Photos: IDA/Michael Austin

Another bullet for Hoj-Jensen

Back in action at the Gazprom International Dragon World Championship in Weymouth

Tuesday September 10th 2013, Author: Fiona Brown, Location: United Kingdom

Weymouth finally showed herself at her best for day three of the Gazprom International Dragon World Championship where the fleet enjoyed two stunning races, races two and three of the eight race series. With a northwesterly wind ranging from as little as 6 knots all the way up to around 18 knots and constantly shifting, the race committee rose to the occasion and produced spot on courses. The Dragons like to sail long legs for their World Championships and typically run with a 2.2 to 2.5 mile first beat. Despite this the fleet was still rounding the first mark tightly packed and the jury had a number of customers this evening following mark rounding incidents.

The quality of the fleet is truly exceptional and contains multiple Olympic medalists, America's Cup veterans and World and Continental Champions and it is clear from the results that there is a huge depth of talent as some very big names are to be found well down the rankings tonight.

Boat of the day was without any doubt Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen's Danish Blue, crewed by Hamish Mackay and Andrew Norden. Having won Sunday's opening race they consolidated their lead by taking a good steady fifth in race two, then going on to win race three in exceptional style. A double Olympic Gold Medallist, Poul is also the winner of five Dragon Gold Cups, four European Championships and is one of only two helms to have won the Worlds twice, first in 1989 and again in 2009. Known to the Dragon fleet as simply 'The Man', Hoj-Jensen proved today that his physical and mental strength are in no way diminished as he approaches his 70th year and he is still more than able to give the young pretenders a good whipping. He led from the first mark and by the time he rounded the last gate for the beat home he had a comfortable lead. The fleet split evenly port and starboard for the final leg making it impossible to cover everyone, but Poul's final beat was a master class in how to defend a position and was the talk of the regatta village post racing.

The only man who came close to Hoj-Jensen's performance was Russia's Andrey Kirilyuc who is sailing with Aleksey Bushuev and Alina Dotsenko. Kirilyuc is another Olympian who raced for Russia in the Laser in '96, in the Soling in 2000 and in the Tornado in 2004. Better known in the Dragon fleet as one of the top tacticians this has been Aleksey's first chance to show his skills as a helm. He only discovered he would helm the boat late last week when owner and regular helm Dmitry Samokhin was forced to pull out. A quick phone call brought Russian match racer Alina Dotsenko into the team and despite having no practice time they rapidly found their feet taking fourth in the opening race. Today they came off the port end of the start of race two like the proverbial scalded cat and never looked back winning by a comfortable margin. This afternoon they again sailed very consistently finishing in seventh place to put them into second overall.

In the overall standings Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen now leads the regatta on 7 points with Andrey Kirilyuk second on 12 points. Third place overall is held by Hendrik Witzmann, Michael Koch and Markus Koy sailing for the United Arab Emirates, who added a seventh and third to Sunday's ninth place to give them 19 points overall and an eight point margin on fourth placed Inna Shternberg of Russia. Places fifth to eighth are all held by Brits with Martin Payne fifth, Klaus Diederich's sixth, Quentin Strauss seventh and defending champion Lawrie Smith eighth. After his crew Tim Tavinor sustained a nasty hand injury when fending off another boat on the dock after racing on day one Lawrie was left one man short and facing the prospect of having to withdraw from the regatta. Fortunately good friend Bill Masterman, who has sailed with Lawrie and third man Ossie Stewart in the past, was able to drop everything and rush down to Weymouth to step in.

In the Corinthian Division for amateur crews Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen also leads the way with Mark Wade in second, Peter Froschel third, Remy Arnaud fourth and Rob Campbell fifth. One Corinthian team who got more than they bargained for today was Julia Bailey's Aimee. Going up the first beat of race two they were looking very nice on the left hand side. They went to tack and Julia's husband Graham, who calls tactics in the boat, pulled on the runner. He'd just put his full weight into the final adjustment when a block gave way and he effectively threw himself out of the boat. Fortunately he managed to remain in contact and within less than a minute fellow crew members Richard Powell and Will Heritage had fished him out and they were on their way again. Sadly though the advantage was lost and they finished the race in 63rd place.

As always at the post racing prize giving there were some special lucky draw presentations with Tommy Mueller's team taking home three sets of Maui Jim sunglasses and Julian Sowery claiming goodies from Zhik.

Later in the evening the teams enjoyed a wonderful cocktail party at Portland Castle where guests could take a guided tour of this 16th century Tudor Castle, built by Henry VIII to protect against French and Spanish invasion and now owned by English Heritage and open to the public. As well as delicious canapes and English sparkling wine the guests also enjoyed a traditional Morris Dancing display - an entertainment all too familiar to the British competitors but baffling and entertaining in equal measure to the international visitors. All together a thoroughly British evening.

Tomorrow's two further races are planned and the forecast is for 10+ knots, again from the northwest.

Full results below

   

 

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Results:

Pos Sail no Helm Crew Crew2 R1 R2 R3 Tot
1 GBR775 Poul Richard HOJ-JENSEN Hamish MACKAY Andrew NORDEN 1 5 1 7
2 RUS76 Andrey KIRILYUK Aleksey BUSHUEV Alina DOTSENKO 4 1 7 12
3 UAE20 Hendrik WITZMANN Michael KOCH Markus KOY 9 7 3 19
4 RUS77 Inna SHTERNBERG Yury BOZHEDOMOV Valeriy USHKOV 6 8 13 27
5 GBR771 Martin PAYNE John MORTIMER Rui BOIA 8 9 11 28
6 GBR758 Klaus DIEDERICHS Andy BEADSWORTH Jamie LEA 16 13 2 31
7 GBR708 Quentin STRAUSS Simon STRAUSS Nigel YOUNG 10 12 16 38
8 GBR785 Lawrie SMITH Ossie STEWART Tim TAVINOR & Bill MASTERMAN 22 6 18 46
9 HUN57 Ferenc KIS-SZOLGYEMI Karoly VEZER Tamas KISS 11 3 34 48
10 SWE389 Karl-Gustaf LÖHR Martin RUDBÄCK Jesper BENDIX 36 14 8 58
11 GER11 Marcus BRENNECKE Marc PICKEL Thomas AURACHER 3 20 37 60
12 RUS34 Vasiliy SENATOROV Igor IVASHINTSOV Aleksander MUZICHENKO 34 21 5 60
13 UKR7 Markus WIESER Sergey PUGACHEV Georgii LEONCHUK 17 2 42 61
14 GBR782 David ATKINSON Ian TURNBULL John OUTHWAITE 29 19 15 63
15 SUI307 Ulli LIBOR Michael HANDRICK Joerg MOESSNANG 2 38 24 64
16 RUS27 Anatoly LOGINOV Vadim STATSENKO Alexander SHALAGIN 26 34 6 66
17 NED402 Jan BAKKER Dominic BAKKER Olivier BAKKER 24 16 31 71
18 POR55 Jose MATOSO Gustavo LIMA Frederico MELO 38 32 4 74
19 NED412 Pieter HEEREMA Theis PALM Herve CUNNINGHAM 12 30 33 75
20 GER1133 Thomas MÜLLER Hoesch VINCENT Lipp MICHAEL 19 27 30 76
21 POR63 Diogo BARROS Jorge LIMA Rúbrio BASÍLIO 18 40 26 84
22 GER1120 Michael SCHMIDT Malte PHILIPP Peter LIEBNER 7 31 48 86
23 SUI313 Dirk OLDENBURG Thomas WARTBIEGLER Phil BLINN 45 4 43 92
24 FRA402 Stephane BASEDEN Paul MCKENZIE Patrick AUCOUR 14 50 28 92
25 UKR8 Yevgen BRASLAVETS Igor SIDOROV Sergiy TIMOKHOV 5 11 78.0 DSQ 94
26 AUS227 Marcus BLACKMORE Terry WETTON Don COWIE 33 17 44 94
27 GER1042 Dr. Philip DOHSE Christian MOELLER Oliver MOSE 78.0 BFD 10 9 97
28 GBR682 Eric WILLIAMS Rory PATON Katie COLE 20 57 21 98
29 FRA396 Remy ARNAUD Herald ARNAUD Pascal CIVEL 15 22 64 101
30 GBR768 Christopher HUNT Mark HART Mark DALY 50 45 10 105
31 GBR722 Mark WADE Amanda WADE Simon CASH 52 41 12 105
32 DEN138 Lars HENDRIKSEN Lars Stenfeldt HANSEN Joost HOUWELING 13 15 78.0 DSQ 106
33 RUS35 Victor FOGELSON Oleg KHOPERSKIY Viacheslav KHAPTIUKHIN 27 60 19 106
34 FRA391 Jean BREGER Clement SOULET Gaetan AUNETTE 35 46 25 106
35 SUI311 Hugo STEINBECK Martin WESTERDAHI Pedro ANDRADE 28 29 50 107
36 GER1013 Peter FRÖSCHL Sabrina FRÖSCHL Martin WIESER 53 42 14 109
37 GBR610 Mark DICKER Selina DICKER James CAMPBELL & Katie BARR 78.0 BFD 18 22 118
38 NED311 Abram DE WILDE Pier DE IONGH Michiel INSINGER 42 39 40 121
39 NED414 Andre DU PON Robbert BLAUWKUIP Huib BANNIER 40 24 59 123
40 GBR720 Julia BAILEY Graham BAILEY William HERITAGE & Richard POWELL 25 63 36 124
41 GBR755 Julian SOWRY Ian OLSON Geoff BUTCHER 61 28 35 124
42 GER1035 Nico REUTER Michael OBERMAIER Leopold OBERMAIER 44 53 29 126
43 GER968 Michael SCHATTAN Peter WICKLMAYR Friederike GEPPERT 60 36 32 128
44 SWE357 Leif LARSVALL Staffan CARLSSON Ulf KJELIN 23 66 41 130
45 GBR763 Simon BARTER James BARTER Donald WILKS 39 37 54 130
46 GBR761 Gavia WILKINSON-COX Roger Hickman Vicente PINHEIRO 49 43 39 131
47 GER1135 Philipp OCKER Florian GROSSER Oliver DAVIES 21 56 56 133
48 NED411 Charlotte TEN WOLDE Gillis JONK Martin LEIFELT 30 25 78.0 RET 133
49 GBR717 Patrick GIFFORD Michael GIFFORD Andrew PRITCHARD-BARRETT 78.0 DNC 33 23 134
50 RUS81 Leonid KLEPIKOV Alexander MIRONOV Yuri SAMOYLOV 55 65 17 137
51 AUS217 Gordon INGATE David GILES Dayne SHARP 51 67 20 138
52 AUS210 Sandy ANDERSON John MONCRIEFF John LOW 47 49 46 142
53 GBR747 Stewart COLTART Catriona COLTART Toby ATACK 32 55 58 145
54 GER1071 Helmut SCHMIDT Andreas LISTL Stefan HELLRIEGEL 46 23 78.0 DSQ 147
55 AUS225 Willy PACKER Julian HARDING John HAY 78.0 BFD 44 27 149
56 GBR777 Owen PAY Alex DOBSON Nick WOOD 48 51 51 150
57 IRL198 Garry TREACY Paul MAGUIRE Don O'DOWD 37 52 63 152
58 GBR693 Timothy BLACKWELL Lisa GUY Roger GUY 31 59 68 158
59 GBR788 Robert CAMPBELL Matt WALKER Justin WAPLES 56 26 78.0 RET 160
60 SWE375 Martin PALSSON Goran ALM Johan NOREN 78.0 DSQ 35 49 162
61 JPN50 Bocci AOYAMA Tetsuya SASAKI Norio IGEI 43 54 66 163
62 GBR675 Christopher BREALY David HARRIS Brian MCKENZIE 41 70 53 164
63 GBR764 Mike HAYLES Monique HAYLES Alex MACDONALD 78.0 BFD 58 38 174
64 NED314 Rudy DEN OUTER Jeroen BURKS Lydia VERDUYN 57 47 70 174
65 FIN88 Catja EVERHALL BLOM Eeva SAUKONEN Mario WAGNER & Pille VOLMER 63 69 45 177
66 GBR753 Jono RATNAGE Ross MCKISSOCK Guy CLARABUT 66 68 47 181
67 AUS170 Ronald PACKER John LONGLEY Philippa PACKER 58 73 52 183
68 SUI294 Zuercher WALTER Oral JORDY Ruppli URS 54 72 61 187
69 SWE358 Hans LILJEBLAD John MAGNUSSON Fredrik HEIJNE 78.0 BFD 48 62 188
70 GBR660 Dave ROSS Dave BEDFORD Paul KELSEY 78.0 BFD 61 55 194
71 AUS218 Robert ALPE PETER ABRAHAM Rene NEL 64 64 67 195
72 GBR739 Nigel KAULA Teresa WILKES Simon HOWARD & Joanna RICHARDSON 67 75 57 199
73 NED393 Richard BLICKMAN Daan DIJXHOORN Nick SPAANS 78.0 BFD 62 60 200
74 NED403 Maarten KLINKENBERG Daniel GOEDKOOP Bart KLINKENBERG 65 71 65 201
75 AUS201 Raymond CHATFIELD Karen CHATFIELD Brett WATKINS 59 74 69 202
76 RUS47 Boris KHABAROV Vadim FEDOROV Elena KHABAROVA & Denis BYKOV 68 76 71 215
77 GBR633 Ron JAMES Julia WALSH Mark PETTITT 62 78.0 DNS 78.0 DNS 218
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