For only the fifth time since 1992, a non-British combination have won the Fireball Worlds. With a nine-race programme concluded on Lake Garda today (Friday), the Swiss combination of Yves Mermod and Maja Siegenthaler (14961) have won the Fireball Worlds by a three-point margin in a 136-boat entry. With three race wins, three second places, a fifth and a DNC they beat the early leaders of the regatta, DJ Edwards and Vyv Townend (15144) who counted a score of three race wins, a second, two thirds, two fourths and a seventh. In third place, and double defending World Champions (Lough Derg, Ireland in 2022 and Geelong, Australia in 2024) Tom Gillard and Andy Thompson (15122) had a solitary race win, two seconds, a fifth, a sixth and a seventh, a thirteenth and two fifteenth places, to trail the runners up by 21 points. Other race wins went to David Wade and Iain Blake (15175) and Peter Gray and Richard Pepperdine (15118). Wade & Blake finished fifth overall, while Gray & Pepperdine finished sixth.
The Swiss pair Yves Mermod and Maja Siegenthaler take a tack to victory in the Fireball World Championships on Lake Garda Photo: Elena Giolai
With the exception of the DNC in Race 4, the Swiss counted results in the top five of every race, while Edwards & Townend kept their scores in the range first to seventh. In a fleet of this size that is some consistency.
For the ten-boat Irish team, there was success as well with Daniel & Harry Thompson (Wexford Harbour and Royal St George) (15114) finishing 19th overall and winning the U25's World Championship. Conor Twohig & Matthew Cotter finished 23rd overall with Josh Porter & Cara McDowel (15022)l and Ed Butler & Iso Inan (14969) finishing 41st and 42nd respectively.
The early part of the week was hard work and when the lay day came the suggestion ws that everyone was ready for it. The second half of the regatta may have been a bit easier on the bodies.
Many people would have fancied Gillard & Thompson to add another title to their CVs, but a 7, 15, 15, 13 sequence of finishes in the first four races left them with an uphill struggle. In contrast, Edwards & Townend scored 1,1,3,1, across the same four races while the Swiss had 2,3,2,DNC (137).
It is a measure of the challenge in sailing in a fleet of this size, where an 800m start line was required, that well known crews that would be familiar to the Irish fleet had difficult weeks. Heather Macfarlane & Chris Payne (15152), who were on the podium in Lough Derg, finished in 37th, with a fourth in their first race and a ninth in Race 8, but other results in the forties, fifties, sixties and a 120th.
Derian and Andy Scott (14941) finished 25th without a top ten race finish but places in the low teens (1), twenties (4), thirties (2), fifties (1) and eighties (1). Ben Schulz, teamed up with Tom Gillard's non-Fireball crew (who has enjoyed multiple National Championship wins in the UK this summer) and finished 18th, with three results in the low teens, three results in the twenties, two results in the thirties and a DNC (137).
David Hall, who was the prime mover behind the new Fireball model, sailed with long-term crew Paul Constable (15172) and finished 12th with three top ten finishes, a mid-teens result, two results in the twenties, one in the thirties and one in the forties and a result in the nineties.
In a 136-boat fleet these are impressive numbers but it just shows how difficult big fleet racing can be!
In the early part of the week, the GBR boats were dominating the top ten, but as the final results, above, show, they ultimately had to share it with a number of other nationalities.
World U25 Fireball World Champions, Daniel (L) and Harry Thompson, of Ireland Photo: Frank Miller
Within the overall regatta, the entrants were divided up into different categories based on age, gender, family crews, lady helms, etc and it is in one of these that the Irish Team came away with a victory. Scoring a fourth place in Race 3, where I believe they may have port-tacked the entire fleet, and with the exception of a 79th in Race 7, Daniel & Harry Thompson kept the balance of their individual race results under 32nd place to make them the U25
The first mixed crew was Georgia Booth & Oliver Davenport in 8th place with Georgia also the first female helm. Derian Scott was the second female helm (and second mixed crew with Andy) with Jalina Pivetta crewed by Nathan Stockley (Aus 15153) the third female helm in 28th place.
A very good friend of mine, Jean Jacques Provoyeur, from my days in South Africa, sailed the Lake Garda event, 41 years after finishing second at the San Franciso Worlds of 1984, finishing 83rd. On learning that the 2026 Worlds are to be sailed in the UK, in Torbay on the south coast, stated that he is determined to be there, despite finding Lake Garda a tough physical challenge.
Closer to home, the Irish fleet will have a chance to take a crack at our World U25 Champions when the domestic season resumes with the Ulster Championships at Mullaghmore on the weekend of September 20 & 21st.
