Wieser increases lead at Volvo Dragon Europeans

by Henry Ericsson on 8 Aug 2007
Sunny skies and light to medium easterly breezes were the order of the day for the second day of the Volvo Dragon European Championships. Semerkanov (RUS) and Borenius (FIN) were winners on day 2 of the Volvo Dragon European Championships

After two trial starts, the fleet got smoothly away in the light morning breeze. The Russian yacht Diamond skippered by Maksim Semerkanov pulled out a clear lead at the first mark, chased by Bunker Queen steered by the German ace helmsman Markus Wieser. Right behind followed Orient Express, skippered by Vasili Senatorov and crewed by the Star champion Sergey Borodinov.

Although Wieser gradually closed in on Semerkanov, the top trio finished in this order after a two-hour race. A special feature of the race was the heavy parade of boats approaching the windward mark on the port tack layline. This caused some hairy situations, watched with eagle eyes by the judges O'Gorman and Ericsson. A number of protests had to be straightened out in the jury room.

For the second race, the wind had piped up a bit, creating ideal conditions on the open course area southeast of the Russarö island. Surprisingly, the first starting attempt was successful. Especially for Finnish dragon sailor Christian Borenius, who started with full speed at the pin end of the line, and kept going on starboard to hit a shift on the left layline. He was first at the windward mark, closely followed by Michael Schattan of Germany and Alexander Ezhkov of Russia.

Despite a spinnaker snarl costing him two boat lengths at the final gate, he managed to cross the finishing line on starboard ahead of Ezhkow who had to take his stern. British yachtsman Patrick Gifford grabbed a good fourth place in this race.

Looking at the total standings after three races, it is no surprise that Markus Wieser tops the leaderboard. But the following nine places are heavily contested. Without any top scores, Christian Boillot at the helm of Prince Albert's dragon Munegu, has managed to sneak into third place. Jacob Wallenberg of Sweden and Tom Jungell of Finland are using the same method of 'softly, softly, catchee monkey' to place themselves in fifth and sixth place respectively.

Wednesday will see two decisive races. The weather gods have promised more wind, giving the heavy brigade a chance to show their stuff on the Gulf of Finland.

Final results, after protest hearings:

Race 2:
1) Diamond, Maksim Semerkanov - Dimitri Teroshkin - Alex Andrianov, Russia.
2) Bunker Queen, Markus Wieser - Sergei Pujachev - Thomas Auracher, Germany.
3) Orient Express, Vasili Senatorov - Sergey Borodinov- Alexandr Musychenko, Russia.
4) Valery, Dmitry Vokhmitzev - Vyacheslav Katyukhin - Viktor Fogelson, Russia.
5) Munegu, Christian Boillot - Jean Sebastian Ponce - Lionel Pean, Monaco.
6) Eclipse, Jean-Claude Danet - Luce Pillot - Nicolas Abiven, France.

Race 3:
1) Eminence, Christian Borenius - Kurt Lönnqvist - Andreas Johanson, Finland.
2) Alisa, Alexander Ezhkov - Vladimir Krutskih - Alexey Grigorjev, Russia.
3) Chi, Michael Schattan - Kurt Binder - Peter Wicklmayr, Germany
4) Nereid, Patrick Gifford - Michael John Gifford - Charlie Sprake, Great Britain
5) Flawless, Valdemar Bandolowski - Sören Hvalsö -Tim Tavinor, Denmark
6) Sasha, Oleg Eutokimenko - Igor Skalin - Valery Zatsarinkskyi, Russia

Total results after 3 races:
1) Bunker Queen, Markus Wieser - Sergei Pujachev - Thomas Auracher, Germany. 20 p.
2) Valery, Dmitry Vokhmitzev - Vyacheslav Katyukhin - Viktor Fogelson, Russia. 39 p.
3) Munegu, Christian Boillot - Jean Sebastian Ponce - Lionel Pean, Monaco, 41 p.
4) Alisa, Alexander Ezhkov - Vladimir Krutskih - Alexey Grigorjev, Russia, 42 p.
5) Ming, Jacob Wallenberg - Henrik Baltscheffsky - Vincent Hoesch, Sweden, 47.7 p.
6) Lilla Vågen, Tom Jungell - Markus Mannström - Jaakko Rantala, Finland, 49 p.
7) B B Queen, Yevgen Braslavets - Igor Sidorov - Sergy Timokhov, Ukraine, 51 p.
8) Eclipse, Jean-Claude Danet - Luce Pillot - Nicolas Abiven, France, 54.7 p.
9) Rat Pack, Henrik Dahlman - Lars Henriksen - Oscar Dannström, Alandia, Finland, 55 p.
10) Versiya 3, Alexey Krilov - Anatoly Karachinskyi - Vladislav Kapitanov, 57 p.

48 participants from 10 nations.