2010 REVIEW 2011 PREVIEW - International Dragon Association

BMWDragonGoldCupby Mrs. Kerstin Holmberg - Chairman, Race Committee.BMW Dragon Gold Cup 2010 at Marstrand island in Swedenwas impressive in many ways. Partly because there were 103 participantsfrom 17 different nations and partly because of thelarge number of sailors who were Olympic and World Championshipmedalists, some coming from the Dragon class, but also frommany other classes.It was the 10th time that the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club(GKSS) arranged a Dragon Gold Cup and also the club’s 150 anniversary,therefore the opportunity was taken to celebrate thistogether with the event.The first day’s sailing was a wet story of rain, light winds andstrong currents. Three attempts were made to start the first race,then black flag was shown, finally a successful start was launched.Ninety-six boats were started on an impressive starting-line, 1.2kmlong, with the race committee boat at the center. The best crewto choose between the wind advantage on one hand and on theother hand the advantage for strong current, was the Germanboat GER 1071 with Helmut Schmidt / Peter Liebner / Andreas List,which won ahead of Ukraine UKR 9 Werner Fritz.Germany and Denmark have always been the dominant nationsamong the Dragons, raising the question of was Ukraine’ssecond place in the first race maybe beginner’s luck, but it turnedout later that this was not the case.In number of boats per nation Sweden was at the top with 13participating boats, which maybe is not that strange, but secondnation in number of participating boats was Russia with 6 boats.Monday’s second day of sailing offered weather with sunshineand blue skies, but with a windforce of nearly 12 m/s and awave height of up to threemeters. You had to be a skilledsailor to manage this situation,some crew members actuallyfell from their boats in the roughsea. The most skilled crew wasthe Ukrainian boat UKR 8 witha Danish helmsman, Lars Hendriksen.Lars Hendriksen alreadyhad two overall wins inthe Dragon Gold Cup, in 1999and 2007. It was a Danish crewin second place with Frank Bergand the Crown Prince Frederikof Denmark ended up in seventhplace.After two races the Ukrainianboat UKR 9 with Werner Fritzas helmsman was in the lead,at second place was Germanywith one of the favorites, namelyhelmsman Thomas Müller,third was Lars Hendriksen withUKR 8 and fourth the Russianboat RUS 27 with Anatoly Logi-nov as helmsman.The third day was a lay day,which was much needed sincemany sailors had minor injuriesto take care of and many boatshad to be repaired.The third race started with anice breeze at 5 m/s, but afterthe first upwind leg the windalmost died completely andthe rain just poured down. Butdespite this, the overall leadingboats was the first to cross thefinishing line. In this case it wasLars Hendriksen in UKR 8 whowon and in second place wasthe Russian boat RUS 27 withAnatoly Loginov. Those boatsalso held the first and secondplace overall following threeraces.On August the 12th a Regattadinner was held with morethan five hundred participatingguests. The dinner guests notonly included the gilded splendorof the Royal Prince Henrikand Crown Prince Frederik ofDenmark attending, both whoparticipatied in the race butalso the King and Queen ofSweden.On the final race day, thebattle for victory was betweenthe Russian boat RUS 27 andthe Ukrainian boat UKR 8. Itstarted well for Lars Hendriksenin UKR 8 and he rounded thefirst weather mark in sixth place.He also did an incredibly gooddownwind leg and roundedthe first leeward mark in thirdplace and with this the victoryseemed to be secured. But nowthe wind dropped down andturned 15-20 degrees duringthe two remaining windwardlegs. Lars Hendriksen lost placesand finally finished 12th inthis race.Instead the Russian boatRUS 27 with crew membersPage 6