Top gear

Jonathon Bale details the equipment used at the Fireball Worlds

At this year’s Fireball World Championships in Adelaide Australia, there were three boat manufactures and no less than seven different sail makers represented in the top ten. The two Delange boats were well over ten years old proving that the modern epoxy boat can have a long competitive life span. Malcolm Davies in GBR13945 (4th this year) finished 5th in the World Championships in the same boat some 14 years ago. It seems the sailors can have just as long a competitive life span as the boats!

The 2005 Fireball World Championships are to be hosted in the UK at Teignmouth Devon. For more information see www.fireball-dinghy.org.uk

	Nat.	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Hull	Mast	Jib	Main	Kite
1	GBR	14801	Andy Smith	James Meldrum	Winder	Proctor, Stratos	P&B	P&B	P&B
2	CZE	14712	Tomas Musil	Jan Danek	Winder	Proctor, Cumulus	P&B	P&B	P&B
3	GBR	14809	Dave Wade	Richard Wagstaff	Winder	Proctor, Cumulus	P&B	P&B	P&B
4	GBR	13945	Malcolm Davies	Russell Thorne	Delange	Proctor, Stratos	MacNamara	MacNamara	MacNamara
5	AUS	14849	Brett Young	Allen Blenkle	YMS	Proctor, Cumulus	Clifton	Clifton	North
6	GBR	14839	Kevin Hope	Rob Gardener	Winder	Proctor, Cumulus	Rush	Rush	Rush
7	GBR	14855	Richard Estaugh	Simon Potts	Winder	Proctor, Cumulus	Speed Sails	Speed Sails	Speed Sails
8	AUS	14810	Dylan Clarke	Jonno Bannister	YMS	Proctor, Cumulus	Clifton	Clifton	Clifton
9	AUS	13946	Brendan Garner	Christopher Schwarz	Delange	Proctor, Cumulus	Irwin	Irwin	Irwin
10	AUS	14814	Greg Allison	Richard Watson	YMS	Proctor, Cumulus	Clifton	Clifton	Clifton