Having reeled off eight Fireball wins in a row, it wouldn’t have been an unreasonable assumption to suggest that Tom Gillard and Richard Anderton (GBR15127) were odds-on to make a clean sweep of all ten races in the Worlds that have been just concluded in Mossel Bay, South Africa. That is not to belittle the efforts of the rest of the fleet which included the current European Champions, Claude Mermod and Ruedi Moser (SUII 14799) and Ben Schulz and Jack Lidgett (AUS 15113).
However, the ninth race was lost to the aforementioned Aussie pair before the 2016 World Champions claimed the last race of the series to claim a significant points victory.
The European Champions finished second overall followed home by the Aussies. In 4th place was the leading South African combination, 16-year old Yogi Divaris and Ferdinand Holm (RSA 14910), followed by the wife and husband pairing of Derian and Andy Scott (GBR 149410).
Facebook posts suggest the next Fireball Worlds will be in France in 2018, with a possible date of late August, but this is a Facebook comment only and should not be considered as anything other than that. A more definite appointment is the 2017 Fireball Europeans which are to be hosted in Lyme Regis in the UK.
The last race day seems to have been the most genteel of the regatta as befits the end of a regatta and the subsequent packing-up of boats.
Competitor comments:
Jean Francois Nouel: 20 Worlds sailed and it was “defo” the best ever.
The 2017 Fireball Europeans will be in Lyme Regis in the UK
Published in Fireball
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