), thought this was just an excuse and that Christian & Sam were really just bottling out as they didn't want to do the downwind legs!

This left Tom and Richard to sail away over the horizon at warp factor 9 with Dave Wade and Simon giving chase in 2nd place. Steve Jarred and Nick Collins were narrowly in 3rd place down the final reach as the fleet was hit by an enormous gust. Steve tried to do an 'Aussie drop' with the kite to round the mark and finish, but it all went horribly wrong 20 metres from the line and they fell into windward as he dropped the kite which allowed Mark Maskell and Nigel Sheppard to finish in 3rd place and put Steve and Nick back to 7th, a real bummer!

Day 1 of the Fireball Open Meeting at Blackwater SC - photo © Chris Nichols

Dave Wade's consistency, particularly on the Saturday, gave Dave and Simon the overall win with Tom & Richard in 2nd place and the very consistent Peter and Tom Kyne 3rd place. Top Blackwater boat was Mark Maskell and Nigel Sheppard in 6th place and with Blackwater boats taking 4 of the top 10 slots we felt that we had acquitted ourselves quite well, (we have to let the visitors win sometimes or they won't come back!).

Overall Results: