Fireball World Championships at La Rochelle - overall
by Tim Saunders 31 Aug 2009 21:23 BST
23-28 August 2009
Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend win Fireball Worlds for the third time
With three races to be sailed it was mathematically still possible for leaders Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend to lose their winning position. There was a change of conditions for the final day. After the rain subsided the wind filled in to provide a full on first race of the day .The wind was gusting up to 20 knots. At the windward mark most of the boats decided not to use the spinnaker, Dave Wade and Ben McGrane popped the kite, went low and after dropping the halyard came up to the mark in the lead. David Edwards and Simon Potts made it to 2nd place, Last week's Europeans winners Vince Horey and Rob Gardner had a good day and placed 3rd in this race..... midfleet there was carnage at the gybe the mark with 6 boats capsized.
The sun came out at the start of race 9 and the wind dropped down slightly, fantastic conditions. A big shift on the first beat of race 9 meant some surprise appearances early at the windward mark with the oldest competitor Ireland's Louis Smyth crewed by Joe Oreilly, getting there first. Derian and Andy Scott won the race after a battle with DJ Edwards, Wade and Horey. Louis held of for 13th place.
Race 10 started badly for some, with lots of boats OCS including the regatta winners Howarth and Townend, again conditions were excellent. Whilst the majority of the leaders came in from the left hand side of the course others made use of the right to good effect. UK National Champions Matt Burge and Richard Wagstaff were the eventual winners and this result was enough for them to climb to second overall in front of David Edwards and Simon Potts.