Rob Campbell President of the International Dragon Association

After a very sunny 10 days in Skagen Rob Campbell, President of the International Dragon Association reflects on this year’s Dragon Gold Cup “The Gold Cup is a very special event devised to encourage competition between nations and I was personally pleased that there were 16 nations represented; which just to demonstrate that the class is thriving on a broad international basis.

The Nations Cup which has been competed for since 2000 has been instrumental in encouraging new nations to join the Dragon family and compete on an international level. This is the first time that an East European Country has won the trophy and that can only encourage others and improve standards for us all.

This was clearly a light airs regatta which involved a massive amount of concentration for everyone, particularly with the long courses associated with the Gold Cup. Next year the Gold Cup moves to Marstrand near Gothenburg in Sweden which are very well proven waters for major international regattas. I think that the whole class is very much looking forward to that.

The Royal Danish Yacht Club

Morten Lorenzen, Managing Director of the Royal Danish Yacht Club (KDY), hosts of this year’s Dragon Gold Cup had this to say regarding the event “Unusually for Skagen (an average of only 7 days a year without ‘sail-able’ wind) the wind gave us some issues but I think that we have succeeded in delivering a quality event focused on the sailors and I sense that we may have put Skagen on the World map of sailing”.

Jan Schluter Project Manager for the event on behalf of (KDY) had the following thoughts on the regatta “Working with the Dragon class has been great fun and I sincerely hope to have the possibility of working with the class again. This event is one that we (KDY) can be very proud of and as far as I’ve heard from the sailors they have had a fantastic week. I know for sure that the team delivering the event have had a lot of fun doing this. We are all tired but happy.”

Principle Race Officer

The man with the weight of the World on his shoulders this week however was International Principle Race Officer Christian Lerche and he had this to say in his duel with the unusually fickle Skagen weather. “It has been a fantastic week in Skagen I think we got the races that we could get out so such tricky and light summer conditions.

I think we had great deal of luck when we took chances/made decisions and everything worked and we had the races we planned. When we decided to stay in the harbour it was the right thing to do and when we decided to race that worked as well. Many sailors have said that they have enjoyed the racing in Skagen this week and they have thanked the entire race management team for the efforts they have made and I am extremely happy …now!”

Results of Race 4

(1) My Way Frank - Berg - DEN266
(2) Kite - Dr Dirk Oldenburg - GER1014
(3) Fei Lin - Ron James - GBR633
(4) Lil - Peter Warrer - DEN380
(5) Nanoq - HKH Crown Prince Frederik - DEN336
(6) Duel - Peter Due - DEN353
(7) Billy Boy - Marcus Brennecke - GER1080
(8) CCCP - Ruslana Taran - UKR9
(9) Troika - Tim Ladehof - GER1078

Results of Race 5

(1) Men at Work - Jens Christensen - DEN393
(2) Bunker Boys - Evgeniy Braslavets - UKR8
(3) Elsa - Jesper Bendix - DEN3
(4) One More - Gaetan Hannecart - BEL76
(5) Linnea - Stefan Winberg - SWE338
(6) CCCP - Ruslana Taran - UKR9
(7) DUEL - Peter Due - DEN353
(8) AnnaPurna - Anatoly Loginov - RUS27
(9) Faskerbaten - Peter Kolni - SWE328
(10) Nanoq - HKH Crown Prince Frederik - DEN336

Overall Results:

Nations Cup:
Winning Country: Ukraine
Winner of the Nations Cup: UKR8 Evgeniy Braslavets (Helm) crewed by Igor Sidorov and Sergey Timokhov

2009 Dragon Gold Cup:

(1) CCCP - Ruslana Taran - UKR9
(2) Bunker Queen - Lars Hendrikson - UKR7
(3) Annapurna - Anatoly Loginov - RUS27

Gold Cup 2010:
Next Year’s Dragon Gold Cup will be held on the Waters off Marstrand near Gothenburg – Sweden.