A late sea breeze

Day two of the Fireball National and European Championships

The morning started much as the previous day with a light westerly breeze and lots of sunshine. The anticipation was that the sea breeze would fill in by 12 o’clock, however 12 o’clock came and went and there was no sign of a sea breeze. Postponement flags were hosted and the fleet stayed ashore. It was not until nearly three pm that the breeze filled in and settled down.

Race officer Mike Pearson must have been in a generous mood as he did not get his black flag out straight away, however the fleet did not respond well to Mike’s generosity and Mike had to get his black flag out once more as he recalled the fleet once again.

Under the black flag the fleet got away to a clean start. Simon Maskell and Jon Watkins sailed the perfect beat to lead at the windward mark, closely followed by the Swiss team of Kurt Venhoda and Sonja Zaugg. They soon built up a generous lead which they would hold to the end of the race.

Overall the leader board was once again shuffled as more and more competitors picked up a big score. DJ Edwards and Dan Newman put in another top performance taking third place in race four and putting them back on top of the overall leader board, from Richard Estough and Rob Gardner in second place.

Taking up on tradition started last year at the European championships in Slovenia, a new approach to making sure competitors tally off and on correctly is being trilled this week. Competitors must collect there tally before launching and on returning them to the beach master after sailing they receive free beer. Surprisingly there has not been a single tally failure so far.

Tonight the fleet are being treated to a traditional British cuisine; it is curry night with extra hot Fireball chili sauce. It looks like it may be a late night for many as tomorrow is a layday.

Results:

Pos	Country	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	Tot
1	GBR	David Edwards	Dan Newman	1	1	12	3	17
2	GBR	Richard Estaugh	Rob Gardner	2	6	7	15	30
3	CZE	Tomas Musil	Jan Stantejsky	4	18	4	4	30
4	GBR	David Wade	Richard Wagstaff	5	5	3	18	31
5	GBR	Chips Howarth	Vyv Townend	3	23	2	5	33
6	SUI	Kurt Venhoda	Sonja Zaugg	21	8	6	2	37
7	GBR	Andy Pearce	Adam Broughton	7	4	15	16	42
8	GBR	Paul Cullen	Jonathon Ching	6	13	17	8	44
9	GBR	Penny Gibbs	Ian Gibbs	15	7	18	13	53
10	GBR	Phil Popple	Andy Scott	10	12	14	25	61