Gul Fireball World Championships at Plas Heli - Day 3

Gul Fireball World Championship day 3 © Lee Whitehead / www.photolounge.co.uk

Gul Fireball World Championship day 3 © Lee Whitehead / www.photolounge.co.uk

An amazing finish to the day

With 6 out of the 10 scheduled races completed at the Gul 2015 Fireball World Championships, we now know who will be atop the podium at Friday Night's Prize Giving. Unless there is a change of fortunes even more remarkable that the AC Series at San Francisco, the top three places will fall to a breakaway group of four boats.

Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey. The reigning World Champions, who have made it clear that they have every intention of fighting to the death to retain their crown. Despite taking a bit of a thumping from their Allen Brothers stable mates in last week's Nationals, the pair have shown their ability to street fight it out to the bitter end.

Tom Gillard and Richard Anderton. The other half of the Allen Bros. top team and many people's short odds bet to take the title. Last week the pair were just so good, with winning boatspeed and the golden touch; whichever way they went was the right way. This week Tom and Richard have shown amazing speed downwind, yet at the same time a surprising ability to put themselves into tricky situations. Ought to be out of sight by now!

Dave 'DJ' Edwards and Vyv Townend. The hugely experienced pairing who have seen this all before and prevailed. They've not just been there and done it, they've worn the tee shirt out by now. So far DJ and Vyv have yet to show that they have the baseline boatspeed hit the front and stay there, yet they are never far from the action surrounding the leading boat. Points wise, it would be possible for them to win the Worlds without actually winning a race.

James Peters and Fynn Sterritt. The polar opposites of DJ and Vyv. These newcomers to the Fireball fleet really have got proven front running potential. Unlike Gillard and Birrell, who are both powered by Norths, 'JP' is sporting a very nice set of Hydes and is clearly not lacking speed. Their starts and first beats have been exemplary and when the breeze is really up, the pair seem to shift up another gear.

Gul Fireball World Championship day 3 - photo © Lee Whitehead / www.photolounge.co.uk

A well done today to the weather forecasters, who got the calls on the conditions pretty much spot on. The fleet had been told to expect 15 knots with some BIG gusts and as they headed of the beach, that was what they found. With the wind firmly in the South it was but a short beam reach to the start area, which was just long enough for the Fireballs to contemplate their first General Recall. With the line orientation spot on, the Race Team rolled straight into a new start sequence, this time under the Black Flag. Even with the minimal time delay between the two starts, it was noticeable just how the sea state had worsened. With the start laid in just 7m of water, the groundswell, reaching up from the south, was hitting a nasty chop coming in from the West. As the International Jury was later to remark, "there were some big lumps of water out there".

At the second time of asking the fleet got away cleanly, with Birrell and Brearey deciding to go for the Pin end start and simply nailing it! They hit the line with the boat already planing upwind and just scorched away. Peters and Sterritt were in there too, with Gillard and Anderton going for their preferred berth just a little way back up the line. However, they didn't quite get the jump on the boats around them and seemed boxed in, eventually having to tack and wriggle their way out of trouble. Out ahead, there were no such problems for Birrell and Brearey and they were able to take their pick of the shifts to tack, then cross the whole fleet.

Gul Fireball World Championship day 3 - photo © Lee Whitehead / www.photolounge.co.uk

In the first race of the day yesterday, Peters and Sterritt had watched, caught on the supposedly favoured left hand side, as a shift gifted their hard earned lead to Darian Scott. Now it was payback time as the Hayling Island pair as the shift lifted them to the front and to a lead that would never be challenged. Birrell and Brearey were in hot pursuit though and with Edwards rounding in 10th and Gillard 15th, the front of the fleet had a different flavour to it. By now the sea state was building fast, with some of the larger waves being topped by angry looking breaking crests. As the bulk of the fleet headed off on the run, the path down to the leeward gate was soon littered with upturned hulls. Even Tom Gillard and Richard Anderton, normally so reliable in these conditions, would catch a 'bigger one' and head off 'down the mine' before broaching. The difference was that they had the skill to get the situation back under control, allowing them to keep up the chase. There was no such luck for Claude Mermod who, whilst in 5th place, caught a nasty wave and went in; he was lucky in those conditions to only lose 17 places, but come the end of the day, this would cost him a top 5 placing overall.

If anything, the reaches on the triangle were even tougher than the run. Just bearing away at the top mark was hard, with the waves sweeping in it would be 'hard school' for the crews out on the wire. They needed to go low for the power, yet doing so risked them being washed off the gunwale. Little wonder that this would be a determined two sail leg. As the race wore on, two things were clear; they could sail all day and no one was going to catch James Peters and the longer the race went on, the more places Gillard would win back. The hard charging pair had made it back to 4th by the bottom of the run, with places still to be made.

Gul Fireball World Championship day 3 - photo © Lee Whitehead / www.photolounge.co.uk

With the wind and sea suggesting that the second race of the day would be even more demanding, it was encouraging to see that the fleet behaved and started at the first attempt. It was Peters and Sterritt's turn to win the Pin end drag race, leaving them the only option to go left... left... and further left. Did they need reminding that the lay day was tomorrow if they wanted to cross the bay and visit Harlech Castle. For the second time in the day, their start and first beat positioning got them to the first mark with a comfortable lead, a clear 45 seconds over the chasing group of Gillard and Brearey. Race Officer Peter Saxton had wisely set a second Sausage-Triangle-Sausage course (rather than the normal afternoon option of a triangle-sausage-triangle) rightly thinking that it would not only help keep the fleet bunched up, but would be easier on the mid-fleet for them NOT to have to do another pair of reaches. One reach was one reach too many for Jonny McGovan; steering his boat down one of the Tremadog Bay waves his rudder thought that enough was enough and sheared off at the waterline; Jonny and crew Max Todd did superbly well to bring their boat home in one piece. Meanwhile, out front, Peters and Sterritt were stretching their lead, looking almost dead certainties for their second bullet of the day. At Mark 4, the end of the second reach, they were 1minute 20 seconds up on the chasing Gillard and with just a beat and run to go, that should have been more than enough of a cushion. Yet, as they started up the final beat, the wind was tracking further left than it had been seen all day. The canny Gillard was first into the shift and had more than halved Peters lead at the top of the course. Reasoning that the same shift that had benefited them once could well do so again saw the Allen/North team split gybes with the leaders. As the two boats arrived at the bottom of the course, they were overlapped, but Peters needed to make an extra gybe. As they swung out onto the final short dash to the finish Peter's still held the narrowest of advantages, but Gillard was slowly but surely rolling over them. In the end both helms went so high that they were in danger of losing everything to the fat arriving third and fourth placed boats. In a last ditch, desperate attempt to regain the initiative Peter's played every card possible, but in the end it would be Gillard who would shave his bow across the line, first by the narrowest of margins. There was a sense of déjà vu as Birrell and Edwards went through and almost identical set of manoeuvres, albeit it with a great deal more in the way of shouting!

Gul Fireball World Championship day 3 - photo © Lee Whitehead / www.photolounge.co.uk

These results leave Birrell and Brearey back atop the leader board, ahead of Edwards, Gillard and Peters. With 4 races still to run, a second discard to kick in, anything is possible. The forecast for Thursday and Friday is breeze, in theory conditions that will favour Gillard and Peters... if the forecast is correct.

Tonight will see the fleet 'suited and booted' as they sit down to their Black Tie dinner, before being regaled with some 'interesting' stories from guest speaker Bob Fisher. Bob had spent the day out on the Committee Boat and was full of praise for the way the fleet had competed with each other – and the conditions. Once Bob can be pursued to sit down, the band will start and are expected to play on until late.

Just as well tomorrow is the lay day!

Results after Day 3:

www.fireballworlds2015.com