Lost it in the protest room

Day one of the Aberdeen Dragon European Championship took place in very difficult conditions

Marcus Wieser (UKR) finished first, 15 Dragon lengths in front of the next boat on day one of the Aberdeen Dragon European Championship, but lost it all in the protest room. Swiss Mario Kniffka is in the lead.

The sailors in the Aberdeen Dragon European Championship got heavy rain, thunder and light, unstable wind while they waited for the wind to settle on day one Monday. But when the race finally started the sailors had a six to eight knot breeze for the first round. Then the wind, at times, picked up to 30 knots on the last downwind. That got the adrenalin pumping and one Norwegian mast to come down.

Marcus Wieser, sailing UKR7 with Thomas Auracher and Sergei Pugatchev as crew, held on to the lead from the start and finished 15 boat lengths in front of Swiss Mario Kniffka.

"The conditions were very shifty and we were lucky. We sailed conservatively and covered our lead for the whole race," said Wieser.

But the pleasure of getting the gun soon faded. UKR 7 was protested for an incident at the start, and ended up being disqualified. Kniffka, sailing with Michael Koch and Michael Lipp, won the first race.

Two races are planned for Tuesday. The Best Norwegian sailor was Eivind Melleby in fourth place. "We were in second right behind Wieser at the first top mark, but lost it on the last beat," Melleby explained.

64 boats are competing in the Aberdeen Dragon European Championship. Seven races are planned and the last one will be sailed Friday 8 August