Cascais Dragon European Championship - New leader after day 3

by Luisa Neto Rebelo on 12 Apr 2013 At the Cascais BMW Dragon European Championship, Portugal’s Drago, José Matoso/Gustavo Lima/Frederico Melo, is the new leader after the third day’s two races. The Portuguese crew have a five point lead and there are only two races to go until the end, next Saturday. The event has the high patronage of the Câmara Municipal de Cascais and BMW. The Clube Naval de Cascais and the International Dragon Association are the organizing authorities.

Third day in Cascais BMW Dragon European Championship 2013 and an excellent performance of José Matoso’s, Drago, which has on board Portuguese Olympic sailors Gustavo Lima and Frederico Melo. Keeping an impressive regularity, the national crew has a five point advantage, to the second, Danes 'Out of Bounce', Jens Christensen, and eight of the German Dottore Amore, Ingo Ehrlicher: 'We started the day with almost a storm, but then cleared and we’ve done two excellent races. It was very hard, as usual, and we are delighted to have won the second race of the day which allows us to take the lead,' said José Matoso.

At first, the wind was blowing 12 knots from Northwest. Yevgen Braslavets, 470 class Olympic champion in Atlanta 1996, dominated almost all the race. The Ukrainian with Igor Sidorov and Sergiy Timokhov, was superior to the Danes, Out of Bounce, Jens Christensen / Kim Andersen / Anders Bagger and Britons, Aimee, Graham Bailey / Julia Bailey / Richard Powell / Will Heritage. Christmas III, Rui Bóia / Duarte Neves / Guilherme Almeida / Miguel Guimarães, was the best among the Portuguese, finishing in 14th position.

On the second, as the wind blowed from the west at 10 knots, intensity was Drago’s, José Matoso/Gustavo Lima/Frederico Melo, who dominated from beginning to end, giving no chance to the opponents and achieving a spectacular victory. Sweden's Still Crazy, Stefan Winberg / Thomas Witton / Frederick Brotell were seconds and Sophie III, the Swiss Hugo Stenbeck and Martin Westerdahl and Portuguese Pedro Andrade on board.

Seven Seas Too, Diogo Barros / Jorge Lima / Rúbrio Basil, who was the leader before today’s races, was 38 and 34 respectively, and occupies the seventh position overall.

In general, it was a good day for the Portuguese fleet and the overall after five races is as follows:

11th Christmas III, Rui Bóia/Duarte Neves/ Guilherme Almeida/Miguel Guimarães
28nd Peggy, Miguel Magalhães/Jorge Pinheiro de Melo/José Magalhães
40th Lady Tati, Patrick Monteiro de Barros/Nuno Barreto/Rodrigo Vantacich
48nd Tethys, José Carlos Pina/Filipe Loureiro/Miguel Tavares
49th Whisper, Mário Quina/Fernando Passeiro/Luis Mourão
50th Dragul, José Bello/João Almeida Lopes/Gonçalo Lacerda
54th Pamalican V, Francisco de Lacerda/Diogo Lacerda/Francisco Andrade
61st Catarina III, Henrique Anjos/Joaquim Moreira/Pedro Costa Alemão

For tomorrow one more race is scheduled at 12:00 (local time) in the Cascais BMW Dragon European Championship 2013.

Cascais BMW Dragon European Championship 2013 - Top five after five races:

1st Drago - José Matoso/Gustavo Lima/Frederico Melo – Portugal
2nd Out of Bounce - Jens Christensen/Kim Andersen/Anders Bagger – Dinamarca
3rd Dottore Amore – Ingo Ehrlicher/Werner Fritz/Thomas Auracher - Alemanha
4th Alisa – Alexander Ezhkov/Alexey Grigoriev/Vladimir Krutskikh – Rússia
5th Sophie III - Hugo Stenbeck/ Martin Westerdahl/Pedro Andrade - Suíça CN Cascais website