Gianfranco, the President of the Circolo Vera Yacht Club in Torbole’ welcomes everyone!!..
Yes fellow sailors this is the 10th anniversary of the Hans-Detmar Wagner Cup for Dragons in Torbole’ situated at the Northern end of the magnificent Lake Garda….. The 34 boats enjoyed two races today in a lighter than normal southerly wind of around 6 to 8 knots. In race one USA 310 helmed by 81yr old Ted Sawyer won the pin end of the line and looked famous half-way up the first beat until a left hand wind bend saw Ted and his team over-stand the first mark by 200m. This allowed GER 1068 helmed by Ingo Ehrlicher to round in first place closely followed by GER 998 Rudi Houdek & GBR 785 Lawrie Smith in 3rd place. Rudi managed to slip past Ingo on the second beat to win the race with Ingo 2nd and Lawrie 3rd. (Sawyer finished a creditable 7th).
The three main sponsors, BMW, Marine Pool & Trentino displayed on each boat.
In race two the wind was first on the right, then on the left, then in the middle….. !! Massive gains were made and lost up the first beat however, it was RUS 34 Vasily Seneratov our own Vice Chairman of the IDA who was leading through the first leeward gate and sailed brilliantly to nearly win the race. In the end he was just over-taken by GER 1125 Stephane Link who had a marvellous second upwind leg. Staying in the game and as ever so consistent was GBR 785 Lawrie Smith who followed Stephane and Vasily in to record another 3rd place and also take the overall lead after day one…….
Second place overall and just one point behind Lawrie is Stephane and the boys from the Bavarian Yacht Club GER 998 are in 3rd place…. with 5 more races to go over the remaining two days, any thing could happen….
Higher, Faster, Longer…………….. Stavros. (USA 310).