Thompson's take U25 Fireball World Title!
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 on 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. 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.
For the ten-boat Irish team, the main success sat 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)Frank Millar 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.
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.
In a 136-boat fleet these are impressive numbers but it just shows how difficult big fleet racing can be!
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.