Fireball Worlds, Pattaya, Thailand – Days 1 & 2 report from Cormac Bradley. After two days of racing the leader board has a familiar ring to it – a British crew is sitting on top of the pile, though there is a health warning with this report – the results (as they stand) are subject to "Team B" – Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey (GBR 15107) have an enviable count of three race wins but at this early stage of the event, pre-discard, they are back in 6th with a DSQ. Their contemporaries, from a British perspective, Nathan Batchelor & Sam Pascoe, are thus flying the flag with a 2, 2, 3, 3, score-line to sit four points ahead of the Australians Heather McFarlane & Chris Payne (AUS 15048) and Ben Schulz & Doug Sheppard (AUS 15062). Aussie combinations close out the top five as the leader-board currently stands with Allison & Blenkle (AUS 15032) and Gordon & Fletcher (AUS 15071) in 4th
Day 1 of the Worlds saw wind strengths of the order of 8 – 12 knots, but enough to allow the pumping flag to be flown. This seemingly took its toll on a lot of the crews but this correspondent can't imagine that Sam Brearey was afflicted given all the gym photos he was posting to Facebook in advance of the event. Birrell and Brearey took both races to register the perfect score for the day.
Yet again the left side was the way to go but the tide was having a greater influence than before which meant that some thought had to be applied! Team Batchelor/Pascoe sailed well to score two second places an create a breathing space ahead of three Aussies combinations who are separated place as they are also carrying and 5th respectively – Gordon, Schulz and McFarlane – in that order.
Day 2 saw ten knots of breeze and glorious sunshine! However, the wind was shifty with 15 degree shits at the bottom of the course and 20 degree shifts at the top. Some of the bigger crews – Messrs Egli and Nouel (Canada and French) found these conditions testing! The windward legs saw the fleet sailing against an adverse tide resulting in lots of effort being expended to keep the boats moving. Birrell & Brearey led the fleet around the first mark and took off down the reach chased by Batchelor, McFarlane, Schulz, Allison, Gordon and Jospe. These positions held until the B-Boys decided they would indulge in some match-racing tactics with Batchelor and Pascoe. After a few dozen tacks the door was opened for McFarlane & Payne who took over the lead. The B-Boys got over-enthusiastic in their attempts to recover the lead, were penalised and then had doubt cast on the legitimacy of their turns which led to a disqualification. Allison and Blenkle passed out Birrell & Brearey as did Batchelor and Pascoe. These two swapped places twice before the Aussies crossed And as for McFarlane & Payne, nobody gave them any trouble so they took a well-deserved first! One in the eye for excessive youthful exuberance!
Race 2 saw the wind get up to 14 knots – a welcome prospect for the "bigger" French and Canadian crews. However, it seems the energy they had expended in the first race saw them less enthused by the better offering of Race 2. Tide kept the fleet honest allowing for a clean start. Schulz and Sheppard went left where the tide was weaker making the conditions less lumpy. They led around the first top mark followed by Birrell & Brearey. The remainder of the fleet rounded within a couple of boat-lengths of each other and with a revised course configuration of sausage-triangle-sausage the fleet split in two. The principal beneficiary of the gybe set was Gordon and Fletcher. On the next beat some of the front-runners fell back allowing the "usual suspects" to take over at the front of the fleet. Schulz and Sheppard had yet another gear failure – spinnaker sheet (again) which dropped them to third while Allison/Blenkle had to drop their spinnaker to make the gybe mark. No doubt with the "bit between his teeth" Schulz got back to second and Allison/Blenkle also staged a Birrell & Brearey held onto their lead with Schulz & Sheppard second and Batchelor & Pascoe third.
Recovery in the surf conditions was aided by the RVYC boat boys which prevented further draining of energy levels and prompting an adjournment to the RVYC verandah for some recovering beverages.
Fireball Worlds: Day 2, RVYC, Pattaya, Thailand. (R1 R2 R3 R4 Tot)
1 Nathan Batchelor & Sam Pascoe GBR 15087 2 2 3 3 10.0
2 Heather McFarlane & Chris Payne AUS 15048 3 6 1 4 14.0
3 Ben Schulz & Doug Sheppard AUS 15062 4 4 4 2 14.0
4 Greg Allison & Allen Blenkle AUS 15032 7 5 2 5 19.0
5 Thomas Gordon & Jack Fletcher AUS 15071 5 3 5 8 21.0
