2008 Fireball Worlds Gear Guide

by Chris Payne 26 Mar 2008 06:39 GMT

With the highly successful 2008 World Championship over, it is time to review some of the gear used by the top salors. 21 year old Matt Mee was sailing a standard hull from Winder Boats with Pinnell and Bax sails on a Selden Cumulus rig, setup by Richard Wagstaff (the crew) from Winder Boats'. David Wade/Ben McGrane were sailing a very similar setup, put together by David who works for Pinnell & Bax. The other 21 year olds in the top 3, Nathan Stockley and Sam Muirhead, were sailing a 10 year old boat from Young Marine with a standard John Clifton Sails setup on a SuperSpar M7+.

Pinnell & Bax dominated the selection of sails in the top 10, but there were 5 different boat builders from 4 different countries, including Singapore. This shows the strenght of the class's one design rules.

It was also great to see a full range of ages of competitors from 20 to 70 sailing the fireball, and a with a strong mix of women throughout the fleet.

Gear used by the top 10:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Helm Weight (kg)	Crew Weight (kg)	Hull	Mast	Sails	Foils
1	Matt Mee	Richard Wagstaff	64	80	Winder	Selden - Cumulus	Pinnell & Bax	Winder
2	David Wade	Ben McGrane	69	80	Winder	Selden - Cumulus	Pinnell & Bax	Winder
3	Nathan Stockley	Sam Muirhead	67	84	YMS	Superspar - M7+	Clifton Sails	YMS
4	Greg Allison	Richard Watson	65	80	AFM/Kelly Marine	Selden - Cumulus	Clifton/Pinnell & Bax(Mainsail)	YMS
5	Tomas Musil	Jan Stantejsky	68	80	Xtreme Sailing Products	Superspar - M7+	Pinnell & Bax	Xtreme Sailing Products
6	Heather Macfarlane	Chris Payne	57	77	AFM/Kelly Marine	Goldspar	Irwin Sails/North(Spinnaker)	YMS/Kelly Marine(rudder)
7	Richard Estaugh	Rob Gardener	74	80	Winder	Superspar - M7+	Speed Sails	Winder
8	Eric Moser	Ruedi Moser	74	76	Duvoisin	Selden - Cumulus	Pinnell & Bax/Speed Sails(Spinnaker)	Duvoisin/Winder(rudder)
9	Vince Horey	Andrew Thompson	68	82	Winder	Selden - Cumulus	Pinnell & Bax	Winder
10	Richard Mason	Simon Hextall	78	79	Winder	Selden - Cumulus	Pinnell & Bax	Winder

Up coming events for Fireball International include the 2008 European Championship, to be held in Nieuwpoort - Belgium from the 6th to the 11th July 2008 and the 2009 Worlds will be held in August in La Rochelle - France. Check out the details at www.fireball-international.com