Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup - Action underway in Kinsale

by Fiona Brown on 10 Sep 2012

Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup 2012 - Day 1 Fiona Brown http://www.fionabrown.com

The Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup 2012 got underway in spectacular fashion as the sixty competitors from sixteen nations and four continents completed their first race in strong winds and big seas off Kinsale.

The Dragon Gold Cup is legendary for being one of the toughest championships in keelboat racing as it is raced over huge 12+ mile windward leeward courses and there is no discard in the six race series. Today's rough seas and winds of up to 25 knots from the south certainly ensured it was also a test of stamina as well as skill and there were incidents aplenty with a number of spectacular broaches and some exciting mark roundings as the sailors contended with the confused seas and blustery conditions.

The fleet got away cleanly at the first time of asking by PRO Alan Crosbie, and the first beat saw the boats spread out very evenly across the course. At the first weather mark those who had opted to go right had the advantage and it was reigning Dragon World Champion Lawrie Smith, sailing GBR763 Alfie, who led the fleet from double Olympic Gold Medallist Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen, sailing GBR775 Danish Blue; Dimitry Samokhin sailing RUS76 Strange Little Girl; 2010 Gold Cup winner Anatoly Loginov sailing RUS27 Annapurna; and Cameron Good, sailing IRL211 Little Fella.

Whilst Smith and Hoj-Jensen then held their positions around the course the battle behind them for third place was fierce. By the start of the final beat Tommy Mueller, sailing GER1123 Sinewave, had pulled up into third just ahead of Samokhin, Good was fifth and Loginov sixth with Lars Hendriksen, sailing UKR7 Bunker Boys, moving up into seventh.

Hoj-Jensen pushed Smith hard on the final beat but both boats also had to defend their positions on the chasing pack. At the line Smith won from Hoj-Jensen whilst Samokhin pulled back up into third with Mueller fourth. Hendriksen, who has claimed the Gold Cup on two previous occasions, sailed a wonderful final leg to cross the line in fifth. Joergen Schoenherr, sailing DEN406 African Queen, also showed blistering pace to go from 11th to sixth on the last beat, just pipping Good on the line.

Cameron Good, Commodore of the Kinsale Yacht Club, also claimed victory in the Corinthian Division, for the all-amateur crews. Dublin's Gary Treacy, sailing IRL198 Dublin Bay, took second place in the Corinthians with Reemt Reemtsma, sailing GBR1121 Caroroo, in third and IDA Chairman Richard Blickman, sailing NED393 Cobweb, fourth.

One of the most impressive stories of the day came from the Australian team aboard AUS222 Puff III. They were running very deep in sixth place on the second run when a rogue wave caught the transom and span them into a Chinese jybe. Helmsman Richard Lynn found himself being swept out of the boat as his crew, Ian Olson and Aussie sailing legend Roger Hickman, battled to get their spinnaker, which was now doing a very good job of trawling for supper, back under control. Fortunately Richard just managed to grab the spinnaker sheet on his way out of the boat and by the time the boys had the kite under control he was back on board. They had lost a number of places but they dug in on the final lap and managed to pull back up into ninth place, keeping themselves firmly in contention.

Five more races are scheduled and the regatta continues until Friday 14th September. Lighter airs are forecast for the next couple of days but strong airs are expected to return later in the week.

Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup 2012 - Day 1 © Fiona Brown http://www.fionabrown.com

Dragon Gold Cup 2012

Entries: 60 Races Sailed: 1

Provisional Results

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Corinthian	Helm	Crew	Crew 2	Club	Series Points	Race 1
1	GBR763	Alfie		Lawrie Smith	Tim Tavinor	Joost Houweling	Glandore	1	1
2	GBR775	Danish Blue		Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen	Theis Palm	Andrew Norden	Royal Yacht Squadron	2	2
3	RUS76	Strange Little Girl		Dmitry Samokhin	Andrey Kirilyuk	Aleksey Bushuev	Hercules,St Petersburg	3	3
4	GER1123	Sinewave		Tommy Mueller	Vincent Hoesch	Michael Lipp, Thomas Mueller	Norddeutscher Regatta Verein	4	4
5	UKR7	Bunker Boys		Lars Hendriksen	Sergey Pugachev	Georgil Leonchuk	BSYC	5	5
6	DEN406	African Queen		Jorgen Schonherr	Jan Eli Gravad	Axel Waltersdorp	Royal Danish Yacht Club	6	6
7	IRL211	Little Fella	C	Cameron Good	Simon Furney	Henry Kingston	KYC	7	7
8	RUS27	Annapurna		Anatoly Loginov	Vadim Statsenko	Alexander Shalagin		8	8
9	AUS222	Puff III		Richard Lynn	Ian Olson	Roger Hickman	Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club	9	9
10	GBR768	Dark & Stormy		Christopher Hunt	Mark Hart	Mark Daly	RYS	10	10
11	IRL201	Jaguar		Martin Byrne	Adam Winkelmanr	Pedro Andrade	RStGYC	11	11
12	GER1042	Puck III		Philip Dohse	Christian Moeller	Oliver Mose	Norddeutscher Regatta Verein	12	12
13	GBR758	Fever		Klaus Diederichs	Andy Beadsworth	Jamie Lea	RORC	13	13
14	HUN57	Bear		Ferenc Kis-Szolgyemi	Tamas Kiss	Karoly Vezer	Kereked Vitorlas Klub	14	14
15	GER1125	Dragoni Holly		Stephan Link	Frank Butzmann	Peter Froschi	BYC	15	15
16	IRL198	Dublin Bay	C	Gary Treacy	Paul Maguire	Don O'Dowd	RStGYC	16	16
17	UKR8	Bunker Prince		Evgen Braslavetz	Sergey Timokhov	Igor Sidorov	BSYC	17	17
18	POR55	Drago		Jose Matoso	Gustavo Lima	Stephen Hellriegel	Clube Naval Cascais	18	18
19	GER1121	Caroroo	C	Reemt Reemtsma	Petra Reemtsma	Lorenz Jensen	Potsdamer Yacht Club	19	19
20	NED393	Cobweb	C	Richard Blickman	Daan Djixhoorn	Nick Spaans	KNZ&RV	20	20
21	IRL213	Whisper		Mark Dicker	Nelson Moore	Sean Murphy	RStGYC	21	21
22	DEN266	My Way		Frank Berg	Konrad Florian	Jens Maklund	KDY Hellerup	22	22
23	RUS2	Alisa		Alexander Ezhkov	Alexey Grigoriev	Vladimir Krutskikh	Pirogovo	23	23
24	IRL216	Chimaera		Andrew Craig	Brian Mathews	Mark Pettitt	RStGYC	24	24
25	IRL210	Diva	C	James Matthews	Rick Johnson	Rob Johnson	RIYC	25	25
26	MON2	Jeanie		Jens Rathsack	Mario Wagner	Stefan Waack	Yacht Club de Monaco	26	26
27	GBR708	Rumours		Simon Strauss	David Horgan	John Wolfe, Harvey Tucker	Larchmont YC	27	27
28	FRA396	Legend	C	Remy Arnaud	Herald Arnaud	Pascal Civel	YCLB La Baule	28	28
29	IRL214	Kin	C	Simon Brien	Jack Brien	Mark Brien	Royal North of Irl. Yacht Club	29	29
30	GBR720	Aimee	C	Graham Bailey	Julia Bailey	Dylan Potter, Will Heritage	Royal Yacht Squadron	30	30
31	IRL156	Mar-J		Adrian Bendon	Shawn Kingston	Eoghan O'Mahoney	KYC	31	31
32	IRL161	Sir Ossis of the River		Denis Bergin	Con Murphy	Paul Burke	RIYC	32	32
33	IRL206	Cloud		Clare Hogan	Mel Collins	Laura Dillon, Graeme Grant	RStGYC	33	33
34	GBR761	Jerboa		Gavia Wilkinson-Cox	Martin Payne	Rui Boia	Royal Corinthian Yacht Club	34	34
35	ANT10	Northside Dragon		Jay Bourke	David Cagney	Tommy Murphy	HYC	35	35
36	GBR760	Hands Off		Michael Holmes	Andy Biddle	Peter Marchant	Royal Corinthian Yacht Club	36	36
37	FIN88	Step By Step	C	Eeva Saukkonen	Catja Everhall-Blom	Outi Kivimaki	BS, Finland	37	37
38	IRL159	Zu	C	Tim Pearson	Matt Mich	Conor Grimley, Choryna Kiely	RStGYC	38	38
39	IRL188	Grey Hare	C	Philip Bendon	James Bendon	Ben Fusco	KYC	39	39
40	GBR742	Flotation	C	Richard Davies	Clive Hurn	Donald Milne	Royal Thames Yacht Club	40	40
41	IRL195	D-Cision	C	Philip Perkins	Richard Kidney	Declan Hayes	RIYC	41	41
42	GER1110	Streumer	C	Norbert Ohst	Stefan Abel	Mark-Raimondo Bayer	VSaW	42	42
43	GBR590	Mystere		James Peters	Dave Cummings	Rob Riddell	SCYC	43	43
44	GBR774	Tigger	C	Thomas Olrog	Thomas Wilton	Nicola Wilton	Royal Swedish Yacht Club	44	44
45	GER1113	GP		Tanja Jacobsohn	Bernhard Jacobsohn	Jan Scharffetter	LYC/VSaW	45	45
46	HKG46	Davinloong	C	Phyllis Chang	Lars Gelbjerg-Hansen	Selin Dicker,Charles Street	Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club	46	46
47	GBR766	Quicksilver V	C	Robert Campbell	Justin Waples	Rene Nel	Royal Corinthian Yacht Club	47	47
48	AUS206	The Old Bailey	C	Sarah Ross	Dave Ross	Insinger Mickiel	RCYC	48	48
49	SWE345	Ming	C	Jacob Wallenberg	Henrik Baltscheffsky	Stellan Gross	Royal Swedish Yacht Club	49	49
50	IRL197	HY Brasil		Peter O'Reilly	Francis Rhatigan	Eddie Tingle	RStGYC	50	50
51	GBR777	Seabird	C	Owen Pay	Jon Mortimer	Steven Richardson	RCYC	51	51
52	IRL157	Tenacious	C	Anthony O'Neill	Eoghan O'Neill	David Dwyer	KYC	52	52
53	GER1018	Joy		Jakob Bergbauer	Andreas Moser	Andreas Hollwich	BYC	53	53
54	IRL163	Valkyrie	C	Paddy Bishop	Mike Walsh	Cormac O'Carroll	KYC	54	54
55	GBR690	Blue Movie	C	David Atkinson	John Outhwaite	Steve Watson	Sunderland Yacht Club	55	55
56	HKG50	Phyloong		Lowell Chang	Simon Pickering	Nick Burns	Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club	56	56
57	GBR633	Fei-Lin's Flirtation		Ron James	Julia Walsh	Nigel Young	Royal Forth YC	57	57
58	GBR764	Naiad	C	Mike Hayles	Monique Hayles	Nicholas Hayles	Royal Thames Yacht Club	58	58
59	IRL145	Jee		Tim Cronin	Caroline Matthews	Harry Lewis	KYC	61	61
59	IRL40	Leprechaun	C	Dan Norman	McDonald Moriarty	Bruce Noble, Paul O'Connor	RIYC	61	61