Non-Story

Originally posted by salmon80 I agree its rubbish, isn't Y&Y free advertising though? its been going on for years Mr Chicken, piggy and back, Seldom, etc etc

Piggy and Back?  I always thought it was Pi$$ed and Broke. 


Edited by Doug.H - 20 Jan 16 at 6:06pm

Just a couple of quick corrections needed here. As those who follow the Y&Y.com site may well remember, the Fireball Worlds last summer at Pwllheli were one of our 'featured' events. This saw me embedded with the Race Team at PSC, doing two reports a day. One before racing covering expected conditions and any pre-race news and then post racing report, covering the action that had taken place out on the bay. I was on site for a full fortnight, which gave me time to cover the build up, the pre-worlds/UK Nationals and then the Worlds themselves.

In my reports, I certainly covered the fact that James Peters and Fynn were NOT sailing in a Winder as I felt it important that coverage was given to the fact that there was a new builder. What I made a big thing of was the Hyde rig that the pair were using, for their fore and aft sails looked superb. Each time they started, they came off the line with both height and speed and whilst they may indeed be rapidly climbing up the ranks of the 49er scene, they still had to master the handling of the conventional spinnaker. From the viewpoint of one who spent all day, every day, out on a rib watching the racing, I can only say that I could see them coming up the beat way before you could actually identify the boat, their rig looked so good. This is not to say that the Norths didn't look good, they did; the spinnaker that Tom Gillard was using looked the best of the third sails out there.

So what happened? Well, Tom Gillard and Richard Anderton came within a coat of varnish of blowing it, starting their week with an OCS. From that moment on they had to sail with an added degree of conservatism but it is to their credit that they set about building a championship winning score. Tom and Richard may not be a part of the Olympic scene but they still took a focused approach to their target, which was to win the worlds. They spent a great time of time in extended practice sessions at Hayling Island and were demonstrably the best team out there - you cannot argue with the results.

But were they the quickest boat out there? I don't think they were, that honour went to James Peters and Fynn Sterrit. This pair could so easily have won but for two minor niggles that knocked them back a bit to the one niggle of the winning boat. But in terms of boatspeed, I would have said that they had the edge, particularly on the first beat. If you scan back through the Y&Y.com reports for the event, there are a number of pictures of the Hyde rig.... these were not 'paid for' adverts or subject to any editorial input, they were featured for the simple reason that to me, they were one of the best stories of the event.

However, I have to agree that the 'non-story' as featured in the OP is an issue. Far better to do something with the rig and let that be the story, rather than try and make a report out of something that isn't really worthy of the name.
Dougal Henshall/ Y&Y.com