Danish Nationals, Provezza Dragon Win in Hellerup.

TUR 1212 Andy Beadsworth, Jim Hunt & Simon Fry win in Hellerup.

16 Teams participated at Hellerup Sejlklub for the Danish National Championship held over the long weekend of 14th-16th May. It was great for many of these sailors to get back on the water as Covid restrictions begin to ease across Europe. The Danish Dragon Fleet has always been regarded as probably the toughest fleet in the world, with such strength in depth, but this time no Danish team made the final podium.

Close racing in Hellerup at Danish Nationals.

Conditions were not perfect, with predominately light winds, but a great time was had by all especially ashore where teams enjoyed the typical Danish hospitality organised by Lars Stenfeldt Hansen on behalf of Hellerup Sejlklub. One of the visiting helms Dmitry Samokhin (RUS 76) explained “After 6 races the situation at the top was GER 62 (Stephan Link) 13pts, RUS 76 14pts and TUR 1212 (Andy Beadsworth) 15pts. In race 7 Stephan was leading at the top mark and both us and Andy were just behind, but the wind was dying and shifting. Right before the finish DEN 410 (Jens Christensen) took the lead with Andy 2nd, Stephan 3rd and we 4th which was not working for us! But with a little sailing miracle we managed to cross the line just ahead of Stephan so all top 3 boats were now on equal points(17)!”

Tight starting at the Danish Nationals.

So going into the last race (Race 8) the Championship was up for grabs for any of these top 3 teams, I spoke to Simon Fry (TUR 1212) he told me “We knew everything was on the final race and we managed to get a good start, the wind was light just above 5kts and both RUS 76 and GER 62 picked the wrong side of the first beat, so were well back. Winning the last race gave us the overall victory and we are all delighted. Due to covid restrictions our normal crew Arda Baykal was unable to travel over from Turkey, so Andy and I were grateful that our friend and top sailor Jim Hunt was able to stand in. It was great to sail 18 races (10 last weekend and 8 this weekend) during our time in Denmark and we now look forward to the long haul down to Cascais for the Juan Carlos Trophy in 2 weeks time”.  Many congratulations Provezza Dragon.

Andy Beadsworth, Simon Fry & Jim Hunt, winners in Hellerup.

In 2nd place overall and taking the Danish Championship Medals (due to membership of the Hellerup Sejlklub) were RUS 76 “RocknRolla” Dmitry Samokhin, Kasper Hasberg & Andy Kirilyuk. 3rd overall GER 62 “Desert Holly” Stephan Link, Frank Butzmann & Michael Lipp.

Danish Champions RUS 76 “RocknRolla” Andrey, Dmitry & Kasper.

Very well done to Hellerup Sejlklub for hosting this National Championship and great to see many smiling Dragon Sailors back on the water after such a long break.

3rd Overall GER 62 Stephan Link, Frank Butzmann & Michi Lip.

With more events organised in respective Countries I encourage all sailors to get back out on the water, in a safe way, support your local fleet and keep the Dragons alive… I’m sure there will be many more reports to follow and I wish everyone happy sailing.

Higher, Faster, Longer….    Stavros.

p.s. Many thanks to Per Heegaard for the photo’s.