Oleg Khoperskiy took the helm today of “Sunflower” RUS 35, as Victor (the owner), had a delayed flight to Nice. Oleg, famous for his Finn Class days, in which he took the European Championship along with a runners up medal at the Worlds, helmed very well today despite a very confused sea state and little wind. But it was that record breaking RUS 27 helmed by Anatoly Loginov who won the day with two 1st places and a 3rd. Compared to Oleg’s one 1st and two 2nd’s. Both lead the field on just 5pts.
As the waves roll in towards the Monaco coast and it’s amazing “floating” breakwater, they seem to rebound off the rocks and walls, and go back to meet more incoming waves. This gives the affect of sailing inside a washing machine, particularly when the wind is not strong enough to set the sails both upwind and downwind over the mile long windward/leeward courses. It takes skill and a lot of patience to sail in these conditions.
RUS 27 Anatoly Loginov, has settled down very quickly with his new middle man Vadim. As Andrey Kiriluyk is now tactician onboard RUS 76, whilst Vadim (from Olga White’s RUS 69), is doing a very good job to keep Anatoly at the front of the fleet. So now the rest of our surprisingly small fleet of just 13 dragons, must fight to be amongst the leaders…..
It’s a sign of the times (maybe) that reflect this lack of numbers, or of course it could just be the weather forecast…. But as the rest of Europe freezes, 30+ dragon sailors had a nice day in this unique part of the world……
Higher, Faster, Longer…… Warmer….. Stavros. (NED 410).