Going into the final day of the Holt Fireball World Championship it was all very close at the top of the leader board. With the prospect of at least two races and discards kicking in there was the potential for significant change in the results.

Heading the leader board were the 2004 World Champion Andy Smith and Jonny Mildred on 22 points from the 2003 World Champions Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend on 26 points.

The forecast was for a strong gradient breeze and out on the race course it was blowing a good 15-20 knots. It was the turn of local sailors Malcolm Davies and Ian Cadwallader to show the fleet the way around the race course and take the win in race five from Dave Wade and Richard Wagstaff in second place.

Significantly as far as the over all lead was concerned it was Howarth/Townend that took third place in race five while Smith/Mildred were down in 23rd place. Going into the next race it would be advantage to Howarth/Townend.

At the start of race six it was looking increasingly likely that this would be the final race of the series. The race officer would simple not have enough time to get all the boats finished and reset the course within the time limit for the warning signal on the final day.

The wind had dropped to 12-15 knots by the start of race six. It was last week’s winners and new 2005 European Champions DJ Edwards and Dan Newman who showed their best form to take the race win from Guy Tipton and Chriss Tattersall in second and Tomas Musil and Jan Stantejsky in third. With Howarth/Townend keeping a loose cover on Smith/Mildred during the entire race, Howarth/Townend came home in seventh place while Smith/Mildred were in 10th place.

With insufficient time for the race officer to sail another race within the prescribed time limit Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend were declared 2005 Fireball World Champions from Andy Smith and Jonny Mildred in second and Guy Tipton and Chriss Tattersall in third.

A special Mention must go to Vyv Townend who is the first crew to have won the Fireball World Championship on three separate occasions.

Overall Results

1 GBR 14830 Chips Howarth Vyv Townend 19pts

2 GBR 14895 GUL Andy Smith Jonny Mildred 32

3 GBR 14614 Guy Tipton Chriss Tattersall 34

4 GBR 14904 Richard Estaugh Rob Gardner 38

5 GBR 14908 Where’s Wally David Edwards Dan Newman 42

6 CZE 14879 Aloha Malina Tomas Musil Jan Stantejsky 45

Silver Fleet Top 5

32 GBR 14851 WaveWalkabout Mark Jarred Nick Collins 156

45 GBR 14778 Cruel & Unusual Mike Deane Paul Disney 207

55 FRA 14728 Pascal Anselmo Jean Robillard 257

57 GBR 14801 Spot the dog Ben Baxter Alyson Bowring 259

63 FRA 14912 Jenny Green Malcolm Green 276

Bronze Fleet Top 5

82 GBR 14783 Spanman Damian Abbatt Stephen Digby 394

85 GBR 14546 Spunky Downunder Alison Goodall Rosco Hayes 409

88 GBR 14452 Running Bear Johnny Limebear Abi Morgan 417

90 GBR 13993 Jonathan Carter Gary Hodkinson 419

94 GBR 14556 David Rush Wayne Southall 426