Irish Fireballs move up board

26th August 2009

The Irish Fireball crews are moving up the leaderboard in La Rochelle, with a race win for Francis Rowan and his English helm Tom Gilard, and placings inside the top ten for the Rumball/Moran and Butler Moore pairings. Final sailing results from day three have yet to be posted - today the teams enjoy a lay-day.

The following report comes from the Afloat Fireball Forum.

"In a regatta that is being dominated by the UK combination of Chips Howarth and Vyv Townsend, with multiple race wins and an almost immoral points lead of over 20 over the rest of the fleet, it is very pleasing to report that the Anglo-Irish combination of Tom Gillard and Francis Rowan recorded a race win yesterday, in the second race of the day. "In the first race of the day they scored a 7th place.This follows on from a race win at the Europeans last week and a third place finish overall in the 89 boat fleet. A further 12 boats have joined the fleet for this week's Worlds and the contrast in Howarth/Townsend results couldn't be more stark. Last week they were collecting BFDs on their score card as if they were going out of fashion. "This week they are replacing those with race wins. Today, Wednesday is a scheduled lay day and it may be needed as the Barbadians had their chance to show why the fleet should be going to the Carribean island for the Worlds in April/May next year!
Four more races take place on Thursday and Friday (2 each day) before the regatta concludes.

Yesterday's second race was a better one for the Irish with Noel Butler/Seamus Moore scoring an 18th, Kenny Rumball/Dave Moran a 20th and Niall McGrotty/Robert Mahon a 26th.

Rumball/Moran are now the highest placed all-Irish crew at this stage of the Worlds, followed by Butler/Moore."

Published in Fireball

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