470’s or Dragon’s, the Finn’s take the Lead!

FIN 63 “Nenya” Peter Von Koskull takes the overall lead after 3 races in the Cannes Grand Prix.

Two more races were sailed yesterday on another day of glorious sunshine and a favourable Easterly wind which kept the 51 boat fleet very happy…

The first race of the day started after a short delay with many of the fleet misjudging a left hand shift just before the gun, which saw most of the boats tack immediately off the line. One boat who made the best of this early port tack was our IDA Chairman Vasily Senatorov who took his RUS 34 “Even Better” all the way out to the starboard lay-line of the 1.8 mile upwind leg.

Another boat to make considerable gains off the line was RUS 27 “Anapurna” helmed by Anatoly Loginov, crewed by Vadim Statsenko and Alexander Shaligin. Although the left hand side of the beat looked famous for a while, it was in fact more pressure from the right that took RUS 34 into the lead at the top mark. Throughout the 2 hour race RUS 27 & RUS 34 had a great battle, but in the end it was Anatoloy and his team who took the victory from Vasily 2nd and GBR 761 “Jerboa” helmed by Gavia Wilkinson-Cox in 3rd place.

The winners of race 2 of the series, RUS 27 “Anapurna”, Anatoly, Vadim and Alexander.

In the second race of the day (race 3 of the series), it was two teams from Finland who showed us the way.. with FIN 85 “Thouban” helmed by Christian Borenius, crewed by Chris Winter and Richard Pernici taking a well deserved victory from FIN 63 “Nenya” 2nd and GER 1151 “Puck IV” in 3rd place.

However, it is this amazing team of FIN 63 “Nenya” who now lead the championship, after recording 2nd, 10th & 2nd. These former 470 sailors of Peter Von Koskull, Ii-min Tcheng, Niko Ruonosvo and Casper Von Koskull have made a fantastic start to their Dragon racing and hold a 5 point lead.

In second place overall is GBR 761 “Jerboa” helmed by Gavia Wilkinson-Cox, crewed by Mark Hart and Phillip Catmur. This top British team have put together an excellent series of races of 10th, 3rd and 6th.

2nd overall GBR 761 “Jerboa” with Gavia, Mark and Phillip showing great downwind speed.

In 3rd place overall is RUS 27 “Anapurna” who have recorded 9th, 1st and 15th so are still very much in the hunt to add yet another title to their ever growing list of top victories…..

With 51 boats competing positions change at the blink of an eye and to put together 3 top results is an amazing achievement, believe me 🙂  However, the 4 man team sailing on board FIN 63 are not only winning the event but also the top “Corinthian” team !

Top Corinthians FIN 63.  Peter, Niko and Ii-min with Peter’s son Casper just out of view.

Today’s racing will be very important as the forecast for the final day on Saturday is not looking good. Also a discard will apply after 5 races, so there is still everything to play for………

Higher, Faster, Longer……            Stavros.   (GBR 585).

P.S.    Another big “Thank You” to Michael Kurtz from Pantaenius, for these excellent photo’s.