As another day at the Fireball World Championships is lost to the weather, the plan now is to stage four races on Thursday writes Cormac Bradley.
Today's racing in Sligo has not taken the regatta any further forward in terms of determining who will be the 2011 Fireball World Champion! Yes, for the second day in a row, no races were completed, but in contrast to yesterday, none were started either.
Sligo was grey and drizzly this morning and combined with a forecast of 1 – 6 knots from a variety of directions on XC Weather, the omens for racing were not good. For some there was an earlier start as the Council Meeting for the Fireball Executive and NCA reps took place this morning and while this might normally cause an anxious eye to be cast the way of the weather outside for those in the meeting, this was not the case today. There was rain and very little wind.
Rainwear by Pinnell and Bax. Taking cover on Day three of the Fireball Worlds in Sligo. Photo: Gareth Craig
As the morning wore on the prospects for racing were put into limbo! Indeed the Council Meeting was asked to consider the implications of the weather in terms of determining a plan of action for the day. A suggestion was offered but almost immediately Numeral 0 and D flags were flown – go afloat........to the outer race area, i.e. beyond the lighthouse.
The fleet launched under a postponement flag at 12:30 and was greeted almost immediately with a rain shower en route to the racing area. That brought some breeze but that died and what was left, in varying degrees of pressure went from SE to almost due N. The difficulty was that during this entire period the strength never stayed above the requisite 5 knots for long enough to consider a start. The consequence for the fleet was a 3.5hr sojourn on the water that ended when the N flag was flown under the postponement flag – abandoned – to be sailed at a later date.
Thus with three days gone, the regatta has two races completed! The plan how is to try and recover races on Thursday with a scheduled start of 10:00 and the prospect of four races on the day.
The perennial debate of using the lay-day to recover races has aired again here in Sligo – understandably – but the difficulty is that for the host club the volunteers may also have made plans for that day.
This evening Sligo is bright again. The Australians will be doing their bit to persuade us all to go to their Worlds in Mandurah, Western Australia, at the end of this year. Also here are Robin Olsen, Race Officer for the Mandurah Worlds and his wife Sue.
Tomorrow is a lay-day which may convince the competitors to rid themselves of the lack of racing frustrations this evening!
