THERE was plenty of wind and bright sunshine for the Blackwater Sailing Club Fireball Open.

Thirty-one boats contested the five-race event and with two world champions and a national champion amongst the competitors the racing was very close and tight.

A strong home fleet were able to put 18 boats on the water.

Conditions on the first day ranged from force one to force five, all in the space of minutes which proved highly challenging.

Race one was won by Dave Wade and Simon Hibbet from Peter and Tom Kyne with Tom Gilliard and Richard Anderton in third place.

The top Blackwater boat was Mark Maskell and Nigel Shepphard in fourth.

Race two saw the current World Champions, Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey join in the racing, but a delayed journey meant that they missed the start of the first race.

Birrell and Brearey sailed a great race to win comfortably from Blackwater’s Brett Townsend and Dave Nichols in second place, with Dave Wade third.

Race three saw Simon Lomas-Clarke and Rob Daniels take the win from Richard Cornes and James Goodfellow with Dave Wade taking another third place.

Charlie Stewart and Josh Kuhl were the best placed Blackwater Boat finishing in sixth place.

Day two brought fine sailing conditions with sunshine and winds ranging from 17 to 32 knots, force five to seven, which proved extremely challenging at times.

Race four saw the only general recall of the weekend and race officer Barry Foulds went straight to a Black Flag for all subsequent starts as threatened at the briefing.

Gilliard and Anderton sailed flawlessly to narrowly take the win with Dave Wade in third place.

Top Blackwater boat in this race was Steve Jarred and Nick Collins in seventh.

Race five saw the wind come up another notch or two and the downwind legs became epic.

Again Birrell and Sam Brearey had a close battle with Gilliard and Anderton up the first beat with Birrell getting to the windward mark first only for his mainsheet to shred which meant the end of the race for them.

This left Gilliard and Anderton to sail away with Wade and Hibbet giving chase in second.

Steve Jarred and Nick Collins were narrowly in third place down the final reach as the fleet was hit by an enormous gust.

Jarred tried to do an ‘Aussie drop’ with the kite to round the mark and finish, but it all went horribly wrong 20 metres from the line and they fell into windward as he dropped the kite, which allowed Mark Maskell and Nigel Sheppard to finish third and put Jarred and Collins back to seventh.

Wade’s consistency, particularly on the first day, gave them the overall win with Gilliard and Anderton in second with Peter and Tom Kyne third.

The top Blackwater boat was Mark Maskell and Nigel Sheppard in sixth.