Dave White has a new boat under construction.  An album with some pictures and descriptions has been created on the Fireball North America Facebook page.  Click here to view

After three days and eight races on Long Island Sound near Rye, N.Y.,  Patrick Crump and Jane Millican of Tampa are the 2011 North American champions. Matt King and Guy Tipton from Shelburne NS finished as the runners-up and John Driver and Robert Levy from Pointe-Claire Yacht Club near Montreal rounded out the top three.  Only three points separated the top three.

Long Island Sound provided warm weather but light wind and lumpy water over the three day event which saw twelve boats from Canada, the US and Switzerland participate.  The American Yacht Club's spectacular venue saw a total of 116 boats show up to participate in the HPDO and this is the sixth year in which the Fireballs have participated.  Lots of refreshments courtesy of event sponsor Heineken and a fantastic meal on Saturday evening together with the opportunity to ogle some cutting edge boats helped compensate for the tough conditions.

Full results are available here and pics courtesy of Photoboat.com are here

The 30th edition of Screwball was held Sept 16-18th at PCYC.  Seventeen boats participated in the event including some familiar faces from the past including Tof Nicol-Griffith, Etienne Portelance, and Phil Locker.  Pat Crump and Jane Millican made the long trek from Tampa to participate enroute to the NA's to be held at HPDO over Canadian Thanksgiving.

Friday was cold and windy with the breeze pretty consistently in the low teens and lower 20's with gusts stronger.  Three races were sailed but attrition had taken its toll and only 8 boats completed the third race.  At the end of Day 1 Tof and Toby were in first followed by Pat and Jane with Mike McEvoy and Andrey Boguslavskiy in third.

A reception on Friday night saw many former Fireballers and Screwballers gathered at the PCYC bar to renew old friendships and to reminisce about regattas past. There was a lot of discussion about the dismal prospects for wind through the remainder of the event.

Saturday dawned bright and clear with more wind than forecast.  The RC managed to get four races off in variable winds less than 10 knots and at the end of the day Tof and Toby remained in first with 9 points followed by Pat and Jane with 11 points and then Stephen Waldie and Nic Mochutti.  A number of crews had "variable" days including McEvoy/Boguslavskiy who had a 3rd and a 12th, Eric Owston  and Lisa Leblanc who had a 3rd and an 11th, Pierre Carpentier and Tom Bird with a pair of 4's and a pair of 11's and Waldie/Mochutti who matched a 2nd with an 8th. The day ended with a catered dinner and entertainment provided by local Fireballers John McGuiness, Donald Slessor and Stephanie Whittaker.

An over anxious fleet raised the ire of PRO Madeleine Palfreyman who raised the black flag after a General Recall.  Five boats including Crump and Millican were excluded from the results in race 8.  The regatta was on the line for Tof and Toby in Race 10 after they produced a 4th in Race 9.  An altercation on the first beat mired them among the back markers and while they were able to recover to post a 5th place finish that cost them the win.  

The Crew's Union made their customary pithy Screwball Awards and then the formal prizes were awarded.  Pat and Jane won the event by one point over Tof and Toby and third went to Stephen and Nic.  Complete results can be found here and pics can be found on the Fireball North America page on Facebook here.

Rumoured that this event was held at Calgary Yacht Club on Labour Day.  Noah and Mike won.  Details?