Russian Dragon Open 2016 – RUS27 Annapurna wins with a race to spare
by Ivan Bidzilya on 15 Jul 2016
Russian Dragon Open 2016 – Pre Europeans Elena Razina
With two final races in sunshine and modest winds the Russian Dragon Open has been completed on 14th July in St. Petersburg YC. Having scored three bullets in six races Anatoliy Loginov and his 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 to RUS27 and became vice-champion and third overall. Marcus Brenneke (GER11) finished second overall.
Often unstable St. Petersburg weather wasn’t very kind towards international fleet of 25 teams from five nations that gathered in the St. Petersburg YC for pre-Europeans Russian Dragon Open Championship (12th-14th July). The racing started in testing conditions with shower and squalls on day one, followed by cloudy and rainy day two and finally, bright sunshine on day three. “We’ve seen it all – says Marcus Brenneke – now we know what to expect in terms of the local conditions”.
“For the moment we are happy with the boat’s speed and our team’s performance. Let’s see what comes next. We just need to relax and sail smart” – add Jochen Schümann, star tactician in the Brenneke’s crew. So far GER11 was consistent throughout the regatta and finished second in all but one race.
2013 World Champion Klaus Diderichs (GBR758) with Karol Jablonski calling the shots also showed good form finishing fifth overall with the bullet in the final race. The result might have been better shouldn’t the Fever crew appeared OCS in the fifth race and forced to restart.
The bronze medal in the Russian scoring (fourth overall) went to International class Chairman Vasiliy Senatorov (RUS34). “With the addition of the foreign fleet the Russian Dragon Open become even more intriguing with battles at all levels. It has showed us the shape of the things to come. We have run all the planned races with 1.5 and two miles courses in different wind conditions, and are now ready to start with the Europeans”, - Senatorov says.
One of the new features of the championships is on-line GPS tracker with completed races archive. So now for the Europeans even remote sailing fan may follow his team on-line. The tracker can be found on the official regatta page.
The Gazprom Dragon European Championship opens on 15th July with registration and measurement. Practice race for the 45 strong fleet from 15 countries is planned for 17th July and the races to be held from 18th till 22nd July.
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