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UAE 8 Now Lead in La Rochelle…
Tom Vernon, Adam Bowers and Oliver Spensley-Corfield sailed a most perfect race yesterday, on Day 4, of the Dragon World Championships to win the 5th race in La Rochelle. It was a race started in 16 to 20 kts of wind, but gradually dropped away to just 10 kts towards the end. The port side of the course proved to be the winning move as all the leaders at the first windward mark came from the pin end of the line. Following GBR 795 across the finish line in 2nd place was UAE 20 Hendrik Witzmann in “Desert Eagle”.
Desert Eagle, 2nd in race 5 & race 6 of the Dragon World Championships in La Rochelle.
In 3rd place was GER 11 “BBXXL” helmed by Vincent Hoesch, crewed by Marc Pickel and Markus Steinlein, This ever consistent team have now moved up to second place overall and are strong contenders for the World Title of 2015.
In the second race of the day (Race 6) everything changed on the start line as the favoured side of the course for the first beat proved to be the right ! Indeed it was fellow British boat GBR 801 “Alfie” helmed by Lawrie Smith, crewed by Tim Tavinor and Joost Houweling who took the lead at the first mark and maintained their advantage right up until the last half of the final beat. With the wind really shifting and two top boats to cover, Lawrie was just passed in the end by UAE 20 who took 2nd and UAE 8 “Bunker Boys” Yevgen Braslavets, who not only won the race but now lead overall…
So UAE 8 have 16pts, GER 11 are on 26pts and RUS 76 just a few behind on 37pts.. You would think the overall winner will now come from one of these three boats, but believe me anything can and probably will happen.. Yes fellow sailors, with two more 3 hour races still to go in an 80 boat fleet, huge changes can be made…
RUS 76 “Strange Little Girl” hold on to 3rd overall and Dmitry, Alexsey and Andrey still have a great chance to win.
Leaders of the Masters are still the team from Australia AUS 225 “Dragonfly” helmed by William Packer, crewed by Julian Harding and Denis Cullity. These guy’s are having a fantastic Worlds as they sit in 5th place overall and deservedly so..
However, even at 5th overall it does not secure them as the Top Corinthian Boat !! How can that be ? I hear you say … well it’s all down to the scoring system, but basically each race a Corinthians score is taken as where they finished once all the professional teams are removed… so if for example Dragonfly was to win a race, the next Corinthian boat would score 2pts, even if it finished 20 boats back…. Get the picture ? Yep, thought so, clear as mud 🙂
In any case, if you look at the Corinthian Results you will see that SWE 358 “Sweet Alice” helmed by Hans Liljeblad, crewed by Johan Hedberg and John Magnusson are tied with AUS 225 on 9pts. Then GBR 610 “Rackham” has moved up to 3rd overall after a splendid day yesterday, well done to all..
Higher, Faster, Longer………… 2 days to go….. Stavros. (GBR 585).