..Winner in Cazaux, Olivier & Dominic Bakker with Martin Payne sailing “BEAR”

The final day of the 25th Drag’s Cup on Lac Cazaux could not have offered more closer racing with a thrilling final twist…. As four more races were sailed to complete an eight race series, this bought in a second discard. So even a most brilliant mathematician would have been tested to calculate who was “where” in the overall standings.. One thing however, was for sure, who ever finished higher between the Bear (Martin Payne) and the Tigger (Tim Tavinor) in the final race would take the trophy.

The day started very well for FRA 391 Jean Berger and his crew of Benoit Mercier and Alexandre Demeret, who won the first race that was started on time at 9.0am in a building northerly wind. Then despite the Bear winning race two, Tigger “bounced” back with a win in race three to set up a great conclusion to this hard fought and well organised regatta lead by PRO Yves Leglise and his team of helpers from Cazaux..

Although the final race was won brilliantly by a 40 year old boat, used by Jean Gabriel Pasturaud in the 1972 Olympics , it is now owned by Sailmaker Fred Gourlaouen from Douarnenez and was helmed this week by Mickael Minos, crewed by his brother Alexandre. It was the Bear who passed the Tigger just 50m from the finishing line to give the Bakker Boy’s and Martin Payne their second win of the season. Tim Tavinor with Thomas and Nicola Wilton became the runners up, whilst FRA 391 Jean Breger took the final podium finish.

In his final speach as the President of the French Dragon Association, Eric Lebon was delighted to explain that Lac Cazaux had been awarded to host the French Championships in 2014. Which indeed is an honer and quite rightly reflects the excellent organisational skills and hard work of this small but extremely vibrant club. Everyone of the 29 competing boats were awarded some extremely good wine and I’m sure they and many others will return to Lac Cazaux next year….

Higher, Faster, Longer…….. Stavros. (Bear).