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British Dragon sailors lead in San Remo

Sanremo Delivers Two Great Opening Races for Dragon 90th Anniversary Regatta powered by Paul & Shark

  • British Dragon sailors Mike & Monique Hayles lead Fleet A after opening two races of Dragon 90th Anniversary Regatta powered by Paul & Shark at Yacht Club Sanremo
  • Ireland’s Daniel Murphy and Brian Goggin head Fleet B.
  • Fleet prepares for Wednesday’s special 90th Anniversary Race in which all boats will come together and for the Champion of Champions Race featuring medallists from the Olympics, World and European Championships and World Cups in any class and the Dragon Gold Cup
  • Series racing will resume on Thursday 10th October

Day two of the Dragon 90th Anniversary Regatta powered by Paul & Shark brought beautiful hot sunshine and racing at last for the 150 strong fleet, who had been held ashore on day one due to strong winds and rough seas. The starts were initially postponed for a little over two hours to allow the wind to build, but by mid-afternoon a delightful 6-7 knots had filled in from the south east quadrant, enabling the Yacht Club Sanremo’s Race Committee to run two excellent qualifying series races.

The fleet has been split into two groups for the qualifiers, with each group racing on its own dedicated windward leeward course. The light airs gave the tacticians and trimmers a good work out as they tried to pick the best lanes and constantly change gears to maintain maximum speed. Consistency was hard to find though and by the end of the day four different race winners had been identified.

First blood in Group A went to Anatoly Loginov sailing RUS27 ‘Annapurna’ with Ivan Bradbury’s beautiful wooden classic GBR375 ‘Blue Haze’, built in 1959 by Pedersen and Theusen, second and Philipp Ocker’s GER1135 ‘Birscherl’ third. Race two was won by Charlotte Ten Wolde in NED435 ‘Olinghi’, with Helmut Muller’s GER810 ‘Zille’ second and Joergen Schoenherr in DEN411 ‘African Queen’ third.

Overall however, the most consistent Group A performers were long standing International Dragon circuit supporters Mike & Monique Hayles’ GBR764 ‘Naiad’, and Jeroen Leenen’s UAE58 ‘Desert’, who both ended the day on 14 points. Alexander Ezhkov’s RUS2 ‘Alisa’ lies third with Bradbury fourth.

In Group B Vasily Senatorov, sailing RUS34 ‘To Be Continued’ won the opening race from Norbert Stadler’s SUI297 ‘Tachiston’ with Brian Goggin’s IRL180 Serafina, helmed by Daniel Murphy, third. The second Group B race was won by Evgenii Braslavets in ITA77 ‘Bunker Prince’ with Goggin and Murphy second and Jens Christensen’s DEN410 ‘Out of Bounce’ third. Overall Goggin and Murphy now lead Group B by two points from Christensen who took fourth in the opener, with Pieter Heerema’s NED412 ‘Troika’ in third thanks to a seventh and fifth place.

British Dragons GBR 818 Harry and GBR 770 Storm both had consistently great races in the top ten to finish 5th and 7th respectively earning their place in the Gold fleet.

Visit www.intdragon.net for the full press release and further event info, results, videos and photos.