Ireland's Don O'Donoghue wins Dragon Edinburgh Cup

by Fiona Brown on 13 Jul 2008 The final day of the Edinburgh Cup, sponsored by Knight Frank and hosted by the Royal Western Yacht Club, Plymouth, provided two thrilling final championship races, a hard fought crews' race and ultimately a popular and worthy new British Open Dragon Champion and Edinburgh Cup winner.

At the end of the day and following two closely fought and extremely exciting races Ireland's Don O'Donoghue, Brian Matthews and Mark Pettitt sailing Seabird were declared the 2008 Dragon British Open Champions and were awarded the historic Edinburgh Cup. Second place overall went to Louis Urvois of France crewed by Gwen Chapalain and Eric Drouglazet sailing Ar Youleg II and in third was Gavia Wilkinson-Cox from Cowes crewed by Mark Hart and John Mortimer aboard Gerboa. Len Jones from the Medway took four with American Edward Sawyer fifth and Eric Williams of Cowes six.
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Speaking after racing Don O'Donoghue was delighted to win this 60th Edinburgh Cup. 'It feels great. It's a fantastic and historic trophy to win. This is my first Edinburgh Cup and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. You need luck, and I've got very good racing sailors on board with me, Mark and Brian. I'd like to thank the Race Officer Mike Pearson and his race committee; the courses that they set were very good and we've had extremely fair sailing. I'd also like to thank the protest committee and all the volunteer club members who've work so hard for the regatta. And last but by no means Owen Pay and the British Dragon Association committee for all their work in laying on such a great event.'

In the Classic Division for wooden boats built prior to 1972 there was also a very close battle which was eventually won by Matthew Ratsey sailing Blue Skies with Kevin Poole and Tim Petitt. David Jeffcott, sailing Moonbeam crewed by James Tyers, James Hemingway and Keith Davis took second and David Dale sailing Inge with Cathy and Peter Williams was third.

Going into the final day and with four of the six races complete O'Donoghue had led the regatta by just five points from Louis Urvois. Also still firmly in contention were Gavia Wilkinson-Cox, Edward Sawyer, Eric Williams and Len Jones and as the fleet left the dock the skies may have been grey, but spirits were high with a palpable air of tension among competitors and spectators alike.
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With a shifty 6-15 knot north-westerly and the flattest seas of the week it was to be a day focused on gear changing and spotting the shifts. In race five Len Jones made the best of the difficult conditions to win the race convincingly from Mike Hayles, who was putting in his first top ten appearance of the event. O'Donoghue took third to consolidate his overall lead with Gavia Wilkinson-Cox fourth and Eric Williams fifth. Louis Urvois, who went into the race lying second overall, scored his worst results of the regatta with a 14th.

As the boats lined up for the sixth and final race the points were still tight with Don O'Donoghue counting 9 points, Gavia Wilkinson-Cox 14, Louis Urvois 15, Len Jones 17 and Eric Williams 18. Off the line O'Donoghue, Urvois, Wilkinson-Cox and Jones all looked sweet at the committee boat end with O'Donoghue furthest left of all. Behind them Chris Hunt held back to cross the line a few seconds late at the committee end then immediately tacked over and headed into the right hand corner.

At the front of the pack O'Donoghue and Wilkinson-Cox were going at it hammer and tongs with O'Donoghue just managing to keep control of the situation. As they approached the first mark all eyes were on this pair as they traded tacks, but suddenly out of right field came Hunt whose flyer had paid handsomely giving him a led the length of the spreader leg. Behind him O'Donoghue led Wilkinson-Cox with Sawyer fourth, Jonathan Hughes fifth and Urvois sixth. Jones meanwhile was buried down in tenth with Williams twelfth.

On the first run the top group held position and closed on Hunt while Jones pulled up to ninth and Williams to tenth. More excitement was to come though and the second beat proved to a humdinger. As the boats split at the gate O'Donoghue went left while Wilkinson-Cox and Hunt went right. Although right had paid on the first beat the same trick didn't work this time and by the second weather mark it was all change with O'Donoghue now leading. Jonathan Hughes had sailed a blinder to pull up from fifth to second while Hunt rounded third. British Dragon Association Chairman Owen Pay came from seventh to fourth with Wilkinson-Cox now fifth, Urvois holding sixth and Jones pulling up to eighth.
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From here on in O'Donoghue took control of the race like a true champion and Hughes settled into second place, but behind them battle was raging for second place overall between Jones, Wilkinson-Cox and Urvois. By the final leeward mark Jones lay fifth, Wilkinson-Cox sixth and Urvois seventh. Desperately needing to get some boats between him and the other two Jones tacked away, but it was to be a disastrous move leaving Wilkinson-Cox and Urvois to battle it out between them.

Gavia Wilkinson-Cox takes up the story. 'Coming round the last leeward mark our main focus was on Louis. We knew we had to beat him to take second place. We held him behind us until the last third of the beat when we were getting knocked on starboard, he tacked back towards us on port, but would not have cleared us, however, we needed to get back to the right so we lee bowed him, he tacked off, got lifted and came back in ahead of us as we closed the line and it was all over.

'Don and Louis are both fantastic competitors and I am really chuffed to have been sailing so closely with them throughout the regatta. I'm thrilled to be third and even more thrilled to be the first British boat. This is a great confidence boost for us as we look ahead to our next international regattas, firstly the Gold Cup in Cascais and then the Vintage Yachting Games at which I'm proud to be representing the UK alongside Len Jones.'

Once the championship racing was concluded the crews were handed the helm for the crews race which took place on a special course that zig zagged across the harbour to finish on the club line. Victory went to Rory Patton, helming Eric William's Ecstatic with Graham.
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At the prize giving there were a number of special awards alongside the main prizes including the presentation of the Jordan Bell, for the highest placed boat that does not count a score in the top five, which was awarded to Chris Britton, Nick Milton and Jilly Hamilton sailing Norbert. The Petticrows special prize draw, for a brand new Petticrows jib, was won by 75 year old Ted Sawyer from the USA and the Dubarry Boot Trophy went to Len Jones.

The British Dragon Association would like to take this opportunity to thank the Royal Western Yacht Club and its race committee and volunteer members for all their hard work in organising the event. Thanks must also go to Steve Proctor and the protest committee for their sterling work. And finally a very special thank you to event sponsor Knight Frank, supporting sponsors Aberdeen Asset Management, Petticrows and Pantaenius, and to official supplier Marlin RIBs. Without the generous support of our sponsors and the many volunteers such events would not be possible.

The 2009 Edinburgh Cup will be hosted by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club, Falmouth in early July. Further information about this event will be published at www.britishdragons.org.

Overall Top Ten

1 204 Don O'Donoghue 1 1 (4) 4 3 1 - 10
2 365 Louis Urvois 2 2 6 5 (14) 5 20
3 716 Gavia Wilkinson-Cox 4 (13) 3 3 4 6 - 20
4 708 Len Jones (9) 9 1 6 1 8 - 25
5 310 Edward Sawyer 10 6 7 1 (20) 4 - 28
6 682 J E Williams 6 5 (11) 2 5 11 - 29
7 684 Mike Holmes 7 8 2 (11) 6 10 - 33
8 734 Thomas Wilton 3 3 15 (16