Prince Henry the Navigator Trophy 2008

Well Campers,

GBR 708 Len Jones follow's up his World Championship Bronze Medal & wins the Trophy.

Also-Read about two World Champions, Claus Hoj-Jensen & Vincent Hoesch at their best.

Yes, despite a small turnout for the opening Portugal event, the 15 boats that took part
in the  were all up for it and on the pace from the first gun.
In a fleet filled with many stars and sailing in a variety of wind strengths Len Jones GBR 708 crewed by Claus and Jamie Lea came ashore after day one with two bullet's. One was well deserved and one carried a little luck. In the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in the Med,the wind tends to go around with the sun, in a clockwise direction. So with a dying easterly it really came with no surprise that those boats positioned nearer to the west would benefit first from any new breeze filling in from the sea. This is exactly what happened in race 1 & Len and his crew took maximum advantage to change a poor position to a first place.

Vincie Hoesch had a OCS on race one crewing for Pedro Mendes in POR 50, but it was obvious to those around that it does not matter if Vincie is helming or crewing, he will always have speed. He continues to keep his shrouds well forward (around 79cm from station 4), for those with their measurement books out! and a mast setting of 82/83. This will give a triangle from uppers to front of mast of around 4cm. Now what does this mean? well, The advantages are that upwind when you pull on the runners the uppers will theoretically tighten, (in practice they stay more or less the same). But, there is no doubt that if you have your uppers in line or behind the mast, they will slacken. Next advantage, the mast will go further forward down wind. Please be careful with gybing in strong winds if you try these settings as only the backstay will be holding the rig.
All good so far I hear you all say, but if only Dragon settings were so straight forward.....

Claus discussed with me that for these settings you need to have more luff curve in the
mainsail. As putting the shrouds forward will bend the mast, thus flattening the sail.
With me so far? Well, all I know is that three of the fastest Dragon Sailors in the World:
Poul-Richard Hoj-Jensen, Jorgen Schonher and Tommy Muller all have their shrouds in
different positions! So in conclusion, there must be many ways to make speed, but
variety is the spice of life.......... or so they say!

So back to the Cascais story...   the competition was tough throughout the 4 days.
I had the pleasure of Tim Tavinor crewing for me and we had a good 2nd day with a
bullet and a 4th. (the bullet I might add involved similar luck & understanding of the
new breeze discussed earlier) :-)  Also showing good form was top local sailor Patrick
de Barros, who despite not winning a race was very consistent in all conditions. SWE
338 helmed by Stefan Winberg was also amongst the leaders on numerous occasions,
but it was Len Jones and his team that held their nerve to capitalise on their fantastic
first day and take the trophy despite a great last surge by Vincie with back to back wins.

So top 5 results were Jones 1st, De Barros 2nd, Mendes/Hoesch 3rd Winberg 4th Stav 5th.

For the next event in a weeks time more boats are arriving. It's a long way to go but ideal practice for the Gold Cup later in the year. Incidentally, the Clube Naval de Cascais are offering a very nice winter package to anyone interested in leaving their boats in Portugal after the Gold Cup. I will publish a full list of their various winter events in my next report.

Higher, Faster, Longer..............   Stavros.