Day 2 2008 Fireball International Pre-Worlds – Thailand
The second day of sailing looked promising, with a light breeze blowing onto the beach. On the way out to the start the wind built to a lovely 14 knots, enabling all crews to be fully stretched. After two general recalls the black flag was flown and the fleet got off to an even start. The majority of the fleet went left with some intrepid sailors hitting the right hand corner. The regatta leader Matt Mee/Richard Wagstaff(GBR 14919) showed his form by rounding second at the windward mark, just behind Robin Inns/Joel Coultas (AUS 14782). During the race a thunderstorm lurked and swung the breeze by about 50 degrees to the left making for interesting racing amongst the leaders. Mee/Wagstaff slipped back a couple of times, but managed to slip through to win the race. Tomas Musil/ Jan Stantejsky(CZE 14879) snuck through to second.
The second race was much lighter with the thunderstorm moving on and the tide having increased dramatically. The start got away first go as the tide was against the fleet. Boats were sailing hard just to try and get across the line against the tide. This caused the fleet to split into two. The boats going left to get out of the tide, or right to get stronger wind. The local Thai boats got it right on the right hand side, and the boats on the left ended up a long way back. Unfortunately Mee/Wagstaff and Musil/Stantejsky were caught out, letting Yusuke Shimotsuma /Koichi Tsurumotousuke (JPN 14509) get to the first mark first ahead of Kitipong Khambang/Pacharaphon O-Pun (Tha 14519). Kevin Hope/Russell Thorne (GBR 14950) got past them on the second reach and went on to win from Nathan Stockley/Sam Muirhead (AUS 14587).
David Wade/Ben McGrane (GBR 14976) have now taken over the lead from Mee/Wagstaff on total points, but if drops were included then Mee/Wagstaff would be back in front.
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