John Magnusson, Gutta Johansson (Helm) & Bjorn Hansen win the 2K Regatta in Vilamoura.

Pedro Andrade’s “Dream” to have 8 new Petticrows “V6” Dragons in Portugal became a reality at the weekend when 10 top International Teams took part in the 8Dimension 2K Team Racing event organised by Vilamoura Sailing.

4 of the 8 Dragons “Mercury”, “Venus”, “Earth” & “Mars”… built by Petticrows now in Vilamoura.

The 2K team racing idea was first introduced to the Dragon Fleet by Klaus Diederichs and myself a few years ago in Venice. Since then this popular 2 verses 2 type of team racing has gone from strength to strength. With 45 races over 3 days it was eventually the strong Swedish Team led by Gutta Johansson who eventually took the victory just ahead of Markus Brenneke in 2nd and Pedro Andrade 3rd.

When teams were not racing, they could view the action from the “Mother Ship” Catamaran.

Racing without Spinnakers is tight, as each team tries not to be the “Last” boat to finish!

All action as teams manoeuvre during pre start and protests are made to keep the umpires busy.

Results :  1st  Gutta Johansson, John Magnusson & Bjorn Hansen     18 races  14 Wins

2nd  Markus Brenneke, Jochen Schumann & Ingo Borkowski    18 races 13 Wins.

3rd Pedro Andrade, Charlotte & Juliette Ten Wolde & Janka Holan.    18 races 12 Wins.

This was just the start of Pedro Andrade’s and Vilamoura Sailings winter plans…  with more Fleet and Team racing organised throughout the winter. It’s great that we have so many venue’s to continue racing our beloved Dragons with events in Cannes, Palma, Cascais and now Vilamoura. Why would you need to look further than the Dragon Class.

Higher, Faster, Longer…………    Stavros.