Gazprom International Dragon Worlds - HRH the Princess Royal is patron

by Fiona Brown on 2 Aug 2013 British Dragon Association is delighted to announce that HRH The Princess Royal has graciously accepted to become Patron of the Gazprom International Dragon World Championship 2013.

HRH The Princess Royal is an enthusiastic sailor who not only enjoys cruising but also gives a significant amount of her time to the sport through her role as President of the Royal Yachting Association. She has sailed from an early age, from holidaying on board the Royal Yacht Britannia to crewing the Royal offshore racing yacht, Bloodhound.

HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh were presented with Bluebottle, a Dragon K192, by the members of the Island Sailing Club on the occasion of their wedding. In 1949 HRH The Duke of Edinburgh donated the Edinburgh Cup which is presented to the winner of the British National Dragon Championships.

'We are honoured and delighted that Her Royal Highness has so generously agreed to become the event's Patron.' Notes British Dragon Association Chairman Martin Makey. 'The British Royal Family's association with the Dragon Class is a long and illustrious one and her support means a great deal to the sailors and to the event as a whole. We are very proud that Britain was chosen to host this biennial championship and even more proud to be racing it on the waters used for the regattas of the 2012 Olympiad.'

The final closing date for entries is Monday 5th August but already some 75 teams are committed including all the leading stars of the fleet. Defending World Champion Lawrie Smith will be looking to retain his title whilst the list of challengers hoping to snatch it from him reads like a who's who of yachting.

Australia fields a strong team of seven boats including America's Cup legend Gordon Ingate, Marcus Blackmore, Sandy Anderson, Ronald Packer, Raymond Chatfield and Willy Packer. Denmark's Lars Hendriksen already has his name engraved on most of the International Dragon's most prestigious trophies, but the World Championship has always eluded him with his best finish to date being second at the 2009 Worlds in Medemblik. With a strong new crew and racing his beautiful 1957 Pedersen and Thuesen boat Eva, Lars will be hoping to rectify that situation this year. French Dragon Champion Remy Arnaud leads the three boat French team, which also includes Stephane Basden and Jean Breger.

The German team of eleven boats, the largest visiting team in the fleet, is headed up by reigning Gold Cup champion Tommy Mueller and his Bavarian Dream Team of Vincie Hoesch and Micky Lipp. It also includes Markus Brennecke who put in a very strong showing at the recent Edinburgh Cup, which was also sailed in Weymouth, Ulli Libor, Michael Schmidt, Helmut Schmidt and Christoph Wieland. The Netherlands is also putting up a seven strong team with the Bakker boys, Jan, Dominic and Olivier, being one to watch out for alongside Pieter Heerema and Abram de Wilde. Making her first appearance on the helm at a major event will be Charlotte Ten Wolde, who is more usually seen crewing for her father Wouter. This time Charlotte is in charge and her crew includes Gillis Jonk and Martin Liefelt so they could give the more established stars a few surprises.

Reigning European Champion Jose Matoso will be racing with his regular crew of Portugues Olympians Gustavo Lima and Frederico Melo and no doubt hopes to achieve that elusive double of claiming two International Dragon championships in one year. As always Russia will be well represented with eight teams including Anatoly Loginov, Victor Fogelson, Dmitry Samokhin and Igor Goikhberg. Martin Palsson heads the Swedish team of three boats and will be have the Corinthian Trophy in his sights as well as overall victory and sailing for Ukraine will be current World Ranking leader Markus Wieser and Yevgen Braslavets who are both more than capable of winning the championship.

The 25 strong British home team is of course led by Lawrie Smith and features Quentin Strauss, sailing with brother Simon and North Sail's Nigel Young, Klaus Diederichs, sailing with regular crew Andy Beadsworth and Jamie Lea, and Dragon sailing legend Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen, who has claimed the Dragon World Championship no less than three times (2009, 1995 and 1989). Other top names to look out for among the Brits are Martin 'Stavros' Payne, Chris Hunt, Rob Campbell, Gavia Wilkinson-Cox, Julia Bailey, Eric Williams, Ron James and Dave Ross, who will be sailing with Paul Kelsey and David Bedford.

The final closing date for entries to the Gazprom International Dragon World Championship 2013 is Monday 5th August and Corinthian competitors are reminded that they must submit their full crew lists including ISAF IDs and confirmation of their Classification one status expiry date by this date. Further information, online entry and the full entry list are all available from the event website.

For further information about the 2013 Gazprom International Dragon World Championship please visit the Dragon worlds website