Fireball World Championship 2016 at Mossel Bay Yacht and Boat Club - Day 3

by Cormac Bradley 14 Dec 2016 10:33 GMT 4-16 December 2016

A day of relative calm!

Day 3 of the Fireball Worlds in Mossel Bay, South Africa, saw the competitors treated to a more genteel 10 knots southerly that built during the day to 17 to 20 knots for the third race. Sea conditions were reported as being flat initially but building to 2m swells by the end of the day.

Team GBR, Gillard & Anderton (GBR 15127), were in a class of their own winning all three races very comfortably. The Swiss pairing of Mermod and Moser (SUI 14799) made a clean sweep of the second places and Schulz & Lidgett (AUS 15113) taking two of the three third places. While the leaders were in a class of their own, the regatta Facebook site reports that there was competition in a number of groups throughout the fleet.

While the fleet was tired by the time they got ashore, at least they had three races completed without the "survival instinct" being the dominant sentiment of the day.

Today, Wednesday, see the fleet enjoy a well-deserved rest day and judging by some of the individual Facebook posts, some of them are only too glad to see a day of no sailing... and not necessarily due to on the water exhaustion.

Australian–Franco international relations have been put to the test at this regatta with the very late pairing of Jean-Francois Nouel and Scott Lidgett. Jean-Francois' crew had to pull out of the event at very short notice due to a horse-riding accident and Scott flew in from Australia to team up with the Frenchman. They have had a challenging time in the big seas with capsizes and gear failure. But in his latest comment he says "I don't know why everytime Scott K Lidgett pulls a rope it breaks down! Is he a monster man? It could not be a lack of maintenance on the French boat obviously."

Results after Day 3:

Pos	Nat	Sail no	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1st	GBR	15127	Gillard Thomas	Anderton Richard	‑1	1	1	1	1	1	5
2nd	SUI	14799	Mermod Claude	Moser Ruedi	2	‑3	3	2	2	2	11
3rd	AUS	15113	Schulz Ben	Lidgett Jack	3	2	‑4	4	3	3	15
4th	KEN	14535	Bush Alastair	Carroll David	4	8	6	‑14	4	4	26
5th	GBR	14941	Scott Derian	Scott Andy	7	(DNC)	5	3	5	7	27
6th	RSA	14910	Divaris Yogi	Holm Ferdinand	8	4	2	5	14	(RET)	33
7th	GBR	14791	Watsone Hugh	Chesney Steve	5	7	8	‑9	7	6	33
8th	CZE	15109	Koranva Johana Napravnikova	Napravnik Jakub	‑10	5	7	8	8	8	36
9th	CAN	15024	Jospe Joe	Egli Tom	6	(DNC)	DNC	7	6	5	50
10th	GBR	15102	Scarth Martyn	Johnson Thomas	AGF	9	(DNC)	10	9	9	50
11th	RSA	14422	Provoyeur Jj	Macrobert Ian	9	(AGF)	11	13	10	10	53
12th	RSA	14904	Parker Anthony	Parker Diane	(DNF)	6	13	11	15	11	56
13th	CZE	14864	Veit Martin	Krejtza Filip	(DNF)	10	9	18	17	12	66
14th	FRA	14793	Lidgett Scot	Nouel Jean‑Francois	(DNF)	11	15	15	12	13	66
15th	SUI	14859	Haerdi‑Landerer Christina	Landerer Cedric	(DNF)	AGF	10	6	11	RET	68
16th	RSA	14901	Laing Dave	Chris	AGF	AGF	14	‑20	19	14	73
17th	RSA	14321	Statt Cundle	Laing Rory	AGF	AGF	(DNC)	23	16	15	84
18th	SUI	15063	Erne Mianne	Poulson Clay	(DNF)	DNC	17	12	18	DNC	99
19th	RSA	14411	De Engel Jay	Nel Dewet	(DNF)	DNC	12	16	DNC	DNC	106
20th	RSA	14723	Watkins Imogen	Watkins Ian	(DNF)	DNC	DNC	21	13	RET	112
21st	RSA	15047	Allers Nikolai	Allers Florian	(DNF)	DNC	AGF	17	DNC	DNC	114
22nd	GBR	14872	Newson Barbara	Newson Guy	(DNC)	DNC	16	22	DNC	RET	116
23rd	RSA	14299	Parker Richard	Parker Grant	(DNC)	DNC	DNC	19	AGF	DNC	118
24th	FRA	11059	Hernandez Denis	Hernandez Esteban	(DNC)	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	130
24th	NAM	14415	Sturm Fridolf	Allers Pascal	(DNF)	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC

For more information on the event visit the official web site at www.fireballworlds2016.co.za or the facebook page.