Fireball French Championship at Yacht Club de Carnac - Day 1

Fireball French Championship at Carnac day 1 © YCCarnac

After a short postponement in the morning, the assembled Fireballs in Carnac, north-west France got in three races in to get the French Nationals and Pre-Worlds underway.

Using Facebook posts by Ireland's Frank Miller to populate the text of this report, he writes that very warm weather was being enjoyed in the days before the regatta but the morning of the regatta start was shrouded in mist with a minimal 5 knots of wind blowing. At the time of his Facebook post, 10:30 on Thursday morning, the forecast was for a 10 knot westerly.

His Friday morning report yields the following details:

Claude Mermod and Ruedi Moser (SUI 14799) led the fleet home on day one by posting a wins and two second places, ahead of Ian Dobson & Richard Wagstaff (GBR 15141) and Tom Gillard & Geoff Edwards (GBR 15127). The top French crew are in 4th place overall, Ludovic Alleaume & Berthelot (FRA 14783) Racing was in the Bay of Quiberon and began in light/medium breezes that grew to flat out trapezing conditions in Race 3 of the day. Sea conditions generated some chop but it appears to have been a pleasant day of racing.

Line starts were used in normal operating procedure for the Fireball Class under "U" flag conditions but the black flag was brought out for Race 1. The perceived line bias was towards the pin in order to stretch the 60-boat fleet out along the start line. There was no sense that either side paid above the other but Frank reports that there were better wind conditions on the edges of the race area. The usual premium on clean starts and being able to hold your lane was in place. Pleasant sea and air temperatures made the day very enjoyable and tide didn't feature too strongly even if it was complicated to work out on the water.

A further three races are scheduled for today, Friday 24th after which there will be a prize-giving for this regatta.

Results after Day 1: