Lawrie Smith takes an early lead

Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup gets underway in Kinsale

Sunday September 9th 2012, Author: Fiona Brown, Location: Ireland

The Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup 2012 got underway in spectacular style as the 60 competitors from 16 nations and four continents completed their first race in strong winds and big seas off Kinsale.

The Dragon Gold Cup is legendary for being one of the toughest championships in keelboat racing as it is raced over huge 12+ mile windward leeward courses and there is no discard in the six race series. Today's rough seas and winds of up to 25 knots from the south certainly ensured it was also a test of stamina as well as skill and there were incidents aplenty with a number of spectacular broaches and some exciting mark roundings as the sailors contended with the confused seas and blustery conditions.

The fleet got away cleanly at the first time of asking by PRO Alan Crosbie, and the first beat saw the boats spread out very evenly across the course. At the first weather mark those who had opted to go right had the advantage and it was reigning Dragon World Champion Lawrie Smith, sailing Alfie, who led the fleet from double Olympic Gold Medallist Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen, sailing Danish Blue; Russia's Dimitry Samokhin sailing Strange Little Girl; 2010 Gold Cup winner Anatoly Loginov sailing Annapurna; and Ireland's Cameron Good on Little Fella.

While Smith and Hoj-Jensen then held their positions around the course the battle behind them for third place was fierce. By the start of the final beat Germany's Tommy Mueller on Sinewave, had pulled up into third just ahead of Samokhin, Good was fifth and Loginov sixth with Ukrainian Lars Hendriksen on Bunker Boys, moving up into seventh.

Hoj-Jensen pushed Smith hard on the final beat, but both boats also had to defend their positions on the chasing pack. At the line Smith won from Hoj-Jensen while Samokhin pulled back up into third with Mueller fourth. Hendriksen, who has claimed the Gold Cup on two previous occasions, sailed a wonderful final leg to cross the line in fifth. Dane Joergen Schoenherr and his African Queen, also showed blistering pace to go from 11th to sixth on the last beat, just pipping Good on the line.

Cameron Good, Commodore of the Kinsale Yacht Club, also claimed victory in the Corinthian Division, for the all-amateur crews. Dublin's Gary Treacy, sailing Dublin Bay, took second place in the Corinthians with Reemt Reemtsma and Caroroo were third and IDA Chairman Richard Blickman on Cobweb, was fourth.

One of the most impressive stories of the day came from the Australian team aboard Puff III. They were running very deep in sixth place on the second run when a rogue wave caught the transom and span them into a Chinese gybe. Helmsman Richard Lynn found himself being swept out of the boat as his crew, Ian Olson and Aussie sailing legend Roger Hickman, battled to get their spinnaker, which was now doing a very good job of trawling for supper, back under control. Fortunately Richard just managed to grab the spinnaker sheet on his way out of the boat and by the time the boys had the kite under control he was back on board. They had lost a number of places but they dug in on the final lap and managed to pull back up into ninth place, keeping themselves firmly in contention.

Five more races are scheduled and the regatta continues until Friday 14 September. Lighter airs are forecast for the next couple of days but strong airs are expected to return later in the week.

Top 50 results

Pos	Sail No	Boat	Helm	Crew	Crew 2	R1	Tot
1	GBR763	Alfie	Lawrie Smith	Tim Tavinor	Joost Houweling	1	1
2	GBR775	Danish Blue	Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen	Theis Palm	Andrew Norden	2	2
3	RUS76	Strange Little Girl	Dmitry Samokhin	Andrey Kirilyuk	Aleksey Bushuev	3	3
4	GER1123	Sinewave	Tommy Mueller	Vincent Hoesch	Michael Lipp, Thomas Mueller	4	4
5	UKR7	Bunker Boys	Lars Hendriksen	Sergey Pugachev	Georgil Leonchuk	5	5
6	DEN406	African Queen	Jorgen Schonherr	Jan Eli Gravad	Axel Waltersdorp	6	6
7	IRL211	Little Fella	Cameron Good	Simon Furney	Henry Kingston	7	7
8	RUS27	Annapurna	Anatoly Loginov	Vadim Statsenko	Alexander Shalagin	8	8
9	AUS222	Puff III	Richard Lynn	Ian Olson	Roger Hickman	9	9
10	GBR768	Dark & Stormy	Christopher Hunt	Mark Hart	Mark Daly	10	10
11	IRL201	Jaguar	Martin Byrne	Adam Winkelmanr	Pedro Andrade	11	11
12	GER1042	Puck III	Philip Dohse	Christian Moeller	Oliver Mose	12	12
13	GBR758	Fever	Klaus Diederichs	Andy Beadsworth	Jamie Lea	13	13
14	HUN57	Bear	Ferenc Kis-Szolgyemi	Tamas Kiss	Karoly Vezer	14	14
15	GER1125	Dragoni Holly	Stephan Link	Frank Butzmann	Peter Froschi	15	15
16	IRL198	Dublin Bay	Gary Treacy	Paul Maguire	Don O'Dowd	16	16
17	UKR8	Bunker Prince	Evgen Braslavetz	Sergey Timokhov	Igor Sidorov	17	17
18	POR55	Drago	Jose Matoso	Gustavo Lima	Stephen Hellriegel	18	18
19	GER1121	Caroroo	Reemt Reemtsma	Petra Reemtsma	Lorenz Jensen	19	19
20	NED393	Cobweb	Richard Blickman	Daan Djixhoorn	Nick Spaans	20	20
21	IRL213	Whisper	Mark Dicker	Nelson Moore	Sean Murphy	21	21
22	DEN266	My Way	Frank Berg	Konrad Florian	Jens Maklund	22	22
23	RUS2	Alisa	Alexander Ezhkov	Alexey Grigoriev	Vladimir Krutskikh	23	23
24	IRL216	Chimaera	Andrew Craig	Brian Mathews	Mark Pettitt	24	24
25	IRL210	Diva	James Matthews	Rick Johnson	Rob Johnson	25	25
26	MON2	Jeanie	Jens Rathsack	Mario Wagner	Stefan Waack	26	26
27	GBR708	Rumours	Simon Strauss	David Horgan	John Wolfe, Harvey Tucker	27	27
28	FRA396	Legend	Remy Arnaud	Herald Arnaud	Pascal Civel	28	28
29	IRL214	Kin	Simon Brien	Jack Brien	Mark Brien	29	29
30	GBR720	Aimee	Graham Bailey	Julia Bailey	Dylan Potter, Will Heritage	30	30
31	IRL156	Mar-J	Adrian Bendon	Shawn Kingston	Eoghan O'Mahoney	31	31
32	IRL161	Sir Ossis of the River	Denis Bergin	Con Murphy	Paul Burke	32	32
33	IRL206	Cloud	Clare Hogan	Mel Collins	Laura Dillon, Graeme Grant	33	33
34	GBR761	Jerboa	Gavia Wilkinson-Cox	Martin Payne	Rui Boia	34	34
35	ANT10	Northside Dragon	Jay Bourke	David Cagney	Tommy Murphy	35	35
36	GBR760	Hands Off	Michael Holmes	Andy Biddle	Peter Marchant	36	36
37	FIN88	Step By Step	Eeva Saukkonen	Catja Everhall-Blom	Outi Kivimaki	37	37
38	IRL159	Zu	Tim Pearson	Matt Mich	Conor Grimley, Choryna Kiely	38	38
39	IRL188	Grey Hare	Philip Bendon	James Bendon	Ben Fusco	39	39
40	GBR742	Flotation	Richard Davies	Clive Hurn	Donald Milne	40	40
41	IRL195	D-Cision	Philip Perkins	Richard Kidney	Declan Hayes	41	41
42	GER1110	Streumer	Norbert Ohst	Stefan Abel	Mark-Raimondo Bayer	42	42
43	GBR590	Mystere	James Peters	Dave Cummings	Rob Riddell	43	43
44	GBR774	Tigger	Thomas Olrog	Thomas Wilton	Nicola Wilton	44	44
45	GER1113	GP	Tanja Jacobsohn	Bernhard Jacobsohn	Jan Scharffetter	45	45
46	HKG46	Davinloong	Phyllis Chang	Lars Gelbjerg-Hansen	Selin Dicker,Charles Street	46	46
47	GBR766	Quicksilver V	Robert Campbell	Justin Waples	Rene Nel	47	47
48	AUS206	The Old Bailey	Sarah Ross	Dave Ross	Insinger Mickiel	48	48
49	SWE345	Ming	Jacob Wallenberg	Henrik Baltscheffsky	Stellan Gross	49	49
50	IRL197	HY Brasil	Peter O'Reilly	Francis Rhatigan	Eddie Tingle	50	50