Speed Sails Fireball Inlands at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Strong winds for the Fireball Inlands at Grafham © Tom Smith

The third official event on the 2006 Fireball calendar held at Grafham Water Sailing Club didn’t disappoint the fleet who had already battled through two events marked by heavy wind conditions, managing to produce breeze which never dropped below force five. The toughest event so far, it will be remembered as much for the time spent in the water, as racing on it.

Race one: with a steady force five throughout, Shane McCarthy & Andy Davies had a strong first beat in the leading pack, which included Chips Howarth & Vyv Townend, Dave Wade & Anthony York and Matt Mee & Graham Nelson. A strong gust at the gybe mark saw Wade & York take the plunge with the first of the fleets’ many capsizes of the weekend. By the end of the second reach, Matt Burge & Richard Wagstaff had climbed up to fifth after recovering from a bad start. Following more place changes amongst the top half of the fleet, Burge & Wagstaff went on to secure the win.

Race two: with the breeze increasing from force five to six, Wade & York lead from start to finish taking a comfortable win. A tussle followed for runner-up places between Howarth & Townend, Burge & Wagstaff and Hope & Thorne, with Howarth & Townend finally taking second.

Race three: following a large squall between races leaving a short force three lull behind it, Burge & Wagstaff got the best of the new shift on the start and first beat closely followed by Wade & York. Both boats extended their lead on the pack to change places on the run due to a poor hoist from Burge & Wagstaff. The breeze increased back to force five on the next beat and Burge & Wagstaff powered back into the lead completing the next two reaches to gain their second race win of the event. Wade & York held onto second with Howarth & Townend fending off the pack to take third.

Race four: the breeze steadily increased to force six, with gusts of force seven. Burge & Wagstaff won the start and lead the entire race, only to be challenged on the last run by Howarth & Townend who just managed to reach over them on the finish line to take first place.

Race five: under similar breeze conditions Howarth & Townend lead the race from the outset. The five front-runners were left in a strong battle for places with positions determined by the strength of the capsize recovery skills for each boat. Burge & Wagstaff managed to carve through the up-turned boats at the gybe mark to move up and take second place behind the safe race winners.

After seeing many of the Flying Fifteen crews racing that day standing on their keels, the Race Officer wisely abandoned racing, which came as a great relief to the already depleted Fireball fleet.

This meant that Burge & Wagstaff went home as Inland Champions 2006.

Overall Results:

1st – Matt Burge & Richard Wagstaff 6 pts
2nd – Chips Howarth & Vyv Townend 7 pts
3rd – Dave Wade & Anthony York 12 pts
4th – Kevin Hope & Russell Thorne 17 pts
5th – Adam Whitehouse & Ed 21 pts

Youth
1st Helm Matt Mee
1st Crew Tim Needham
2nd Helm Tom Foskett
2nd Crew David Graham

Silver Fleet
1st Miles Thomas and Paul Rose

Bronze Fleet
1st Neal Gibson and David Graham

Classic Fleet
1st Tom Riley and Tim Frary

For full results go to www.fireball-dinghy.org.uk