Full On in Cascais…. Day 3.

Day 3 of the Dragon Worlds in Cascais was not for the faint-hearted…. it was Full On.

A mixture of waves, wind and 70 top class Dragons going at it made for some exhilarating sailing yesterday on day 3 of the World Championship in Cascais.

With 2 more races completed the cream is, as usual, rising to the top as the event reaches it half-way stage with 5 races now sailed out of a possible 10.

Great to see Charlote & Juliette Ten Wolde racing again with Janka Holan & Franscisco Andrade.

The first race of the day started shortly after 12.0 in a building breeze from around 330 degrees, the “Sophie Racing” team led by Hugo Stenbeck regained their terrific Gold Cup winning form to lead the race from start to finish. They were pushed hard by GER 1177 “Pow Wow” Michael Zankel, Charles Nankin & Pedro Andrade who finished 2nd followed by UAE 9, Henrik Witzmann, Henrique Anjos & Markus Koy in 3rd.

SUI 311 “Sophie 3” Hugo Stenbeck, Bernardo Freitas & Martin Westerdahl win Race 4.

The right side of the beat was predominately paying although some boats lost out by over-standing which was easy to do in such demanding conditions. However, this enabled the lead boats to increase their advantage as leaving a final approach on port tack certainly require a element of courage, skill and above all luck 🙂

I spoke with overall leader Andy Beadsworth after racing he told me “We had trouble getting off the line as there was 3 or 4 boats locked together at the start. By the time we wriggled free we estimated 15 boats ahead of us on the left and a similar amount also on the right. We managed to make our way over to the right side then elected to tack under the pack of boats leading out from the right. Fortunately we have good speed and height so we could nearly get to the top mark, in doing so we managed to clear most of the boats also on the left, so in the end we were very satisfied with our 4th place after a bad start”.  Andy and his “Provezza” team now lead by 7 pts.

In the 2nd race of the day it was the turn of former European Champions and top local boat POR 66 “Drago” helmed by Jose’ Matoso to make a jump on the fleet and win the race. Racing with 4 times Olympian Gustavo Lima & Frederico Melo, this dedicated team now move up to 5th overall and are still a contender for the title…

POR 66 “Drago” power over the waves to win race 5 of the Dragon World Championships.

With TUR 1212 “Provezza” continuing their great form to finish in 2nd place and GER 1177 “Pow Wow” completing an amazing day in 3rd (after their 2nd in race 4) it now sets up the championship nicely for a breath taking next few days…

Currently in 2nd place overall is the always consistent RUS 27 “Annapurna” followed by the 2015 World Champion Yvegen Braslavets, who is not going to give up his title without a fight..

3rd overall after 5 races is the current World Champion with Sergey Pugachev & Sergey Timokhova.

The forecast today is for strong winds from the North, which may see the inner course used for the first time in this event. Although it will offer flatter water, as the bay of Estoril is slightly more protected, it may still be too windy for the fleet to go out…  we shall see…

Higher, Faster, Longer……            Stavros.  (JPN 50).

Many thanks once again to Elena Razina for these fantastic photo’s…