Fireball Open at Brightlingsea Sailing Club

The Brightlingsea Fireball open attracted 17 boats. Those present were greeted with sun and wind, if not a lot of water. Once the water arrived and the committee boat was afloat two prompt races in a stiff if not steady breeze on the Saturday set the tone for the weekend. Fantastic racing with a prompt turnaround made the most of the conditions. 3 races on the Sunday with a lighter, more variable wind were once again turned round in excellent fashion with the PRO even having time to move the course to lessen the effect of the tide.

With the 2015 Fireball worlds just 10 weeks away (and early entry closing later this month), Brightlingsea proved an opportune event for some more practice for the would be hopefuls and a chance for others to take part in their first open meeting of the season.

Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey made the most of the shifts on Saturday, and led race 1 from start to finish. Race 2 followed a similar theme, with any gains and losses mainly attributable to variation in the wind. Tom Gillard and Richard Anderton were never far behind, but the first beat seemed to dictate a lot of the places. The battle for the minor places went to Vince Horey & Rob Gardner, Dave Wade & Simon Hibbert, Dave Hall & Paul Constable and Kevin Hope & Russell Thorne with Vince and Rob taking the bronze position over night.

You never go hungry or thirsty at Brightlingsea. Saturday evening was curry, beer and football for those that wished.

With 2 discards, qualification was possible by just sailing on the Sunday. A couple of boats took advantage of this, and the fleet grew with Penny and Ian Gibbs making an appearance after some time out.

Conditions were not quite so clean on the Sunday with a sea breeze attempting to come in against an offshore gradient – which led rather predictably to a perfect sea breeze later in the day just as the fleet returned to the shore.

Christian and Sam again got clear in race 3 to take the win from Dave Wade and Simon Hibbert, but in race 4 were at the wrong end of the start line, along with Tom and Richard. Tom & Richard managed to get out to the right of the course, and took the lead. Christian recovered to 3rd. Local father and son team the Kynes had a fantastic fourth race, managing to hold Christian and Sam at bay to take second.

With the event decided for both 1st and 2nd, race 5 was used as a bit of practice in case any boat-on-boat match racing was required at the worlds. With both parties in agreement, Tom won the pre-start and led up the beat. Christian collected a large shift on the left side of the course to take the lead on Tom. The windward mark rounding then happened in the middle of the pack – who were mainly surprised to find a raft on the mark, and then again when kites were doused at the wing mark for further shenanigans. While this was going on Tim Rush & Tim Saunders had hit the left corner and led round the first mark followed by Dave & Paul and Phil Popple & Andy Stewart. A battle developed between the 3 boats in the shifting breeze with Dave & Paul taking the gun from the team of Phil & Andy.

As always, Brightlingsea put on an excellent weekend on and off the water.

Overall Results: