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NED 309 set’s the pace in La Baule….
It was another fantastic day of racing for the lucky competitors here in La Baule on the west coast of France, as 3 more races were completed in glorious sunshine and 10 to 12 kts of shifting north-westerly wind. The President of the Committee de Course, Jean Louis Fabry did an excellent job to get the races away on time, setting some good courses and very fair lines. One minute the shift favoured the right, the next minute it was the left…..
However, Guus de Groot, helming his beautiful Petticrow cold moulded Dragon was correct with his game plan all day, recording 2 wins and a 3rd place to bring him and his excellent team right back in contention overall. The other race winner yesterday was GBR 782 helmed by Dave Atkins, who now has two first places and is really getting to grips with his recently acquired boat. I had thought it was previously owned by Jorgen Schonherr but in fact it was “out of bounce” the boat of Jens Christensen’s. Well I can tell you Dave is certainly “In the bounce” as he is now one of the leading contenders.
I am however pleased to report that (yours truly) GBR 771 “Finito” still leads the regatta with a total of 19pts. In 2nd place overall is GBR 775 Poul-Richard with Guus de Groot then right behind in 3rd place. But with three more races today, followed by a final day on Tuesday, the Derby Dragon Trophy is still up for grab’s… Also after today more than 8 races will have been completed, therefore a second discard “kicks in” which will thrown a few more teams into the equation for overall glory.
In closing, I will just add that the dates for NEXT years Derby Dragon will be 6-10 June, as it will follow a chance to visit La Rochelle (the venue for the 2015 Worlds) the weekend before. All dates will be publicised soon. But when I talked about the exciting prospect of going back to La Rochelle to Poul-Richard he for one will be doing “both” events in 2014. He told me “Stavros when I first went to La Rochelle I nearly drowned…. eh? I was in Finn Dinghy eh? and I had driven through the night to get there and was so tired I capsized on way out to start… eh?” Fortunately a big fisherman pulled “The Man” from the water giving him a chance to go on to win 2 Gold Medals and many other World and European Championships… Why not make a plan to visit the place where it all started for PR next year, then travel up to La Baule..
Higher, Faster, Longer………… Stavros (GBR 771) Finito’