The nice summer weather with constant windcalm did not favour the organizers and participants of the Erste Private Banking European Dragon Championship in Balatonkenese, Hungary. On Monday morning the first race could not be started as planned because of the absence of the wind. In the early afternoon it seemed as though there would be some chance but the wind was not so assiduous as the competitors. The race was finally abandoned so the field returned to the port of Balatonkenese. Racing will continue on Tuesday

No race could be started on Tuesday, the second day of the Erste Private Banking European Dragon Championship 2010, in Balatonkenese, Hungary. The weather is hot, the sun is shining, however, there is not any air movement above the surface of lake Balaton. The organizers expect a wind of about 6 knots for Wednesday, so the chances are good to start the first race tomorrow.

First race of the Dragon Europeans was started at 13:55 Wednesday in Balatonkenese, Hungary.

In a southerly breeze about 6-8 knots the first race of Dragon Europeans was won by Markus Wieser in front of Anatoly Loginov and Evgen Braslavets.

Second race of the Europeans was again won by Markus Wieser in front of the German Stephan Link and Anatoly Loginov from Russia

The Dragon Europeans third race started at 17:35 in 8-9 knots southerly breeze. Evgen Braslavets won the race, second place went to Stephan Link, third to Tim Tavinor.

The third day began with a postponement again. But it was worth waiting: at about 12.30 the expected Southerly breeze arrived. PRO Gert Schmidleitner managed to start the first race – after one general recall with black flag – at 13.50. Markus Wieser proved to be calmest. At the first mark he was 12th, at the gate already 3rd, and after a duel with Evgen Braslavets he won the race.

The breeze of about 8 to 9 knots held on the whole afternoon. The race management decided to start right from the finish line which enabled two more races for the day (the sailing instructions have been amended accordingly). The title holder mastered the second race even better. He made a good start, and came up to mark one as second. Surprisingly, Ron James lead the fleet. However, at the gate, Transbunker Team’s German ace was already first and managed to lead the fleet into the finish.

The third race was started from the finish line again. The Southerly hold on and saw Evgen Braslavets to make a start-finish win. Wieser worked himself up from place 25 to 13 which gives him a comfortable lead in the overall ranking of 8 point to second Stephan Link (GER 1036). Third ranked is Anatoly Loginov.

‘We had two very good races, it was all about tactical fights and it was a pleasure for us to sail like that. In the last race we had a perfect start but chose the wrong side on the first beat, so we had to fight back and save our first place. Very good crew work and good tactics calls from my guys Sergey and Matti. We enjoy sailing on this lake together very much!! Race committee did a fantastic job to get three races today’, told Markus Wieser. Answering the question if they were optimistic about the upcoming days, he said, ‘We have to concentrate on each race and be patient.’

Fifth rece - Mikhail Apukhtin from Russia won the 5th race of the Dragon Europeans in Balatonkenese, Hungary on Thursday afternoon. Second place went to Peter Fröschl from Germany and the third to Tamas Kelemen from Hungary. The race committee plans to start the 6th race immediately.

June 11th, 2010 – Defending European Champion, Markus Wieser won the title again in Balatonkenese, Hungary on Friday. Markus made a perfect start, sailed to the first mark as second and kept calm throughout the whole race. In the end he finished as third, and won the Championship.

PRO Gert Schmidleitner started the race after one general recall under blackflag at 11.35 in a Southern breeze of 10 to 12 knots which caused a fairly choopy water close to the port. As this was the last race and only one race has been scheduled for the day, the first beat was quite long with 2.1 nautical miles.

Markus Wieser made a secure start from the middle of the line and came up as 2nd to the first mark. His direct opponent, Anatoly Loginov, was not among the first 30, so from that time he only had to sail into the finish.

The race was won by RUS 90 with Dmitry Berezkin, who came up with that victory to the second place in the overall ranking. The third place went to Anatoly Loginov, who worked himself up to place 13 in the 7th race.

Results