14 Dragons made the journey to the Emerald Isle to take part in the Kinsale Yacht Club Dragon Gold Cup 2024.
Initially, this event was planned to take place in 2020, but it was postponed due to the Covid pandemic. Now, four years later, a record number of 62 Dragons and over 200 sailors gathered in Kinsale for the 80th anniversary Dragon Gold Cup.
The week provided a variety of weather conditions from a very light Southerly breeze, rain, and calm seas to strong Northerlies and shifty winds from the West. After an unsuccessful practice race the fleet got away well and from the outset, the British Dragons impressed racking up race wins.
Pete Cooke GBR402 Meteor took the overall race one win and the Borgé Borresen trophy with Mark Dicker’s GBR610 Rackham finishing 9th and 1st Corinthian.
The appeal of the Gold Cup is that the format of three long windward legs allows for tactical racing and sees many changes in position at each rounding. At the halfway point of the series, the Dragon fleet was being led by Peter Gilmour’s JPN56 Yred after a win in race two.
The top ten was made up of many British Dragons including Grant Gordon GBR833 Louise, Lawrie Smith GBR815 Alfie, Gavia Wilkinson-Cox GBR831 Jerboa, Graham Bailey GBR 192 Bluebottle and Pete Cooke GBR402 Meteor.
Corinthian sailors were firmly in the mix with Jono Brown GBR753 Fit Chick appearing in and around the top ten frequently along with Hannes Hollaender GER1075 Grace, Guus de Groot NED309 Furie and James Matthews IRL219 TBD.
It has to be said that on the water resulted in exciting close racing and on land the team organised an excellent post-racing party atmosphere with hot food thanks to Yanmar and plenty of Guinness on tap.
As the week progressed, the wind continued to increase and flick more to the West, resulting in more swell and tricky racing conditions. But these conditions seemed to favour many of the British fleet with Owen Pay GBR777 Furious, David Tabb GBR832, Stewart Reed GBR767 Firefly and Richard Leask GBR731 Kestra making great choices, sailing well and getting themselves into the front of the fleet.
By the last race of the series, there had been a different winner every day, and any one of the four top Dragons could have gone home with the Gold Cup. It was a very exciting final Gold Cup race with just a few points separating JPN56, GBR815, POR89 and TUR12 at the top and IRL211, GBR753 and GER1075 very close to taking the Corinthian title.
Close racing at its finest was how it came to an end. While unable to lead, GBR815 stayed in touch with GBR192 and GBR831 holding their positions in the top ten. As Pedro Rebelo de Andrade POR89 First Thing’s First crossed the line in second place he knew he had done enough to secure his second Dragon Gold Cup Championship title and a first for crew Jose Leitmann and Jamie Lea.
Edinburgh Cup 2024 Corinthian winner Cameron Good IRL211 Little Fella sailed a great final race to edge ahead of GER1075 and GBR753 to secure his second Corinthian title in Kinsale.
An excellent week came to an end with many of the British Dragons and sailors featuring on the podium.
2024 Kinsale Yacht Club Dragon Gold Cup trophy winners
Overall Gold Cup Champions
1st Pedro Rebelo de Andrade, Jamie Lea, Jose Leitmann POR89
2nd Peter Gilmour, Sam Gilmour, Yasuhiro Yaji JPN56
3rd Lawrie Smith, Ruairidh Scott, Goncalo Ribeiro, Martin Wrigley GBR815
Corinthian Champions
1st Cameron Good, Henry Kingston, Sam Hunt IRL211 Little Fella
2nd Hannes Hollaender, Arne Hubregtse, Johannes Berg GER1075 Grace
3rd Jono Brown, Chris Grosscurth, Andrew Norden GBR753 Fit Chick
Nations Cup – Germany
Silver Trophy IRL161 Denis Bergin, Joey Bergin, Rory Byrne
Dubarry Boot IRL22 Peter Hayes, Michelle Hayes, Jess Tubb Misfire
Classic Boat, Don Street Trophy GBR192 Bluebottle Graham Bailey, Julia Bailey, Will Bedford, Killian Boag
Full Gold Cup results can be viewed here https://results.kyc.ie/2024/24GoldCup.html
