Day 5 - 2008 Fireball Worlds - Thailand

Day 5 2008 Fireball International –World Championship – Thailand

Another fantastic day sailing at Royal Varuna Yacht Club at Pattaya in Thailand.

The day started with Matt Mee/Richard Wagstaff(GBR) having a 4 point lead over Nathan Stockley/Sam Muirhead(AUS) and 12 points ahead of David Wade/Ben McCrane(GBR).

In the first race Mee/Wagstaff decided to take matters into their own hands and luffed Stockley/Muirhead at the start putting them under pressure. Both boats were back in the pack on the first beat, which allowed Tomas Musil/Jan Stantejsky(CZE), 2006 European Champion to get ahead of Greg Allison/Richard Watson(AUS) and Richard Estaugh/Rob Gardener(GBR), 2007 World Champions. On the second beat, Mee/Wsagstaff caught up to the leaders, but Heather Macfarlane/Chris Payne(AUS) got past Estaugh/Gardener for 3rd. Musil/Stantejsky beat Allison/Watson to the finish, and Mee/Wagstaff pipped Macfarlane/Payne on the line. This gave Mee/Wagstaff the world championship with Stockley/Muirhead back in 17th and Wade/McCrane in 6th.

As per normal the second race was slightly windier than the 1st, but with the championship in the bag, Mee/Wagstaff sat it out. Wade/McCrane led around the first mark with Stockley/Muirhead only just in the top ten. On the last mark rounding Eric Moser/Ruedi Moser(SUI), 2006 World Champions just led from Robin Inns/Joel Coultas(AUS), Wade/McCrane and Richard Mason/Simon Hextall(GBR). At the finish .Inns/Coultas managed to get ahead of Mason/Hextall and Wade/McCrane. Stockley/Muirhead had a disastrous race including a swim which put them back to 3rd overall. Allison/Watson finished a consistent series to finish a strong 4th ahead of Musil/ Stantejsky, who were probably let down by minor gear failure. The final placings between 6th and 9th couldn’t have been closer with 4 boats being separated by 1 point, with Macfarlane/Payne beating Estaugh/Gardener on countback for 6th and Moser/Moser beating Vince Horey/Andrew Thompson(GBR) on countback for 8th.

Congratulations to Matt Mee/Richard Wagstaff who won the championship in superb style and class, and showed that they had a little extra when required over the other seventy boats.