Gold Cup Winners GBR 801 “Prince Alfie”, Lawrie Smith, Joost Houweling & Tim Tavinor.
The scene was set for a great final day in Kuhlungsborn as the final race would determine if Lawrie Smith and his great team of Joost Houweling & Tim Tavinor could hold on to their 11 point lead..?
It was a perfect day for sailing and the fleet got away first time under a “P” flag with just a individual recall, unfortunately one of the two boats called OCS was NED 412 helmed by Pieter Heerema. So when notified as the bottom gate whilst in a good position, this team who were defending 3rd overall had to retire. Such is the nature of the sport and I am sure Pieter, Lars & Claus will bounce back strong at their next event.
The lead boat in this final race was “African Queen” DEN 411 helmed by Jorgen Schonherr (3 times Gold Cup winner) and his team of Christian Videbaek and Per Kloster. Although not able to catch the top boats overall, this last race win must have given Jorgen and his team a good boost.
African Queen DEN 411 leads the fleet by a good distance to win Race 6 in Kuhlungsborn.
But the day was all about the leading teams and Lawrie Smith was doing a good job to stay ahead of his main rivals, in fact by finishing in 6th place this excellent team won the event by an incredible 16 points !! Amazing sailing.
2nd overall were the ever consistent RUS 76 “Strange Little Girl” helmed by Dmitry Samokhin, crewed by Andrey Kirilyuk & Aleksey Bushuev who confirmed their position with a solid 11th place in the final race….
RUS 76 Dmitry Samokhin, Andrey Kirilyuk & the “Biggest Man in Russia” Aleksey Bushuev.
In 3rd place overall was the very experienced GER 1133 “Sinewave” team helmed by Tommy Muller (2 times Gold Cup winner), crewed by the great Vincie Hoesch & the Table Dancing Marc Pickel. 🙂 This team finished 8th in the final race to finish 4 points clear of World & European Champion Yevgeni Braslavets, who had to settle for 4th place overall after an amazing 2015 !
Tommy Muller, Vincent Hoesch & Marc Pickel GER 1133, finish 3rd overall in Kuhlungsborn.
The Top 3 Corinthian Teams all sailed outstandingly over the six “12 mile Races” to finish 12th, 16th and 20th respectively in the overall ranking.
GER 1151 “Puck IV” Philipp Dohse, Oliver Mose & Christian Moller win the Corinthians.
GER 1103 “Rosie 2012” Benjamin Morgan, Dr Karl Morgan & Nicolaus Raedecke 2nd.
GER 1113 Tanja & Bernhard Jacobsohn, Sabine Lenkmann, Susanne Bergmann 3rd.
So the final word was given by IDA Vice Chairman Vasily Senatorov who thanked the Segelclub Kuhlungsborn helpers and volunteers for providing such a fantastic Gold Cup along with the many vital sponsors.
The 2015 Gold Cup will be remembered “favourably” by all the lucky 66 boat participants who’s time in Kuhlungsborn will be cherished and much appreciated. Congratulations once again to Lawrie, Tim & Joost who were simply…………. Higher, Faster & Longer……
Stavros…… (with a sleeping disorder as Joost keeps reminding me 🙂