High “Fives” all round for RUS 76, Dmitry Samokhin, Andrey Kirilyuk & Aleksey Bushuev.
The “Hamlet” Dragon Gold Cup really caught “fire” on Thursday here in Hornbaek, as 2 more races were completed in superb conditions even though we spent nearly 9 hours on the water! A 15 to 18 kt westerly wind combined with a mixture of currents produced some difficult seas but offered exhilarating sailing.
The 76 boat fleet eventually get away under a Blag Flag. 3 boats were disqualified.
There were a number of “aborted” starts as the boats were swept over the line by a favourable early morning current, this caused several general recalls & postponements. However, eventually the fleet did get away with 3 boats Black Flagged, 2 of which were main contenders… POR 66 Jose’ Matoso & GER 1162 Stephan Link (who was European “Runner Up” in St Petersburg). So their Gold Cup is over as of course there are no discards in this series.
Winners of the 3rd Race of the 2016 Hamlet Gold Cup, RUS 76 “Strange Little Girl”.
Race 3 was won by RUS 76 “Strange Little Girl” helmed by Dmitry Samokhin, crewed by Andrey Kirilyuk & Aleksey Bushuev. Pushing them hard all through the race was DEN 138 “Eva” helmed by Lars Hendriksen, crewed by Robert Stanjek & Claus Olesen who had to settle for 2nd place, with DEN 32 “Nina” helmed by Nicholas Holm, crewed by Mathias Thomsen & Jonas Hogh in 3rd.
In Race 4 of the series there was a tremendous battle for the victory between GER 1121 and DEN 411. However, although GER 1121 “Caroroo” helmed by Reemt Reemtsma, crewed by his wife Petra & Lorenz Jensen held the upper hand for the majority of the race, it was DEN 411 “African Queen” who snatched the win right at the end of the 3rd and final beat….
Big Hug’s all round on board the “African Queen” who recorded a 4th & 1st place today.
I spoke with Jorgen after the race, he told me “In both races we started down near the Committee Boat as we could see the waves were slightly breaking showing more current. Then played the shifts without choosing either side of the beat. In race 3 we had to do a 720 as we infringed the leader at the top mark, but we were still happy to finish 4th. Then in race 4 we had a great race with GER 1121, in fact they sailed very well, but we just managed to squeeze pass them at the finish”. Very well done to Jorgen and his team, could this be Gold Cup number 4 for this excellent Danish Sailor ?
DEN 411 “African Queen” Jorgen Schonherr, Thomas Schmidt & Christian Videbaek win Race 4 just ahead of GER 1121 “Caroroo” Reemt & Petra Reemtsma & Lorenz Jensen!
3rd place in race 4 went to GER 1162 “Desert Holly” who bounced back from the major disappointment of their Black Flag in race 3. So it was great to see Stephan Link, Frank Butzmann & Michi Lip still fighting despite having no chance to win overall…. (Well done guys).
So now we all prepare for another extremely long day, as 2 more races are scheduled for today, followed by the craning out of nearly 80 boats ! It should be fun as its what we all live for 🙂
Higher, Longer, Faster…………….. Stavros.
p.s. As usual, many thanks to Ricardo Pinto, who we all know well, for his high quality Photo’s.
p.p.s. Special thanks also to Elena Razina, who has also contributed to my article. Please check out Elena’s web site for further great photo’s at htt://elrazina.com