Opening round to Klaus Diederichs

Dragon South Coast Championship took place in Weymouth this weekend

Tuesday June 25th 2013, Author: Fiona Brown, Location: United Kingdom

The International Dragon fleet's weeklong festival of sailing in Weymouth got off to a great, if slightly delayed, start today with the South Coast Championship, supported by Aberdeen Asset Management. Originally scheduled to be sailed over two days, strong winds on Sunday had forced the Race Committee to keep the boats in harbour. Fortunately today the weather gods were smiling and the 37 strong fleet enjoyed three tightly fought races in shifty westerly winds of 15-20 knots.

Overall Klaus Diederichs, crewed by Andy Beadsworth and Jamie Lea, was top performer of the regatta with a neat 1, 3, 2 score line which gave them a 9 point overall lead and the South Coast Championship Trophy. Taking second place overall and claiming the Corinthian Trophy for amateur teams was Julia Bailey, crewed by Graham Bailey, Will Heritage and Keith Tippell, and the podium was completed by Rob Campbell, sailing with Justin and Tom Waples, who also took second place in the Corinthian division.

The opening race was to be a good indicator of things to come as Klaus Diederichs put their mark on the fleet leading Julia Bailey across the line with Gavia Wilkinson-Cox, crewed by Jean Sebastien Ponce and Vicente Pinheiro De Melo third and the Australian team of Marcus Blackmore, Terry Wetton and Don Cowie fourth.

Race two initially looked to be more of the same until the race committee responded to a right shift on the first run by moving the second weather mark correspondingly right. Unfortunately, just as the boats came round the leeward gate and the time window for further mark changes closed, the sea breeze kicked taking the wind hard left and leaving the second beat completely one sided. A number of boats lost out massively with some even having to crack off for the mark. Whilst others struggled to regain ground, Germany's Marcus Brennecke, crewed by Marc Pickel and Thomas Auracher, went on to win the race in style from Rob Campbell with Klaus Diederichs third, Julia Bailey fourth and David Atkinson, crewed by Ian Turnbull and John Outhwaite fifth.

With the sea breeze now firmly established the race committee set up for the third and final race which was to be a four beat marathon testing the sailors stamina as much as their sailing skills. After a somewhat lackluster performance in the opening two races of the event where he had finished 25 and 28, reigning European Champion Jose Matoso and his team of Gustavo Lima and Frederico Melo, finally found some form and led the fleet from the first mark to the finish. Behind him the battle for the remaining top five places was fierce with Klaus Diederichs eventually claiming second from Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen, crewed by Hamish McKay and Andrew Norden, with Gavia Wilkinson-Cox fourth and Grant Gordon, sailing with Ruaridh Scott and Joost Houweling, fifth.

At the prize giving there were a number of fun awards presented alongside the main trophies including awards for the top performance by a helm under 30 which went to Jono Brown, for the furthest travelled crew which was presented by Petticrows and won by Bocci Aoyama and his team from Japan, plus some special draw prizes present by event sponsor Zhik whose happy recipients went home with new shoes, sailing smocks and salopettes.

With the South Coast Championship completed the fleet now moves into the Edinburgh Cup, for the open British Championship, which will feature up to six races over the next four days. Weymouth will also play host to the 2013 Gazprom International Dragon World Championship from 5-13 September, and so the fleet will grow to 39 teams for the Edinburgh Cup as extra boats take advantage of this opportunity to not only challenge for the prestigious Edinburgh Cup, but also to train on the World Championship race area. Among those joining the fleet for the Edinburgh Cup are defending champion Simon Brien from Northern Ireland and reigning Dragon World Champion Lawrie Smith.

Results

Pos Sail no Helm Crew Crew2 R1 R2 R3 Net
1 GBR758 Klaus DIEDERICHS Andy BEADSWORTH Jamie LEA 1 3 2 6
2 GBR720 Julia BAILEY Graham BAILEY William HERITAGE & Keith TIPPEKK 2 4 9 15
3 GBR766 Robert CAMPBELL Justin WAPLES Tom WAPLES 5 2 13 20
4 AUS227 Marcus BLACKMORE Terry WETTON Don COWIE 4 11 6 21
5 GBR768 Christopher HUNT Mark HART Mark "Crash" DALY 7 7 8 22
6 GBR775 Poul HOJ-JENSEN Hamish McKAY Andrew "Noddy" NORDEN 11 10 3 24
7 GER11 Marcus BRENNECKE Marc PICKEL Thomas AURACHER 17 1 7 25
8 GBR782 David ATKINSON Ian TURNBULL John OUTHWAITE 10 5 10 25
9 GBR722 Mark WADE Amanda WADE Simon CASH 6 8 11 25
10 GBR761 Gavia WILKINSON-COX Jean Sebastien PONCE Vicente PINHEIRO DE MELO 3 22 4 29
11 GBR780 Granty GORDON Ruaridh SCOTT Joost HOUWELING 8 20 5 33
12 GBR770 Jono BROWN David BROWN Lynette BROWN 9 21 12 42
13 GBR753 Jonathan RATNAGE Ross McKISSOCK Guy CLARABUT 14 14 17 45
14 GBR746 Peter MARCHANT Katie COLE Andy BIDDLE 20 13 15 48
15 GBR763 Simon BARTER James BARTER Donald WILKS 12 18 21 51
16 GBR610 Selina DICKER James CAMPBELL Drummond SYDENHAM 24 6 23 53
17 POR55 Jose MATOSO Gustavo LIMA Frederico MELO 25 28 1 54
18 SUI312 Dirk OLDENBURG Phil BLINN Adrian LAYTON 23 12 19 54
19 GBR740 Clive PAGE Graeme PAGE Rory PAGE 13 30 16 59
20 AUS210 Sandy ANDERSON John MONCRIEFF John LOW & Bernie McELHINNEY 30 15 20 65
21 GBR660 Dave ROSS Matt HOLMES Bryn PHILLIPS 28 16 24 68
22 GBR777 Owen PAY Jonathon MORTIMER Matt WALKER 22 33 14 69
23 GBR704 Martin MAKEY Tim WILKES Teresa WILKES 16 27 30 73
24 GBR739 Nigel KAULA Oliver MORGAN Matt ALEXANDER 31 17 25 73
25 GBR586 Ian GRAY Rene NEL Rob GODDARD 18 29 26 73
26 USA310 Ted SAWYER Martin PAYNE Pedro ARRIAGA 27 9 38.0 DNF 74
27 GBR764 Mike HAYLES Monique HAYLES Julian BROOKE-HOUGHTON 21 24 29 74
28 GBR717 Harry PYNN Andrew JAMES Jonno BAKER 15 32 28 75
29 GBR633 Ron JAMES Julia WALSH Mark PETTITT 19 19 38.0 DNF 76
30 GBR622 Robert RIDDELL Georgina DEWAR Deborah PRITCHARD JONES 29 25 27 81
31 GBR748 Thorkild JUNCKER Jochem VISSER Adrian LAYTON 26 38.0 BFD 18 82
32 JPN50 Bocci AOYAMA Tetsuya SASAKI Norio IGEI 35 23 31 89
33 GBR718 Jenny STUTLEY Roger GUY Lisa GUY 32 26 32 90
34 GBR755 Julian SOWRY Claire SOWRY Neil O'HAGAN 33 36 22 91
35 GBR771 Adrian DYBALL Bruce McCLAREN Nick FRIBBENS & Adrian MICKLESON 36 31 33 100
36 GBR557 Graham PRICE Patrick LOMAX Tracy POWELL 37 34 34 105
37 GBR675 David HARRIS Christopher BREALY Brian MCKENZIE 34 35 38.0 BFD 107

 

 

 

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