Julia Bailey on top

At the end of the East Coast Dragon Championships held at Medway Yacht Club

Julia Bailey triumphed against a top class fleet over the May Bank Holiday weekend in the East Coast Dragon Championships at Medway Yacht Club in Kent.

Skipper Julia, helming Aimee, from the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Cowes, faced high class competition from around the country, beating off several former national champions with a consistent string of three seconds and a sixth for the four races that counted.

In second place came Rory Bowman, from Aldeburgh Yacht Club, who won three of the series, but had to count a 10th place that lost him first overall. In third was Mark Wade, from the RCYC in Burnham, Sailing GBR679 Avalanche, with three fourth places and a fifth. The highest placed Medway boat was Len Jones, who sailed Chouette into seventh, collecting a podium third position on the way.

In the 75th anniversary of the International Dragon, which worldwide boasts a number of royal competitors, it was seen as a real coup for Medway Yacht Club to have been given the privilege of staging the event. Excellent organisation and decent if sometimes unreliable winds left everyone in the 30-strong fleet agreeing it was a great weekend.

The championships are one of the top British Dragon events and count as a qualifying event for international championships as well as being part of the Citron Trophy.

“Julia sailed a great championships and with her husband Graham, who is a top international yacht helmsman and tactician, plus David Heritage as the second crew, they were a boat that was always going to be difficult to beat. Although Rory must be feeling that with a hat trick of firsts it was a title that could so easily have been his,” said Robert Sheppard, Captain of the Medway Dragon Fleet.

“It created a magnificent spectacle on the Medway and was certainly one of the top championships the club has ever hosted. A great deal of credit goes to the whole team that made it run so smoothly.”

The series of five races, with any yacht’s best four counting towards the results, were sailed in good conditions, but big wind shifts often meant that places changed by the handful. Trophies were awarded for the top six boats overall, as well as for each race back to third position.

The windward/leeward courses were sailed in the River Medway’s Long Reach and Kethole Reach, two on the Saturday and Sunday and one on Monday prior to the prize presentation. There was also a busy social scene over the weekend for the couple of hundred people involved as crew and supporters.

Other Trophy Winners: 4th R Gillingham (Navaho); 5th R Campbell (Quicksilver II); 6th M Holmes (Hand of Fortune).