Gul Fireball World Championships at Plas Heli - Frisky Final Friday

After last night's fun and games in the bar, which had kicked off with a highly entertaining video debrief/coaching session from Adam Bowers, today will be 'all business'. With two races to be sailed and a second discard kicking in after the first of these, there will be some big place changes throughout the fleet.

The focus though is on the top, where it is almost neck and neck. Will the reigning Champions Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey come good and in doing so, retain their crowns for another year. Points wise, the initiative certainly rests with them. Or, will the challengers of note, Tom Gillard and Richard Anderton, produce a stunning last day and in doing so, fulfil the promise they so clearly demonstrated at last week's Gul UK Nationals. Currently, Tom and Richard had to use their discard courtesy of a Day 1 BFD and although they have 4 wins to Birrell and Brearey's 1win, they also have a 10th to count. Neither boat can win the event on Race 9, the first race of the day, though both could, with a mistake or a gear failure, badly screw up their chances, so it will still be all to play for come the final race.

Whilst both these Team Allen boats are powered by North sails, the real 'factor x' in the equation are the newcomers to the fleet, James Peters and Fynn Sterritt. The pair are using a smart suit of Hydes and in the first race of yesterday simply sailed away from the rest of the fleet. Within 30 seconds of the start the pair were in clear air and accelerating away and at that point the journalistic story ended. The next time anyone saw them was on the far side of the Committee boat after the finish. Sadly, some gear issues prevented the Hayling Island pair from doing the double yesterday, which probably cost them a realistic chance of the title. Given the forecast for today, one would not bet against them front running again; If they are dominant today, they may not win the event, but they could well influence the final outcome.

The biggest single factor though for today is going to be the weather. The forecast yesterday was 'sunny and breezy'; today it is still sunny, but breezier still. Some of the less experienced teams may well stay ashore, given the expectation of a demanding sea state. If the predicted increase in wind strength arrives earlier than forecast, PRO Peter Saxton will have a tricky call to make; can he get one race in, let alone two, before either the final day cut –off at 1500 or the wind and sea state making further racing impossible.

As the boats prepare to leave the beach for the final time here at Plas Heli, the 'big boys' are pumped up and ready. Chief of these has to be Australians Ben Schulz and Doug Sheppard, who yesterday proved that they could do the windy stuff as well as anyone. Like Peters, Schulz can't win the event, but a big day for him might just decide which of Birrell and Gillard goes home tonight as World Champion.

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