World Champions rule at Fireball Open
'Brightlingsea SC Fireball Open Meeting'
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The Fireball fleet were joined by the Merlin Rockets and Contenders at Brightlingsea SC on the 21-22 June. Two races were scheduled for Saturday and three for Sunday. Reigning World Champions Matt Mee and Richard Wagstaff did enough in the two races that were completed over the weekend to take the event.
Saturdays racing started in 10-12 knots which dropped as the day went on. The unforgiving Brightlingsea tide also had a large part to play. After leading round the windward mark, Derian Scott and Andy Scott were eventually overhauled by reigning World Champions Matt Mee and Richard Wagstaff.
On the final reach to the finish, a loose knot on Matt and Richard's spinnaker sheet shook free allowing Derian and Andy to regain the lead which they held to the finish. Matt and Richard came in second with Vince Horey and Rob Gardner third. - Matt has now been officially banned from touching the Spinnaker at any time!
In race 2 the breeze continued to drop resulting in some long downwind legs against the tide. After a couple of boats were sent home after failing to the black flag. It soon became a three way race between current National Champion Tom Jeffcoate sailing with Tim Parsons, Dave Wade and Ben McGrane, Matt and Richard. Eventually it was Dave and Ben who took the win, closely followed by Matt and Richard in second with Tom and Tim third.
Racing was abandoned on Sunday due to over 30 knots of breeze with shallow water resulting in dangerous conditions. This gave Matt and Richard the event from Derian and Andy in second with Dave and Ben finishing third overall.
A big thank you from the fireball fleet to Brightlingsea SC for some good racing on Saturday, a fantastic meal on Saturday evening and keeping the bar open until late.
Fireball - Final overall results for two races
1st Matt Mee Richard Wagstaff 2 2 4pts
2nd Derian Scott Andy Scott 1 4 5
3rd Dave Wade Ben McGrane 7 1 8
4th Vince Horey Robert Gardiner 3 5 8
5th Tom Jeffcoate Tim Parsons 6 3 9
6th Phil Popple Gavin Tilson 4 8 12
7th Sam Mettam Richard Anderton 5 9 14
8th Mark Maskell Jon Watkins 9 7 16
9th Elaine Tudor Warren Tudor 12 6 18
10th Simon Lomas-Clarke John Piatt 13 11 24
11th Richard Mansfield Grahame Sanderson 11 14 25
12th Ian Priest Mike Stoddart 16 10 26
13th Barrie Winship Rose Winship 15 13 28
14th Rhys Lancaster Chris Bishop 14 15 29
15th Jonathon Cooper Cheryl Jessop 18 12 30
16th Ray Newman Oliver Clarke 17 16 33
17th Andy Pearce Gary Henwood-Fox 8 ocs 34
18th Ian Gibbs Tim Saunders 10 ocs 36
19th Austin Clarke Dawn Jasper 19 17 36
20th Nigel Warren Gillian Warren 20 18 38
21st Martin Scarth Tony King dnc dnc 52
by UKFA 
Edgewater, WA
