The Coupe Virginie Heriot went to RUS27 of Anatoliy Loginov

by Ivan Bidzilya on 24 Jul 2016 2016 Gazprom Dragon Europeans - The “Big Dragon week” in St.Petersburg YC started in the first decade of June 2016 with the Silver cup practice regatta for dozen of early birds that arrived at the Europeans venue to train. The competition was won by Loginov and it seemed like the shape of things to come.

The Russian Open Dragon Championship/pre-Europeans saw 25 crews from six countries competing from 12th till 14th July in some really testing conditions. Having scored three bullets in six races RUS27 Annapurna crew have regained the national title that had been lost last year to Dmitry Samokhin’s RUS79. In turn, Samokhin handed the title over and became vice-champion and third overall. Marcus Brenneke (GER11) finished second overall.

The Gazprom Dragon European Championship on 18th July welcomed 45 crews from 13 countries with some greatest sailors from Germany, the UK, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Ukraine and of course Russia. The only day that saw one race was the first when with five minutes left to day’s cancellation the jury decided to send the fleet afloat and staged a perfect race in some 15 unexpected knots.

The early winner was four times European Champion Markus Wieser with Diegon Negri and Sergey Pugachev (Transbunker’s UAE7). But already from the second day to the last RUS27 was leading although some days with tiny margin.

Entering the final day the game was wide open. Given two races left and one more discard all top-five crews had realistic chances of winning. Five point lead that Anatoliy Loginov enjoyed day before over UAE7 Markus Wieser has shrunk into single point after the acting Russian champion scored double seventh and the German master managed three and eight finishes.

The first race on 22nd July was disappointing for both leaders. Loginov finished tenth and Wieser ninth while their leaderboard neighbors, Link (GER1162) and Brennecke (GER11) were second and first. “The first race wasn’t successful, we lost our position and probably were out of top-five, - Loginov comments, - so we decided to relax and take it as it comes”.

The start of the second race didn’t bring any relief either. “Big right shift left us somewhere at 30-ties on the first rounding and even our competitors GER1162 decided to abandon the race seeing to chances of continuing the fight for top-three, - continues Loginov, - but we decided to sail on and our decision was rewarded”.

For the second and final race of the day the Jury picked D-course that meant three upwind legs with upwind mark finish. So having not given up the acting Russian Champion managed to pick some shifts, climb steadily and was fifth on the finish while Brennecke was seventh and Wieser was 23rd. The final race went to worlds medalist Frank Berg (DEN408) that established his crew as the leader in the Corinthian division.

While fleet headed home all were calculating the results and it was not in any way obvious with both RUS27 and GER1162 appeared tied at the same score. Considering Loginov’s win in the second race of the Europeans and no-wins (but astonishing four second finishes) Link’s score, the Coupe Virginie Heriot went to RUS27 Annapurna.

The Bronze went to GER11 Brenneke who really performed well, given that the crew sails together less than a year. UAE7 of Markus Wieser dropped to fourth and his team mate, now ex-European champion but acting World champion Evgen Braslavets (UAE8) finished fifth.

“The championship was really close fought, - says Loginov, - you see even upon race completion we weren’t sure that we were winning. This is very important win for us and for the whole Russian Dragon community”.