“Provezza Dragon” are on Top of the World….

Andy Beadsworth, Ali Tezdiker & Simon Fry win the 2017 Dragon World Championships.

It was the most perfect sailing day in Cascais yesterday (Saturday 17th) for the 70 boats to finish their 2017 International World Championships. With blue skies, 10-12kts of wind and a clear line start, under just a “P” flag, what’s not to like?

The two boats who made the best start at the committee boat were NED 412 Pieter Heerema & JPN 50 Bocci Aoyama. Whilst RUS 76 Dmitry Samokhin was the first to “pop” in the middle of the line and tack towards the right side of the 2.5mile first upwind leg. Meanwhile TUR 1212 Andy Beadsworth had his eyes firmly focused on GBR 815 Lawrie Smith so that when Lawrie tacked to the right he encountered the “Provezza” slam! This immediately put Lawrie on the back foot as he could not get a clear lane to utilise his skill and genuine speed sailing, game over.

GBR 815 “Alfie” Lawrie Smith, Hugo Rocha, Joao Matos Rosa & Goncalo Ribeiro 3rd overall.

Meanwhile it was NED 412 “Troika” helmed by Pieter Heerema, crewed by Lars Hendriksen & Claus Olesen who made the most of more pressure and a 15 degree starboard shift to lead at the top mark.

NED 412 “Troika” helmed by Pieter Heerema won the final race (race 8) of the Worlds.

RUS 76 helmed by Dmitry Samokhin who had a few problems at the beginning of the week, really kicked into gear to close out his world championships in style. Sailing with Andrey Kirilyuk & Alexey Bushuev he finished the second half of the week with 5th, 3rd, 2nd & 2nd ! Amazing racing by this very likeable team on board their new V6 Petticrows “Rocknrolla”.

RUS 76 “Rocknrolla” 2nd in the final race and 5th overall in the Dragon World Championships.

With RUS 76 and NED 412 truly “launched” in the final race it came down to an epic battle for 3rd place between JPN 50 and GBR 803. At the end as the boats crossed the finish line it was difficult to separate the two, but JPN 50 just took it, by no more than inches…  A fantastic way for Bocci Aoyama to round off his world championships in style. 🙂

JPN 50 “Yevis II” Bocci Aoyama, Martin Payne & Nori Igei finished 3rd in final race.

Meanwhile the battle was still continuing for the overall title with the “Provezza Dragon” team firmly in control of their two rivals RUS 27 & GBR 815. The experience of helmsman Andy Beadsworth & the tactical awareness of energetic Simon Fry combined with the calming influence of owner Ali Tezdiker meant that TUR 1212 firmly closed out the opposition…  RUS 27 “Annapurna” had to settle for 2nd place and GBR 815 “Alifie” in 3rd.

RUS 27 helmed by Anatoloy Loginov, crewed by Alexander Shaligin & Vadim Statsenko 2nd overall.

First “Lady” helm went to Nicola Friesen who finished in a fantastic 14th position overall sailing in her first World Championships with Vincie Hoesch & Joost Houweling. This was an amazing result considering the strong winds and huge waves that are not the norm for Nicola back on the quiet German lakes 🙂 Very well done to Nicola and her top team…

First Lady Helm, Nicola Friesen who finished 14th overall in GER 1140 “Smaug”.

Just ahead of Nicola in 13th position was the formidable top “Corinthian” team led by Benjamin Morgan helming GER 1180 “Rosie”. Sailing with his good friends Tim Trober and Nicholas Raedecke they put together a very impressive series to achieve this amazing result. Well done guy’s….

Top Corinthians at the Dragon Worlds, Nicholas Raedecke, Tim Trober & Benny Morgan.

So there you have it folks, another Dragon Worlds over and the batten has been passed on to our Australian friends who will host the 2019 Champions in Freemantle, Perth. A great venue, like Cascais.

The Clube Naval really did themselves proud with this fantastic Championship and winner Andy Beadsworth praised the high standard of Race Management, onshore activities and thanked all the helpers and volunteers that made this all possible.

Great Championships need Great Race Management, a big thank you to Jose Cancella & his team.

So the winners take it all TUR 1212 “Provezza Dragon” are the World Champions !

Simon Fry, Ali Tezdiker & Andy Beadsworth………   You are simply the best!

Higher, Faster, Longer………     Stavros.