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Lawrie “Does” like Mondays !
The 2017 European Dragon Circuit could not have started better with the most perfect sailing conditions for the 28 top International Teams in Cascais, Jan 13th-15th.
Pedro Andrade’s new Petticrows Dragon “Monday” chartered to Lawrie Smith, wins the first European event of 2017 in Cascais, Portugal.
With 6 races completed over three days in a full range of conditions it all came down to the final race as Lawrie Smith went “Head to Head” with Andrey Kirilyuk (who was helming RUS 76 in Dmitry’s absence). Going into the final day Andrey, with his team of Aleksey Bushuev & Vitaly Ignatenko, held a slender lead over the former World Champion & 2015 Gold Cup Winner. However, Lawrie Smith’s 2nd in the 6th race (which in fact was the final race of the series due to a dying breeze) proved crucial. This gave Lawrie and his team of Hugo Rocha, Goncalo Ribeiro & Ruben Sole the victory by just 1pt !
“Strange Little Girl” had to settle for an impressive 2nd overall. Andrey, Vitaly & Aleksey.
Andrey Kirilyuk, who is normally tactician for Dmitry Samokhin, is a fantastic sailor. He has won numerous Dragon Regatta’s including a victory in Torbole’, Lake Garda. He also finished runner up at the 2103 World Championships in Weymouth, again just losing by a single point! So Andrey is an extremely competitive helmsman when given the opportunity … Thank goodness for all of us he normally sits in the middle of the boat ! 🙂
In fact hard on the heels of these two “Legends” of the sailing world was the man who won those World Championships back in 2013, Klaus Diederichs. Sailing in his GBR 758 “Fever” with Jamie Lea & Deigo Negri, they put together a very impressive series to finish a comfortable 3rd overall.
Team “Fever” Klaus Diederichs, Jamie Lea & Deigo Negri work hard to take a podium place.
Just behind the top 3 boats was today’s (Jan 16th) Birthday Boy Lars Hendriksen, helming his beautiful 1957 Pedersen & Thuessen “Eva”.
Happy Birthday Lars !!
4th Overall in the 3rd Winter Series, Cascais.
Sailing with Claus Olesen & George Leonchuk.
Now leading the overall winter series after 3 events 🙂
Right behind these great sailors was the Top Corinthian Team, who finished an excellent 5th place overall… GER 1180 “Rosie” helmed by young Benjamin Morgan, crewed by his Father Karl and Nicolas Raedecke.
5th Overall & 1st Corinthian Team GER 1180 “Rosie” Benjamin Morgan had a great weekend.
In closing this was a fantastic way to start the new year in Europe. Cascais can now look forward to a full programme of racing as it leads up to host the 2017 Worlds in June. With more Winter Series in Feb & March, then the Grade 1 Juan Carlos Trophy in April (preceded by the 6th Stavros Match Race event), followed by the Portuguese National Championship in May… Where else would you want to be ?
Higher, Faster, Longer…………….. Stavros.
p.s. Many congratulations to GORDON INGATE for winning his 3rd National Title in Australia ! Fantastic Result….. at 90 years young !! Hope to see you in Cascais my friend.
p.p.s My deep thanks, as always to Ricardo Pinto for these amazing photo’s…