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The British Dragon Association Welcomes A Historic Entry to this Year’s Edinburgh Cup

The beloved keelboat of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Bluebottle has undergone a momentous restoration and a road trip to now complete the Royal fleet in Edinburgh. On completion of the full restoration of this iconic racing yacht in Cowes, Bluebottle has become the very first entry to this year’s British Dragon Association (BDA) Edinburgh Cup, national championships.

Built by Camper and Nicholson in 1947, Bluebottle was presented to Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip as a wedding present by the Island Sailing Club, Isle of Wight. In 1956 Bluebottle was loaned to the British sailing team competing at the Melbourne Olympics, with Lt Cdr Graham Mann at the helm, winning a Bronze Medal, the only British Dragon to have done so.

Simon Barter, BDA Chairman commented: “We are delighted that Bluebottle has been expertly restored to full racing trim and will be competing in the prestigious Edinburgh Cup. The Edinburgh Cup was presented to the Dragon class by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, for whom Bluebottle was built and in which he raced on many occasions.”

Bluebottle – Restored racing yacht arrives at Royal Yacht Britannia, Leith May 2021. (L to R) Chief Executive Bob Downie, Julia Bailey, Graham Bailey, Chairman Neil Rankin, David Heritage, Charles Morton, Cathy Ogden.
©Helen Pugh Photography www.helenpughphotography.com

“Bluebottle will be sailed in this year’s Edinburgh Cup by the very expert husband and wife team of Graham and Julia Bailey who have each won the Edinburgh Cup, the National Championship of the British Dragon Class.”

Julia and Graham, race regularly both home and internationally and have won four Edinburgh Cups between them in recent years. “We are all thrilled and honoured to be racing this most iconic of all Dragons in the Edinburgh Cup. At 74 years old, Bluebottle may be older than The Royal Yacht Britannia, but following the expert restoration with some modern upgrades from David Heritage, we are keen to see how she goes in competition and will give it our all in memory of the late The Duke of Edinburgh.”

His Royal Highness The Prince Philip’s three Royal sailing yachts together for the first time in 58 years.

David Heritage of David Heritage Racing Yachts, “It was a great honour to undertake the challenge of re-building such an iconic and famous racing yacht, and with the use of modern boat building techniques, bring her back to full racing condition. It was also an honour to know that The Duke of Edinburgh was able to see photographs as the re-build progressed, but equally sad that he was unable to see the finished boat”.

The Royal Yacht Britannia’s charitable trust is proudly welcoming the third and final Royal sailing yacht, Bluebottle, to join its historic fleet in Edinburgh, following an eighteen-month restoration undertaken by David Heritage Racing Yachts, Isle of Wight.

Bluebottle – Graham and Julia Bailey, May 2021.
©Helen Pugh Photography www.helenpughphotography.com

The Royal Yacht Britannia’s Chief Executive Bob Downie: “To finally have all three beautiful royal sailing yachts on public display alongside Britannia completes a historic maritime jigsaw we started 12 years ago, and I am sure our visitors will be as delighted as we are to see all The Duke of Edinburgh’s much loved sailing yachts united once more. We also look forward to Bluebottle once again sailing in the company of other Dragon Class yachts, both here in the River Forth and at regattas elsewhere in the UK.”

International Dragon Bluebottle (DK 192) will join the Flying Fifteen sailboat Coweslip (designed and built by the legendary Uffa Fox), and the classic 63ft ocean racing yacht Bloodhound, all three of which were formerly owned and much-loved by the late The Duke of Edinburgh, and on which both The Prince of Wales, and The Princess Royal learned to sail.

Bluebottle arriving in Edinburgh is the final part of a longstanding ambition by The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust to reunite the three historic vessels, and visitors to The Royal Yacht Britannia can see the full Royal sailing fleet on display at the one location for the first time in history.

Bluebottle – Restored racing yacht arrives at Royal Yacht Britannia, Leith May 2021.
©Helen Pugh Photography www.helenpughphotography.com

Bluebottle will be on the starting line for this years Edinburgh Cup in Edinburgh hosted by the Royal Forth Yacht Club. Find out more about the British Dragon Nationals and the Edinburgh event here >

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Burnham Fleet Club Report May 2021

Race one had action from start to finish. Pageboy XI (Paul, Clive, Graeme) held the line into the committee boat squeezing out Anarchy (Chip, Nicola, David). To leeward, in less current, Still Crazy (Ian, Heath, Ian) made a good start, and from the middle of the line Avalanche (Mark, Mandy, Nigel) showed early intent. Still Crazy opted to tack onto Port, take a transom or two, and head to the South shore. When the fleet converged close to the windward mark it was clear that Ian’s trip South had not been beneficial.

Saturday 15th May 2021 in Burnham may have started grey and flat but the mood in the Dragon Fleet was lively, as the first Mini Series of four windward leeward races since April 2019 was imminent. PRO Edwin Buckley held a short briefing under the RCYC crane before setting a course in a flood tide with a start line a little west of Greenward on the North Shore and a windward mark on the eastern side of the mouth of the Roach.

As the race unfolded, and from the right of the course, Avalanche rounded the windward mark first with Beauty (Peter, Katie, Ben) now in pursuit. Pageboy XI arrived at the mark from the left and tacked inside Beauty to round in second; but, agreed with Beauty that they didn’t quite pull off the move, and took a penalty dropping them down to fourth moving Danish Blue (Poul, Harriet, Noddy) up to third. Avalanche lead Beauty into the final leeward gate and opted for the left buoy and a tack for the shortest distance back to the line. Beauty opted for the right-hand buoy that was further from the finish line but involved a rounding in less adverse current and no tack. The right-hand rounding, it turned out, gave an advantage of about one and a half boat lengths, and Beauty won race one by a whisker.
Race two saw Beauty lead at the windward mark followed by Danish Blue who hoisted spinnaker and promptly omitted the spreader mark. It was a costly mistake; Mark Wade drew attention to the error with a little whistle and Danish Blue returned bare headed against the current to eventually round in sixth. Beauty took her second win, Avalanche her second second, Pageboy XI third.

Race three saw new faces at the front of the fleet, the course was providing options upwind and place changes were plenty. Anarchy held off the fleet to take the win from Pageboy XI and Avalanche. Beauty could not dig herself out of the pack and finished sixth.

With a discard coming into play if race four could be completed, four boats could win overall; the odds heavily stacked in favour of Beauty who led Avalanche into the final gate and took the left buoy. Avalanche went right and very nearly took the win in the same fashion they lost the lead in race one. Beauty, the oldest boat in the fleet, took the race win and the event win counting three first place finishes. They sailed with speed, and were able to pass boats in all but race three. Avalanche finished second overall counting three second places. Still Crazy made up the race four podium bringing them up to sixth overall. Third overall was Pageboy XI. Hands Off (Andy, Teresa, Tim) and Dublin Bay (David, Geoff and Dave) had their moments up the fleet but couldn’t make an impact this time.
The fleet is grateful to PRO Edwin Buckley for a very enjoyable four races. I cannot name check everybody in the race team ‘Team Phoebe’ on this occasion so our thanks go to them collectively.

1st GBR 746 Beauty and the Beast (Peter Marchant, Katie Cole, Ben Hutton-Penman)
2nd GBR 722 Avalanche (Mark and Mandy Wade, Nigel Cole)
3rd GBR 792 Pageboy XI (Paul Taylor, Clive Page, Graeme Page)

Racing continues next weekend. We also have the RBYC Whitsun Regatta to look forward to where we expect to have the company of Richard Davies in his beautiful cold-moulded ‘Flotation’ with a guest appearance from Stavros.