Strong winds for the Russian Dragon Open 2014 start

by Ivan Bidzilya on 22 Aug 2014 Gusting southwest wind (18-20 knots) allowed Russian Dragon Open 2014 organizers to hold two races on Thursday, 21st August. First went to Dmitriy Samokhin’s Melody Nelson (RUS76), second was won by Annapurna (RUS27) of Anatoly Loginov. But none of them have topped the overall ranking. By two second finishes this was achieved by Oleg Hopersky's team Sunflower (RUS35).

Going into second day of the Russian Dragon Open 2014 the leader board is very tight. All top-teams have one point separation. Crews of Dmitry Samokhin who is third and Vasily Senatorov (Just for fun, Rus32) tied on points. Next is Leonid Altukhov`s crew who has 12 points.

Gleb Suloyev from Moscow (Tango, RUS11), defending champion 2013 in classic Dragon will oppose powerful classic fleet of St. Petersburg clubs. Will they be able to compete with leaders? we’ll know soon. So far good performance in the opening day puts Tango on the first place in Classic’s ranking.

Dmitry Samokhin (Melody Nelson, RUS76): The first race took place when in very strong wind, there were a lot of moves on racecourse, positions changed often, and it was an interesting fight. We were coming on the second position after Leonid Altukhov's crew, but suddenly, they had some technical malfunction and spend a lot of time without spinnaker, and we had chance to head the fleet and hold it to the finish. I also want to note Oleg Hopersky and Vasily Senatorov's crews. They are very strong, they steadily came in the top three, and consistency is the key to success. Therefore I consider them as the main contenders for victory.

Oleg Hopersky (Sunflower, RUS35): Races were very difficult today: wind was gusty and shifty. Several times we got caught in patches. I am not upset that we were second twice since we are leaders in the overall ranking. I believe, it is better to be second twice than to be first after start line and finish somewhere behind. Tomorrow, according to forecasts, the wind wouldn’t be so strong(less than 15 knots). And we expect that Victor Fogelson who is recovering after surgery will join us.

There were a lot of breakages today, so you can conceive how hard the weather conditions were today. Two slashed backstays and broken shroud. This is only the most noticeable damage the fleet suffered today.

Andrew Nicondrov (Convergence, RUS31): At first the compass fell off, we bound it with a rope, then swifter slashed - we also bound it with a rope. Our boat is not new, we need to keep it. I hope we wouldn’t suffer more breakages!

Julia Grigorieva (Secret, RUS18): It was a very strong wind and steep waves. Our backstay slashed after the start. Now we need to find rope and make it fir. I hope, by second day we will manage to fix everything.

Overall ranking after two races (21.08.2014):

1. Oleg Hopersky, Denis Berezkin, Vyacheslav Kaptyukhin (RUS35) – four points
2. Anatoly Loginov, Vadim Statsenko, Alexander Shalagin (RUS27) – five points
3. Dmitry Samokhin, Alexey Bushuyev, Andrey Kirilyuk (RUS76) – six points
4. Vasily Senatorov, Igor Ivashintsov, Alexander Muzychenko (RUS34) – six points

Classic' leaderboard:

1. Gleb Suloyev, Sergey Dalnev, Alexey Tyutin (RUS11) – 29 points
2. Igor Kopyltsov, Andrey Sevostyanov, Alexey Zhilin (RUS17) – 33 points
3. Sergey Ishchenko, Sergey Biryukov, Maria Belova (RUS82) – 36 Event website