Andy Beadsworth and Provezza win the Dragon Worlds in Cascais

by Jonny Fullerton / Grand Prix Sailing on 17 Jun 2017 Andy Beadsworth, Ali Tezdiker and Simon Fry win the 2017 Dragon World Championship in the final and only race of the day, sailed on the waters of Cascais in Portugal.

Overnight the Russian team Annapurna skippered by Anatoly Loginov were given redress by the race committee for a collision on the penultimate days racing which caused them to retire from that race. Their redress score reduced the gap to 7 points from the Turkish flagged boat overnight with Lawrie Smith (Alfie) another 2 points adrift.

The final race of the regatta started on time at 1305 hrs local time on yet another steamy hot day on the Guia race course off the coast of Cascais. The breeze from the N/NW was lighter than most of the week at around 10 - 12 knots at the start, up to 15 kts at the top of the course.

The fleet got off to a clean start with most of the top contenders staying closer to the committee boat in order to tack onto starboard to hug the favoured side of the course. As per most of the week the left (offshore) sometimes provided more wind but more disturbed waves but the right delivered the better shifts and flatter water.

The regatta leaders were a mostly second row on the first upwind leaving NED412 (Troika) Peter Hereema with crew Lars Hendriksen and Claus Olesen to round the first mark with a clear lead from RUS76 (Rocknrolla) Dmitry Samokhin and POR64 (Lady Tati) Patrick Monteiro de Barros from the host club CN Cascais.

TUR1212, (Provezza) Andy Beadsworth rounded right on the stern of RUS27 (Annapurna) in the top ten but a bad hoist and a fluffed gybe by the Russians handed the opportunity for TUR1212 to gybe inside them and take the inshore track leaving Annapurna to take the less favourable offshore side of the race track. Lawrie Smith (Alfie) recovered a number of places after a bad start to round in the top 15.

The run was a lot more controlled than previous races all week. The Dutch cewq started to open a handsome lead at the gate but the action was still all on in the lead pack for overall podium places. Lawrie Smith (Alfie) found a nice pressure band to soak past more boats including (Provezza) Andy Beadsworth and move up to eighth at the gate. RUS27 (Annapurna) had lost more ground rounding around 16th.

On the second lap the Dutch team could stop for a sandwich and a beer and still have no problems winning the race. RUS76 Rocknrolla moved clear in second and POR64 third. Andy Beadsworth and his crew on Provezza just had to stay in front of Anatoly Loginov and stay in the top 10 to seal the world championship.

NED412 took the race bullet by a comfortable margin to move up to sixth in the overall rankings and RUS76 (Rocknrolla) Dmitry Samokhin improving all week to finish clear in second. GBR803 (Gorgeous Worgeous) Quentin Srauss, sailing in the Masters category, just snatched third on the finish line in his best result of the regatta.

In fourth, also a regatta best was JPN50 (Yevis ll) with Bocci Aoyama at the helm. Fifth was a very popular result for the Portuguese as Patrick Monteiro de Barros declared this race his regatta his last with his intended retirement.

Lawrie Smith (Alfie) with his Portuguese crew, Hugo Rocha, Joao Matos Rosa and Goncalo Ribeiro crossed seventh to confirm third place in the overall podium. Anatoly Loginov in Annapurna had to count a 17th but held on to second overall.

Andy Beadsworth on winning the Dragon Worlds for the second time, but this time as skipper:

How does it feel to win the 2017 Dragon World Championship?

“It feels good yeah, I will float through life for the next couple of months I guess.”

Conditions were quite tough all week and it came down to the last day?

“Its was a three horse race today (TUR1212, RUS27 and GBR815) and it was quite difficult to keep an eye on both of them, they started at different ends of the pack but we decided the right was going to pay and Lawrie started there so we tried to get the better start than Lawrie so we got a jump on him made it difficult for him to do well and fortunately we rounded the windward mark right with Anatoly (RUS27) and he had a terrible set and we managed to get on top of him and he had to gybe away, and the shift in the breeze went our way so we got around the gate in the 8.9.10 mark and Lawrie managed to get past us down the run but we knew he couldn’t win the race so we kept our focus and tried to be on the same bit of the race course as Lawrie.”

Well sailed and well down to the rest of the team

“Thankyou'

Overall Results: (Top 10 of 70 boats after eight races with one discard)

1 TUR1212 Provezza Dragon, Andy Beadsworth 32pts
2 RUS37 Annapurna, Anatoly Loginov 36.2pts
3 GBR815 Alfie, Lawrie Smith 38pts
4 UAE9 Desert Eagle, Hendrik Witzmann 55pts
5 RUS27 Rocknrolla, Dmitry Samokhin 64pts
6 NED412 Troika, Pieter Heerema 65pts
7 UAE7 Bunker Prince, Braslavets Yevgen 65pts
8 POR66 Drago, Jose SM Matoso 68pts
9 GBR780 Louise, Grand Gordon 88pts
10 MON2 Jeanie, Jens Rathsack 88pts

Corinthian Trophy winner:
GER1180 Rosie, Benjamin Morgen

Masters Trophy winner:
GER1162 Desert Holly, Stephan Link