#fireball – Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella (RStGYC) became the new Ulster Fireball champions in a thrilling final day of racing at Ballyholme YC. The first regional Fireball event of the season saw fourteen entries and some really great sailing conditions at an extremely friendly club noted for it's support of dinghy and small boat racing. The winning team scored three first places on day two of the event to catapult into victory overall. On Saturday night after the first three races of the six race series Noel Butler and Stephen Oram (DMYC) had a narrow lead over Kenny Rumball and Scott Flanagan. McCartin/Kinsella languished down the score card after suffering a snapped kicker and a broken main halyard. Overnight assistance from Kenny Rumball saw their boat back into tip-top shape.

Day one saw fantastic if challenging conditions with strong winds and even stronger gusts combined with a disturbed sea state making smooth upwind progress tricky. To add to the test there were big shifts and even the odd flat patch in the offshore breeze. The compensation came in the offwind legs. Race officer Robin Gray set superb sharp reaching angles resulting in some very fast and some very exciting sailing. On day one Butler/Oram and Rumball/Flanagan showed exceptional boat-speed pulling away from the rest of the fleet for what often looked like a private duel of speed and tactics.A bit further back Conor Clancy and Jim Devlin scored two thirds and a sixth, McCartin/Kinsella posted a 4, 3, DNF while Niall McGrotty and Neil Cramer were a very steady 5,4,5. Further back there was close racing throughout the fleet. Frank Miller/Grattan Donnelly battled with Jon Evans/Aidan Caulfield and Michael Ennis/Marie Barry on almost even points troughout the event. Positions mid-fleet shifted like snakes and ladders, often due to unforced errors and the occasional swim.

The intention to go for four races on day one was stymied by a significant wind shift during race two and a bit of a delay resetting the course in a breeze which took time to settle into a steady direction. That delay combined with some signs of tiredness and some swimming meant the fleet headed for shore after race three. That tiredness led to a bit less support at the bar than is normal at Fireball events but a super meal at the club had the fleet eating together and risking the odd pint. A few heroes were seen in a local nightclub much later but many had an early night resting body and soul.

Sunday looked breezy from ashore but by the time the course was set conditions though still lively were distinctly steadier and the water a lot flatter. At this point any reasonable gambler would have put their money on Butler/Oram or Rumball/Flanagan.

Race officer Robin Gray was true to his word and started race one on time catching out a couple of boats who launched late and almost catching out McCartin/Kinsella who made the start with just seconds to spare. The pair stayed level with leaders up the course and on the reaches and broke away with a useful gust as they rounded into the run, consolidated by gybing onto starboard and into more pressure two thirds the way down. They held this lead to take the bullet.

Ulster Fireball champions – Barry McCartin (left) and Conor Kinsella (RStGYC). Photo: Frank Miller

In race five McCartin/Kinsella went right on the first beat to lead at the windward mark. They held on with Rumball/Flanagan snapping at their heels and broke away with a gybe set into more pressure which gave them the distance to hold Rumball/Flanagan off for the win. In the final race the pair had a bad start and arrived at the windward mark in about 6th but used the gusts on the reaches to close into third behind Butler/Oram and Rumball/Flanagan. They stayed close on the beat to the two boats ahead and played the shifts, managing to get left of the leaders and ahead on shifts and then concentrated on holding off Butler/Oram. That pair suffered a snapped spinnaker sheet on one reach but managed a fast repair and sailed on with a shorter sheet.
McCartin/Kinsella's victory in the final race put them on an even score of ten points with Butler/Oram and Rumball/Flanagan but the three wins gave them the edge for overall victory in what was a thrilling event. The silver fleet prize was won by Mary Chambers and Brenda Maguire who displayed solid sailing in often tricky conditions. The event marked a great start to the Fireball summer season, with a bigger turnout anticipated at the Fireball Open event in Clontarf on June 14th/15th.

Results available below to download

#fireball – With last Saturday lost to heavy weather, making two Saturdays lost in three weeks and an unseasonal Tuesday evening session last week, the weather for last night's DBSC Tuesday Series was much more in keeping with the time of year. While we had showers during the day, the sun came out in the afternoon and the race was held in sunny conditions with a backdrop of grey skies in the far distance across the Irish Sea.
This correspondent had a "binoculared" view of the race which saw only four Fireballs come under starter's orders. A fifth boat emerged to join the race and post the race I found out that a sixth boat would have been out if it wasn't for the owner finding that his boat had been damaged.

Noel & Stephen (15061), Cariosa & Marie (14854), Louise & Hermine (14691) and Louis & Joe O'Reilly (15007) started the race in winds that seemed to be slightly lesser than was forecast. XCWeather was suggesting WNW 9 knots with gusts to 16 knots, the current weather for Dun Laoghaire Harbour at 18:00 was WNW 12 knots with a gust of 20 knots.

A Windward-Leeward course of two laps with a spreader mark at the Windward mark was set. Butler/Oram, McKenna/O'Keeffe and slightly late, Smyth/O'Reilly started at the committee boat end of the line with Power/Barry about halfway down the line. All started on starboard tack but soon took a hitch to the right hand side. Smyth's late approach to the start line saw him crossed by Power/Barry as they went to the right as well. McKenna/O'Keeffe went furthest right. None of the crews were in full trapezing mode but the lighter lady crews were getting more time on trapeze than Joe and Stephen.
At the first weather mark the rounding order was Noel & Stephen (15061), Louise & Hermine (14691), Cariosa & Marie (14854) and Louis & Joe (15007). With a flood tide that was almost two hours old, the fleet went to the right-hand side of the run. Initially Cariosa & Marie sailed a lower course and this allowed them to close on the front two. These two plus Louis & Joe went furthest right, with Noel & Stephen initially going left. However, the latter pair then gybed back to work the RHS. Louise & Hermine followed suit, but the net effect of the multiple gybes is that the fleet became more compact with Smyth closing significantly on McKenna.
At the first leeward mark the order was Butler/Oram, Power/Barry, Smyth/O'Reilly and McKenna/O'Keeffe, with the latter having a problem dropping their spinnaker. This problem persisted to the extent that their race was lost, eventually having to capsize the boat onto a rib to drop the spinnaker.

The other three boats took an initial hitch to the RHS of the beat then sailed a long starboard tack to the weather mark. There was evidence of more trapezing but it was neither full-on nor continuous. The tide effect had a big factor in the second run. The course was set pretty much in the middle of Scotsman's bay, probably slightly closer to the harbour. After rounding the weather and spreader marks, the three boats went right in the sequence Butler/Oram, Power/Barry and Smyth/O'Reilly, the latter having lost distance to the girls thanks to a significant header halfway up the beat. Butler & Oram were probably within touching distance of the rocks at the "40-foot" before they gybed back onto port to get to the leeward mark. The other two didn't go quite that far with Smyth & O'Reilly gybing onto port first. However, it seemed that going very hard right put the boats into a different, stronger wind pattern because I could see Stephen full-out on trapeze as they sailed the "great circle route" to the leeward mark and arrive their first. Smyth & O'Reilly were the next boat in sequence and seemed to have opened a gap on the girls. They went right initially, waited for Cariosa & Marie to round and tack, tacked to cover them to the finish. However, this standard tactic seemed to fail as the girls sailed faster to the finish to record 2nd place, leaving Smyth and O'Reilly third.

DBSC Tuesday Nights, Series 1 (13.05.14)
1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 NYC
2 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 NYC
3 Louis Smyth & Joe O'Reilly 15007 Coal Harbour

#fireball – My early afternoon check on the forecast conditions for Tuesday evening racing in Dublin Bay on the XC Weather website suggested that at 19:00 and 22:00 the winds would be 14 and 16 knots gusting to 20 and 24 knots respectively – (14/20 at 19:00 and 16/24 at 22:00) – and so it proved writes Cormac Bradley. The forecast direction was Southerly but rigging up in the harbour, the sense was that the gusts were coming from a wide range of directions, certainly judging by the flags inside the harbour complex.
The sail out to Scotsman's Bay confirmed the gusty nature of the wind particularly in the lee of the east wall of the harbour though in Scotsman's Bay itself while it was still gusty, they seemed to be a bit less venomous.
Our first practice lap of the course prompted a capsize after a spinnaker drop at the leeward mark – good to get that out of the way!
Five Fireballs launched for the race but only three answered the starting signal. With the ebbing tide only an hour old, Smyth & Bradley (15007) took the decision to start on port to work the right-hand side of the beat. The other two Fireballs, Butler & Oram (15061) and Colin & Casey (14775) went hard left. The former tactic won out to leave Smyth& Bradley leading at the first mark, followed by Butler & Oram. The first spinnaker reach was manageable for the majority of its length but the leaders dropped early relative to the gybe mark. Butler & Oram kept theirs all the way but then overshot the gybe mark waiting for the opportune time to gybe. This left them sailing outside Smyth & Bradley on a parallel course to the leeward mark and while they closed on the leaders they weren't able to dislodge them from the lead. However, on the second beat they did take over to lead the sausage leg of the three lap course.
At the second leeward mark, Butler & Oram went swimming after their spinnaker drop and this allowed Smyth & Bradley to assume the lead again. Rounding the third weather mark, the leaders decided not to fly bag as the wind had got up again and a slight change of direction made it a tighter leg than the first time. Initially Butler & Oram followed suit, but they put the bag up over the second half of the leg before having to do an Aussie drop to reach the gybe mark.....and even then it was slightly hairy. The second reach was a bit more comfortable with the wind direction change and the swell that had developed made this a very fast leg. Smyth & Bradley held their pursuers off until the leeward mark and after Butler and Oram tacked at the leeward mark they covered their opposition. However, an inability to stay upwind and clear caused Smyth & Bradley to tack a bit earlier for the finish line. This left Butler & Oram as the windward boat and, travelling faster, they overtook the leaders to win by two boat-lengths at the finish line.

DBSC Tuesday Nights, Series 1; Tuesday 6th May Overall Pts
1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 3rd 7
2 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 2nd 6
3 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 14775 1st 5

#fireball – With the first of the DBSC races behind us – last Saturday's blow-out and Tuesday evening's sunshine session – thoughts will start to turn to the regatta season which gets underway in two weeks' time with the opening event, the Ulster Championships in Ballyholme on the shores of Belfast Lough. A club with a long tradition of sending members to the Olympics – Bill O'Hara (Finn, Team Manager & Regatta Official), Jackie Patton (470 crew to Cathy Foster) and, most recently, the 49er pairing of Ryan Seaton & Matt McGovern, to name but a few - the club were very hospitable when we were there in 2011. The race area is a short sail from the club and the open waters of Belfast Lough are very attractive for racing.

Ulster Championships May 17th & 18th Ballyholme Yacht Club
Open Championships June 14th & 15th Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club
Munster Championships July 19th & 20th Wexford Harbour Boat & Tennis
Club
National Championships Sept 12th – 14th Lough Ree Yacht Club
Leinster Championships October 4th & 5th National Yacht Club.
The "scene" then moves to Clontarf for the Open Championships in mid-June to coincide with the Battle of Clontarf celebrations, taking advantage of a festival that will be on that weekend. In July, we make a significant departure from the usual roster of clubs that host the class with a visit to Wexford Harbour Boat & Tennis Club for the Munsters.
Late July sees the Fireball Europeans being hosted in Lerwick in the Shetlands and in August the UK Fireball Nationals will be in Tenby, South-West Wales between the 16th and 22nd.
Consequently, and in another departure for the class, the Nationals will be held at a freshwater venue, with a three day event, as usual, hosted by Lough Ree Yacht Club in September. We had an excellent regatta in Lough Ree last year with a six-race programme completed by 13:00 on the Sunday afternoon. Granted the breeze was very cooperative, but Race Officer John Leech was also very efficient on the water. John has now been upgraded to National Race Officer which allows us to go back to this popular venue with its very impressive clubhouse for the Nationals. We will share the venue with the Wayfarers.
The season finale, the Leinsters, will be another shared venue, the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, on the first weekend of October, with the Flying Fifteens.
As in recent years the committee have tried to organise events at venues that are within easy driving distance of the Dun Laoghaire base of the Class or venues where there is an existing class that needs some moral support by way of numbers. Ballyholme and Lough Ree are probably within 2.5 hours drive of Dublin and the other three venues are either on the doorstep of Dun Laoghaire or just a stone's throw away.
Numbers for Ballyholme are encouraging at this stage with two weeks to go, so if you haven't entered yet, please do so as soon as you can.
All of the above events count towards the Travellers' Trophy and some discussion on the format of this season-long competition was had over the winter. However, no proposals for changing the format have been received to date and the one analysis that has been undertaken revealed that with six or seven different models used to score the event, no changes in the 2013 finishing order of the top five materialised.

The first Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Tuesday night race of the 2014 summer season was held last night in Scotsman's Bay and six Fireballs answered the call.

Class Chairwoman, Marie Barry, helmed by Cariosa Power (IRL 14854) was first over the finish line as a consequence of sailing a very good second beat in the two lap Windward-Leeward course.

There was a very strong tide across the course with a modest breeze that came from ESE (125˚) which allowed upwind trapezing. The consensus of opinion was to get inshore out of the tide and that's what most boats did, including Noel Butler sailing IRL 15061 single-handed. For Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (IRL 15007) staying out of the "dirties" of Messrs Miller & Donnelly (IRL 13713) and Colin & Casey (IRL 14775) was proving to be too much of a challenge so they took a hitch out to sea. On this first beat it didn't appear to have done them any harm as they rounded in second place just ahead of Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly but only a boat length down on Neil Colin & Margaret Down the leeward leg everyone stayed out in the tide, Miller & Donnelly gybed earlier than Smyth & Bradley in the final approach to the leeward mark to take second place behind the leading boat – Colin & Casey. At this stage Power and Barry were in fourth, but only a few boats lengths off Smyth.

First, second and fourth went inshore, with Power & Barry going further than the other two who were shadowing each other on the starboard layline. Smyth took a hitch to sea and was then forced to take another hitch to sea to avoid going through the start/finish line which is a no-go area in 2014 unless you are starting or finishing.

On the opposite side of the course, first, second and now third were enjoying a significant lift on the right hand side of the course, with the apparent third boat, Power & Barry closest inshore...............except when it came to rounding the weather mark for the second time, what I perceived to be the third boat, was in fact the first boat, the girls in 14854. Their quest for an opening race win was further enhanced when their immediate pursuers, Miller & Colin who had misjudged the tide from my vantage point, behind them, struggled to get round the mark and avoid each other, resulting in each of them taking a 720 penalty turn. This seemed to open the door for Smyth, but a fluffed tack for the weather mark, slammed the door shut almost as soon as it has been

The girls were comfortably ahead at the leeward mark with only the hitch to the finish left. Miller went to sea for the short hitch while Colin went inshore. Smyth also went inshore and closed to within two boat-lengths of Miller at the finish line.

DBSC Summer Series: Tuesday Night, Series 1

1 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 National Yacht Club

2 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 14775 Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club

3 Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly 14713 Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club

After the race it was reported than Noel Butler had capsized under spinnaker but had righted the boat himself to finish. Testimony to his fitness and perseverance when some of us sailing two handed find that a challenge!

Fireball International, the UK Fireball Association and Clwb Hwylio, Pwllheli Sailing Club have just launched a presentation announcing Pwllheli as the venue for the 2015 Fireball Worlds. The regatta will take place in Wales between 17th and 28th August 2015.
It will be ten years since the International Fireball World Championships were last held in the UK, and this regatta will represent the first occasion on which the Championship will go to wales. With a substantial domestic fleet of Fireballs in the UK, the event will provide an opportunity to race against some of the best amateur dinghy sailors in Britain and from across the globe. The combination of big fleet, tactical racing combined with the high performance character of the Fireball makes it a very hard act to beat.
The Welsh National Sailing Academy and Clwb Hwylio Pwllheli Sailing Club are a well-known venue in the international sailing world. The club has a wealth of experience in organising major regattas and sailing events and are currently constructing the new Welsh National sailing Academy & Events Centre. The racing areas are a short sail out from sheltered launching conditions off the beach and racing is visible from the shore. Regular south westerly winds and minimal tide provide excellent racing conditions for all, with the beautiful backdrop of the Llyn Peninsula and Snowdonia National Park.
Pwllheli is the unofficial capital of the Llyn Peninsula in Northwest Wales with the Peninsula an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Pwllheli providing an ideal base for exploration and easy access to nearby Snowdonia, Anglesey and the western coast of Wales.
Pwllheli Marina is situated on the south side of the Llyn Peninsula with moderate tides and sea conditions with varied patterns of wind.
CHPSC is located in the Welsh National Sailing Academy complex and boasts a modern building with catering facilities, changing rooms, showers, meeting and protest rooms. The Club is part of the RYA's UK National sailing Academy Network and was selected as a London 2012 Pre-Games Training Camp.
CHPSC have hosted a significant number of major Championships in recent years;
• Worlds: - Finn Masters, Cadets, Laser 2, Mirror, Splash.
• Europeans: - 470 & 420
• Nationals
o 2012: - UK Youths, Finn Worlds Masters, Topper, Optimist, Firefly
o 2011: - Optimist (457 boats), Sprit 15, 420, Finn UK Masters.
o 2010: - 29er, 49er, Finn, Topper, RS400
o 420, Cadets, Optimists (457 boats in 2009), Topper, Contender, RS Classes, Merlin Rocket, GP14, Formula 18, Kestrel, laser, Firefly, Hornet, Scorpion, Osprey, Flying Fifteen, Laser.
Wind
South-westerly winds prevail through most of the year, including the summer months. Long periods of settled weather can occur in August bringing dry sunny weather and light sea breezes. The sailing areas are open to the prevailing south-westerlies, creating unbiased race areas. Large waves or swell are rare in august, small chop of waves will form in onshore winds from SW to S.
Tide
The tides across the race areas are very weak with a peak of 0.3 knots and an average of 0.1 knots. In very approximate terms, the flood tide runs East for the first half of the cycle and Northeast for the second half. The ebb tide runs SW for the entire cycle.
Getting there.
By plane: To Manchester and then by train to Bangor where pick-ups can be arranged.
By ferry: From Rotterdam or Zeebrugge to Hull and then by road across the UK East to West.
From Dublin to Holyhead and then by road.
By road: From all mainland UK destinations.
Accommodation
Haven – "Britain's Favourite Seaside Holiday", 5kms from CHPSC – boasts 5-star on site facilities, including;
• Large heated indoor swimming pool complex with flumes and slides
• All-weather multi-sports courts
• Indoor SportsDrome
• Ropeworks including climbing and abseiling
• Go-karting
• Adventure Golf.
B&B, Apartments (overlooking the beach at Pwllheli's West End), Motor Homes, Caravans & Trailer Tents, Camping.
Quotation.
Chris Gowers, GBR Olympic Sailing Team Head Coach.
"From a sailing point of view, Pwllheli provides the best sailing water in Britain. Clean wind in the prevailing South Westerly makes it the perfect venue. The facilities speak for themselves. The club is incredibly supportive of top sailors, always prepared to go the extra mile. The PSC has a friendly atmosphere and is undoubtedly the premier sailing club in the country."

#fireball – The table above sets out the various combinations of hulls, sails and fittings, together with crew weights of the top six boats in the recently concluded Fireball Worlds in Thailand writes Cormac Bradley. It is a table (also downloadable below as an excel file) that details very few surprises except maybe the use of Irwin sails by Heather MacFarlane & Chris Payne – my recall of the race reports is that they flew a set of Irwin Dacron sails for part of the week.

In terms of all up crew weight is it significant how little variation there is in the 6 combinations, with the exception of Heather MacFarlane & Chris Payne at the light end and Ben Schulz & Doug Sheppard at the other end of the scale. The average "all-up" weight of the crew is 146.83 kgs which means that 3 of the crews were "on the money" weight wise and the range across the top six was only 30kg. This may have course have been a deliberate ploy as the regatta wasn't expected to have consistently heavy winds, but it is an indication of how a range of weights can be successful in the top echelons of a Worlds fleet.

Hull choice is consistent but really this isn't a surprise, nor is the choice of masts. It is however interesting to note the number of combinations who are using North Sails.

The Irish Fireball dinghy sailing scene is on of the biggest in the Irish dinghy scene. Regulary boasting regular fleets of 25 plus boats the high performance Fireball is one of Ireland's top dinghy classes. It is raced regularly at clubs around the coast but the biggest fleet is in Dun Laoghaire with a strong following at the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, the home club of National Champion, Noel Butler. Dun Laoghaire based Fireballs race under the burgee of Dublin Bay Sailing Club where they are one of the largest dinghy classes on the bay.

#2013 Fireball World Championship winning crew Simon Potts fulfilled the coach's role at what has now become the herald of the domestic Irish Fireball scene – the season opening coaching weekend. Potts, who won the Worlds in Slovenia crewing for Tom Gillard, was very modest when asked how he won the Worlds – "I have been practising for nearly 20 years" he said.

The weekend opened with an attendance of 22 people in one of the classroom of the Irish National Sailing School on the West Pier of Dun Laoghaire Harbour. This year's event was the beneficiary of financial support from the national sailing authority, the Irish sailing Association, who at this year's Workshop and AGM in early March were anxious to convey the idea that (limited) money would be available for coaching initiatives.

The weekend was a combination of classroom sessions and on the water coaching and assessment with the focus being on tight 3-sail reaching on Saturday morning. An afternoon session on the water had to be abandoned when the wind did the complete opposite of what it was forecast to do – it grew in strength!

This afforded Simon the opportunity to do a boat on boat assessment of spinnaker set-ups in particular, given the objective of the morning session on the water. The first boat scrutinised, which the crew though was reasonably well set-up, was found to be in trouble on a number of different issues – spinnaker pole controls, pole position relative to forestay, spinnaker sheet lengths, poorly operating ends of spinnaker pole, and spinnaker halyard. It was quite a revelation for the crew!

Other boats required more attention, especially those that are in the hands of new Fireballers of which there were two boats' worth. It was an insightful session and an indication of the level of detail that a crew operating at this level of success gives to boat set up. Simon stressed that these are checks that should be undertaken at the start of each day's racing with due attention to the wind conditions expected on the water.

The ethos he was getting across was the need to start preparation for racing, in the dinghy park, not just in the time before the start, on the water.

Another revelation was the declaration that the centreboard of the boats he sails regularly come out of the centreboard case on a regular basis (as frequently as every month) for cleaning, and polishing to make them, work as easily as possible in the box. So, while the afternoon was not spent on the water, it was a very pro-active session in the dinghy park.

Sunday saw the focus move to upwind and downwind manoeuvres, gybing and tacking on a Windward – Leeward course. As the day progressed the wind got up in strength and became even more blustery. Even the very competent (and youthful) crews were having the odd swim. In the afternoon we had the four-race- no discard Porsche Cup and in one of these short duration races, a severe squall knocked over all the "young turks" as they approached or departed the weather mark.

At the debrief, we got the "Potts buzzwords" – Committed and Determined. These join the Irish Fireball lexicon to sit with a certain individual's WUMPETA to describe the urgency that competitive Fireball sailing demands in certain situations.

This may have been the first weekend-long coaching session that Simon has given, but he certainly impressed his audience with his knowledge, his style of coaching, and his interest level – even to the extent of getting into a Fireball to coach one particular combination in the heavier stuff yesterday morning.

The Irish Fireball Class' thanks are due to Simon for a great weekend of tuition, to Kenny and Mrs Rumball (Kenny's Mum) for the use of their facilities at the Irish National Sailing School and their matching hospitality, to the ISA for their funding support and to Neil Colin who did the organising for the event and hosted Simon at his home.

#fireball – In what appears to have been a light wind conclusion to the Fireball worlds in Pattaya, Thailand, hosted by the Royal Varuna Yacht Club, two races have been sailed to close out the ten-race series writes Cormac Bradley.

A variety of Facebook postings and a transcribed tweet suggested that a long postponement was in place before racing got underway. 

However, final results have been posted (see above) and it appears that the 2014 World Champions are Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey, GBR 15107, who won on count-back from Nathan Batchelor and Sam Pascoe, GBR 15087, with the Australian combination of Ben Schulz and Doug Sheppard, AUS 15062 in third, five points adrift of the top two.

The top five at the regatta was closed out by Thomas Gordon and Jack Fletcher, AUS 15071 and Heather MacFarlane and Chris Payne, AUS 15048. 2014 Fireball Worlds, Pattaya.

This report brings the curtain down on the 2014 Fireball Worlds in Thailand. The international Fireball community will reconvene in the Shetlands in late July to contest the Europeans. This correspondent and Fireball International will be keeping you up to speed with the development of this regatta and the news updates as we get closer to the event.