Drag’s Cup-Cazaux, by Stavros.

The final day in Cazaux was sailed in perfect dragon conditions with bright sunshine and a fresh Northerly breeze. As I previously stated, it would have taken an absolute disaster for Remy Arnaud FRA 396 and his team from La Baule, to have lost the overall lead after sailing so consistently over the previous three days….  and true to form, Remy recorded a 4th and 6th place yesterday, to seal his deserved victory. Well done.  But the race was on for the other podium positions and so with Yves Leglise again setting two excellent courses, the battle began in the shifting winds. With the start line more or less set square to the wind, it was a question of which “phase” the oscillating wind was in at the starting gun that determined who made the initial jump on the competitive fleet.

Louis Urvois FRA 365 showed his years of experienced by making two perfect starts. He worked hard from the middle of the line in the first race to earn 2nd place, then showed the whole fleet his transom by crossing almost every boat on port in the final race and never looked back. This was his third race victory which sealed his runner’s up spot overall. Meanwhile FRA 379 Pascal Civel took some great shifts in both races to finish 3rd & 4th respectively in the two races and take the 3rd overall place. Congratulations to all the crews of the these three top boats, who had to work so hard in the ever changing conditions, to maintain their points advantage over the rest of the fleet…….

The full results will soon be available on the web site, but special mention should go to local helm Stephane Baseden FRA 402, who put his brand new Petticrow “Outlaw” onto the lake, straight out of the wrapper, to finish a creditable 5th place overall. Just pipping Don O’Donoghue IRL 204 (who was adjudged OCS in the final race) 7th overall and Ron James GBR 633 (who was “holed” at the leeward gate, thus retiring and rightly was given redress for both race 9 and 10), so took 6th overall.  Rumour has it whilst Ron is having his hip replacement, his beautiful varnished cold moulded dragon will also be having a similar job done to repair the careless collision damage….Ha Ha.

Also it was great to see “Baboo” back helming FRA 380 in the final races, showing he still has the old magic in his hands as he won the 9th race in Vincent Jeantet’s boat.  So much talent is now in the French Fleet, it will not be long before someone other than Louis Urvois will be winning Internationally in our ever improving unique one design class………     Higher, Faster, Longer………………….   Stavros.