Sixty-six boats were registered but only 59 arrived on the start line. That’s because the Brit’s and Czech’s containers got diverted by the Red Sea conflict and they never got their boats. Miraculously, Australian organisers found replacement boats for all, and most took advantage of that, but a handful chose not to sail without the familiarity of their own boats. Half the fleet is race-ready Aussies in the middle of their season. The rest hail from GBR, FRA, IRL, SUI, ITA, and CZE plus three CAN boats – Mark Cummings & Evelyn Chisholm of Cadboro Bay Sailing Association, Kelly & Shannon Gallin skipping one regatta each with Eric Diller crewing. They’re also from southern Vancouver Island, sailing at Caddy Bay and North Saanich Yacht Club. Clay Paulson, of the Arizona Yacht Club, is crewing for Mianne Erne of Switzerland. And then there’s us – Liam sails at Jericho Sailing Centre in Vancouver, while I sail locally at St. Mary’s Sailing Club in Lethbridge, and at Calgary Yacht Club when droughts drain our local reservoir.

We haven’t been practicing together due to distance, and because of me missing most of the 2023 season due to an annoying new heart condition. And it’s the middle of the Canadian winter! At Stingaree Bay off Royal Geelong Yacht Club there’ll be strong offshore, shifty winds with little wave development. The Aussies call it an ‘offshore ocean breeze with flatwater’. I’m hoping our inland shifty-sailing experience will help.   

Fireball Worlds attracts strong sailors with decades of dedication to the unique class. The Fireball was designed in the 1960s and has a unique look that conveys timeless coolness like the MGBs, XKEs, and Corvettes from that era. It’s one-design but with parameters broad enough to allow creativity in rigging. Carefully-guided development has led to faster hulls, flat spinnakers for high reaches, trapezes, and mylar sails. The boat needs to be tuned well to go fast, and Fireballers are keen to trade intelligence on best settings and go-fasts.    

We’ll be sailing against the best! Liam and I have sailed in four previous Fireball Worlds, but were toward the back of the fleet. A mid-30s finish is our goal as we’re relatively inexperienced, unpracticed sailors in an unfamiliar older boat. And that performance goal is secondary to staying healthy, having fun, improving our sailing and teamwork, and socializing with Aussie and international sailors.

*  *  *

Day 1 of pre-worlds was a baptism by seawater! The wind whipped up to 20 knots by the first start. By the third race, gusts were knocking boats over on upwind legs. The gybe mark was a demolition derby! We held ourselves to just one capsize on a spinnaker gybe and, happily, Liam got the boat up really quickly and I scooped into the cockpit. We’re exhilarated and tired at the end of the day! Our resurrected Fireball provided some surprizes – an exploding spinnaker halyard cleat, a tiller extension that ripped-off mid-race due to corrosion, jib positioning problems due to strangely positioned jib leads, and a slot gasket replacement. And this is just Day One! Ah, but we smile and make repairs to sail another day. Mark and Evelyn were also dealing with breakdowns on their colourful chartered boat ‘Smokin Gun’. We seemed to be playing leap-frog with Shannon and Eric, passing them upwind but then they’d fly by us on spinnaker legs.

*  *  *

The Pre-World Australian Championships gave us 2 more days of challenging sailing in strong shifty winds. The winners were Dave Hall and Paul Constable of England – real gentlemen who have been sailing together since kids. They told me they know each other so well they rarely even talk in the boat – just go through the motions instinctively now! Top Australians came second: Ben Schultz of South Australia with a youngster who’s the Australian 470 champion crewing. We placed 39^th out of 52 boats. In the mysteriously-calculated ‘handicap’ standings, we got first, just ahead of Shannon and Eric in second. We all got ‘special prizes’ at the end of each day, so we’re doing well in the swag department! Mark & Evelyn placed 44^th and Shannon & Eric were 48^th. Mianne and Clay generously leant their boat to a Czech team to sail in pre-worlds, but they’ll join us for Worlds. We’re all keen to move on to the main event.

*  *  *

Whoa… that was a wild first day of Worlds! A north wind duking it out with the ocean breeze caused really shifty conditions. That was not to the race officers liking so he kept the fleet ashore – also to protect us from the 35° blazing heat. The Aussies were elbowing their way to the club bar when the cat-in-the-hat flag came down – at 4:30pm! The Southern Ocean wind had won: big time… The race started in a 25-knot wind that got stronger. Multiple capsizes, breakages and torn sails forced many to shore. For the Aussies it was just another day on the water! Top worlds teams trailed behind local sailors – an unusual scenario at a World Championship. We were flying around mid-fleet when we got knocked down by a sudden gust on the second spinnaker reach. It took us a while to right the boat, then we trailed the rest of the race. In the second race, we sailed conservatively and survived at the gybe mark weaving between 4 capsized boats. On our second upwind leg, we crossed tacks at high speed with now-familiar rivals, passing Irish friends on the downwind, but getting nipped by the French at the finish line, crossing 32^nd. The sun set as tired fireball sailors clambered up the beach into the dinghy park at 8:30pm. We rounded up Team Ireland and brought them home for a delicious Tasmanian salmon dinner cooked by Dee.

*  *  *

Two races today with no delays! The first started with winds of 12 knots, but by the finish we were back pushing 18 knots. We stayed pointy side up all day but had trouble getting our settings right and felt unable to turn on our best speed. Results were at least consistent: 35^th and 36^th. Mark & Evelyn as well as Mianne & Clay got caught by the very tight time limit expiry, giving them high scores. Eric and Kelly had a capsize mishap that gave Eric a deep cut on his head. The on-water response team was excellent. He was transported to hospital and got bandaged, stitched-up and released. He’ll hopefully be back on the water soon!

The regatta has a fun social agenda. Each day features recognition of certain sailors, volunteers and sponsors. On this day, father/son teams got up on stage and we were with eight other family teams. Then at evening prize-giving they recognized teenagers in the event – the youngest being a 15-year old female Swiss helm. Today I exchanged club burgees in a ceremony with the friendly RGYC Vice-Commodore.

We’ve been warned that racing tomorrow might be hindered by a series of electrical storms and super-strong winds, so we might be held ashore.

*  *  *

Yep, races were cancelled today due to severe weather. Liam and I spent the down time replacing a main halyard cleat that had been slipping, replacing a jib downhaul cleat, and calibrating and marking the Aussie-style jib fairleads that have been confounding us.

*  *  *

Back to the club again today on what was supposed to be a lay day. Instead we had two races to make up for yesterday’s cancellation. The wind blew 15-20 knots – enough to tip over several boats and cause problems. After 6 days of sailing, we’re getting better and responding quicker to gusts and shifts in these big winds. On one high reach, everyone got knocked by a header and couldn’t make the mark. So, we did our first ever ‘Aussie Drop’, then could point up enough to get to the gybe mark, hoist the kite the rest of the way, and gybe, accelerating down to the leeward mark. We stayed upright all day and had some of our best speed. It finally showed in our results, with our first finishes in the 20s: a 29^th then a 25^th.

*  *  *

This is the last day of Fireball Worlds. We had our worst day yesterday with capsizes in both races. Better news was that Kelly and Eric rejoined us on the water, although Eric doesn’t look himself with head encased in gauze, shower cap and helmet!

We had our best-ever day today in races 9 & 10. Getting 10 races in the series was significant because it allows dropping of your two worst races, and we all had two poor results to drop! Our starts were best-ever in both races and we held our lane well and got to the windward mark with the front group. Staying with that gang is tough, as every little error allows several boats to pass. The winds were perfect at about 15 knots. Our close competitors, Frank and Ed from Ireland, Jean-Francois and son Alexis of France, and the Aussie husband & wife team of Suzanna and Andrew were near us all day, but we managed to inch ahead of them by the end of the day with 26^th and 19^th placings. It was exciting to finish a Worlds race in the top 20 for the first time. Mianne and Clay did it too, with an even-better 16^th place finish in race 9!

Our final overall placing is 34^th, so we’ve achieved our pre-regatta performance goal of a mid-30^th result! And more importantly, we had a great holiday In Oz with my wife and two sons, and special time with other sailors.

Brits and Aussies locked up the top ten of the leaderboard. Incredible sailors all! A few Swiss, French, and Czech teams made it into the top thirty. As for our fellow North Americans, Mianne & Clay came 43^rd overall. Mark and Evelyn looked flashy in their flame-covered red boat, but were plagued by equipment failures, placing 50^th. Kelly and Eric missed races due to injury, but then valiantly re-joined, finishing the regatta in 55^th.

The Aussies also use an interesting system involving time comparisons of every boat against the race leader, with calibrations cumulative as each race occurs. It identifies the boat that has improved the most between the beginning and end of the regatta. And Liam and I won that fairly handily! What a nice treat to get that unexpected recognition and the award at the excellent prize-giving banquet.

Next Fireball Worlds Championship is at the famous sailing venue of Lake Garda, Italy, August 2025…. Hmm… Pasta anyone? 

Richard Quinlan CAN 14545 ‘Invictus’

Photos by Peter Quinlan

For more photos, check out: https://downundersail.pixieset.com/2024fireballworlds/

For regatta reports by Fireball International, go to: https://www.fireball-international.com/worlds/2024-worlds-australia/