NED 412 “Troika” Pieter Heerema is the overall leader after 5 races in San Remo.
Day 3 of the Paul & Shark Dragon Grand Prix provided excellent conditions for the 35 teams competing at the final IDA Grade 1 regatta of 2018. After losing Day 1 through lack of wind, the San Remo Race Committee managed to organise 3 races by skilfully adjusting the race area along the beautiful Ligurian coast. This got the event back on track and sets the scene for a great battle today between the two front runners, NED 412 Pieter Heerema & GER 1207 Nicola Friesen. With wind between 10 to 15 kts from the East and great surfing waves it was a fun day on the water..
“Girl Power” NED 411 Charlotte Ten Wolde drives “Olinghi” through the waves with precision.
It was a super day for not only Nicola Friesen helming GER 1207 “Khaleesi” who backed up her fantastic first two races with another win in race 4 but also Charlotte Ten Wolde. Charlotte sailing with her Sister Juliette, best friend Janka Holan and Pedro Andrade added two 4th places to their results and now stand a very healthy 6th overall in this extremely competitive field.
ITA 77 “Bunker Prince” Yevgen Braslavets, fighting hard and currently 3rd overall.
With NED 412 winning two of yesterdays races and GER 1207 taking the other victory both boats have a total of 12 points. Although Pieter has a 3pt advantage over Nicola with discard, it will be very interesting today to see how things pan out….
In 4th place overall is Grant Gordon helming GBR 820 who is just ahead of RUS 76 Dmitry Samokhin in 5th. Although these top teams have been very consistent they have not been able to secure a race win such has been the dominance of the leading two boats.
Sometimes things go wrong “even” for the current World Champions, Provezza. (Top Mark Race 3).
Today will see lighter winds and although two more races are planned my gut feeling is the Race Management will be happy if they can complete one final race. Whatever the outcome on this final day it has been an excellent regatta and the beautiful town of San Remo will always be a special place for the Dragon Fleet…..
Current Points after 5 races with 1 discard :
NED 412 5 (12), GER 1207 8 (12), ITA 77 17 (23), GBR 820 22 (36), RUS 76 25 (41).
Finally a big thank you to Elena Razina for her usual excellent action Photo’s.
Higher, Faster, Longer…… Stavros.