Fireball sailors Tom Gillard of England and Andy Thompson of East Antrim Boat Club in Northern Ireland have been crowned World Champions at the 2024 Fireball Worlds in Geelong, Australia.
The duo sailed a near-perfect regatta, rarely falling outside the top three and winning with a race to spare.
The achievement is a remarkable result and a record for an Irish sailor, as the Antrim man has noe acheived three world dinghy titles. As Afloat reported previously, Thompson won his world title in 2002 when sailing to GP14 victory with the late Richard Estaugh. He claimed his Fireball gold medal on Lough Derg in 2022 and retained it this week in Geelong.
Gillard said he was proud of the achievement, especially given the fact the British container didn't arrive on time.
Gillard thanked the Australian Fireball Association and the committee members, who worked hard to ensure those left without a boat from overseas were able to sail borrowed Australian boats to get them through the regatta.
In second place was fellow British sailors DJ Edwards and Vyv Townend, who also sailed an extremely consistent regatta, but ended up just short of the regatta leaders in most races.
Third place, and first Australians, were local heroes Brendan Garner and Ben O’Brien who hail from the Royal Geelong Yacht Club and had a really good start to their event to set up a successful result.
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