#fireball – With eight races now completed in Pwllheli, the situation at the top of the scoreboard takes on a new twist.........again writes Cormac Bradley.
Christian Birrell & Sam Brearey (15107) lead with 16pts (1, 2, 12, 3, 2, 3, 3, 2) from Tom Gillard & Richard Anderton (15127) on 19pts (108, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1) and DJ Edwards & Vyv Townend on 25pts (2, 10, 2, 2, 4, 4, 7, 4).
The fleet enjoyed another champagne day of sailing with sunshine and winds of 17 - 19 knots in a direction span of 220 - 235 degrees.
The first race of the day went to Peters & Sterritt (15129) but a broken slot gasket saw them finish in 13th in the second race.
The leading visitors are the French pair of Remy Thuillier & Mathieu Corruble (14917) in 9th place overall and 75pts after discard. Next, in 10th place overall are the Irish pairing of Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella on 76pts. Third visitors are the Swiss, Claude Mermod & Rudi Moser with 84pts in 11th. The solitary Aussies, Ben Schulz & Doug Shepherd rise to 15th overall with a 5th and a 3rd today.
Of the other Irish the placings are as follows (pts/place)
Rumball & Byrne (147/22)
Butler & Oram (196/28)
Clancy & Clancy (372/58)
Evans & Caulfield (472/71)
Miller & Butler (503/77)
McGrotty & Cramer (510/80)
McKenna & O'Keeffe (612/93)
Cormac Bradley's regatta was cut short on Tuesday with his helm Chris Thorne suffering a shoulder injury. They didn't race today but lie 89th with too many DNCs.
The South Africans had a mixed day with Parker/Holm scoring 29th and a DNC (108pts). They lie 39th with 277pts and a high of 22nd in Race 6. Messrs Laing & Dee scored a 82 and a 68 today to lie 69th (432pts) with a regatta high of 41st in Race 6.
Tomorrow, Friday sees an earlier start to accommodate the prizegiving tomorrow evening and the promise of similar winds to today. Some will spend this evening permutating what could or needs to happen tomorrow.
The South Africans are due to host the event in Mossel Bay next year and they gave their sales pitch tonight. So too did Jakub Napravnik, Rear Commodore Europe, on behalf of the Italians who are due to host the 2016 Europeans in Lake Garda.
The FI AGM followed that with a plea from FI Commodore, Steve Chesney (and others) that we move on and compromise after the devisive election of this time last year. Some emotive subjects were raised again but Steve tried to ensure that they are addressed by committed individuals answerable to the Executive.
