Clairvoyant pulls ahead

After another light day on the water at the Aberdeen Dragon Europeans in Cowes

The 41 competitors in the Aberdeen Dragon European Championship, sponsored by Aberdeen Asset Management, sailed a tough fourth race on this the third day of this extremely competitive championship. With four of the seven races now completed the discard comes into play and in addition there has been a correction to the results published previously with the new results using the correct bonus points scoring system. This does not make any significant change in positions but has changed the points spread which could prove crucial in this hotly contested event.

In the overall standings Denmark and Russia are the dominant nations. Lars Hendriksen of Denmark, sailing with Will Willett and Martin Leifeldt aboard Edward Sawyer's Clairvoyant, leads the championship on 16 points while Germany's Thomas Muller, with crew Martin 'Stavros' Payne and Mario Wagner, lie second on 26 points. Just 6.7 points separate third to ninth places which are held by Valdemar Bandolowski (DEN 30 pts), Bo Selko (DEN 30.7 pts), Georgy Shayduko (RUS 32 pts), Maksim Semerkanov (RUS 33.7 pts), Frank Berg (DEN 36 pts), Alexander Ezhkov (RUS 36 pts) and Jakob Bergbauer (GER 36.7 pts) respectively. Ireland's Simon Brien rounds out the top ten overall on 43 points.

For the third day running the Solent provided sparkling conditions and the Royal Yacht Squadron Race Committee got racing underway as the wind began to build from the west. Championship Dragon racing is renowned not only for the exceptional quality of the sailing but for the gruelling length of its races and today was no exception with the leading boat taking over two hours to complete the five leg course.

With the championship at its mid-point this was to be one of the closest races so far and there was a heightened air of tension from the first signal. At the first weather mark Sergey Pigiugin's team from the Ukraine led the fleet closely followed by Jakob Bergbauer of Germany and Lars Hendriksen of Denmark Peter Nicholson, one of the elder statesmen of Dragon sailing and a Cowes fleet member, rounded fourth with Louis Urvois of France fifth and double Olympic gold medallist Valdemar Bandolowski of Denmark sixth. Georgy Shayduko was the first Russian to round in seventh, followed by Christian Boillot of France, Finland's Lauri Rechardt and then Brits Rob Campbell, Keith Skelsey and Gavia Wilkinson-Cox.

On the first run Pigiugin, Bergbauer, Hendriksen and Nicholson held their positions, but behind them Shayduko had the bit between his teeth and began clawing back places to round the leeward mark in fifth ahead of Bandolowski, Urvois and Boillot. Gavia Wilkinson-Cox was also on a mission and rounded ninth.

On the next beat Shayduko and Wilkinson-Cox kept the pressure on and at the second weather mark Pigiugin continued to lead from Bergbauer but Shayduko moved into third with Nicholson fourth as Hendriksen dropped back to fifth ahead of Urvois and Wilkinson-Cox.

On the final run Hendriksen dug deep and showed impressive boat speed to pull back up into second hard on Pigiugin's heels as they rounded the last mark. They took off up the right hand side but a few minutes in Hendriksen made his decisive move and tacked away. Faced with the dilemma of covering Hendriksen or the fleet Pigiugin stood on, a move which was to be his undoing. At the line it was Hendriksen by 17 seconds from Pigiugin with Bergbauer third, Bandlowski fourth, Shayduko fifth and Nicholson sixth. Ireland's Simon Brien sailed a lovely final beat moving up from tenth to seventh with Semerkanov in eighth, Campbell ninth, Urvois tenth and Wilkinson-Cox eleventh.

Speaking after racing today International Dragon Association Chairman David Dale was delighted with the regatta to date. "The quality of racing at this year's Aberdeen Dragon European Championship is outstanding and every race has been thrilling to watch. The hard work put in by the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Cowes Dragon Fleet has paid of handsomely and it is wonderful to see so many friends from around the globe enjoying racing here in Cowes. Of course none of this would have been possible without our title sponsor, Aberdeen Asset Management, for which we are extremely grateful."

Alongside the main competition our anonymous selection committee have found some worthy winners for the Aberdeen Dragon European Championship Dubarry Team of the Day Award. On Tuesday the award was presented to Mike Hayles and his team Alex MacDonald and Des Davies aboard GBR681 for their heroic determination to compete in this regatta despite the loss of their own boat which sank without trace during the Edinburgh Cup just a week ago. Today's award goes to Lauri Rechardt and his team of Risto Ryti and Nicola McLennan sailing FIN 63, who rounded the first weather mark in 9th place and then conducted a comprehensive fleet review to finish 36th - a performance truly worthy of the Irish Dubarry Team of the Day Award!

Results:

Pos	Sail No	Boat	R1	R2	R3	R4	Tot	Net
1	DEN138	Clairvoyant	13	13	3	0	29	16
2	GER996	Sinewave	0	10	16	23	49	26
3	DEN368	Flawless	48	14	8	8	78	30
4	DEN372	BB King	34	0	5.7	25	64.7	31
5	RUS44	Red October	3	19	29	10	61	32
6	RUS-77	Diamond	21	5.7	14	14	54.7	34
7	DEN66	My Way	19	17	0	27	63	36
8	RUS2	Alisa	8	8	44	20	80	36
9	GER951	Saphir	16	15	37	5.7	73.7	37
10	IRL193	Kin	27	3	31	13	74	43
11	FRA300	Ar Youleg	12	25	19	16	71.7	47
12	POR-48	El Gringo	18	26	12	40	95.7	56
13	GBR 682	Ecstatic	14	18	39	24	95	56
14	RUS-1	Godfather	17	12	28	38	94.7	57
15	GBR705	Danish Blue	31	16	13	32	92	60
16	GBR702	Rascal Rat	5.7	35	24	35	99.7	65
17	IRL176	Phantom	35	23	10	34	102	67
18	SWE 336	Pilen	30	39	15	22	106	67
19	DEN380	Lil	20	22	26	31	99	68
20	GBR684	Hand of Fortune	23	41	18	28	110	69
21	UKR777	Transbunker	42	43	25	3	113	70
22	GBR716	Jerboa	36	37	17	17	107	70
23	RUS25	Versiya 3.0	29	30	22	19	100	70
24	GBR653	Njord	10	34	27	37	108	71
25	RUS34	Russo Orient Express	24	24	23	26	97	71
26	GBR688	Quicksilver III	39	29	30	15	113	74
27	MON-001	Munegu	44	20	36	18	118	74
28	GBR693	Virago	41	32	32	12	117	76
29	GBR708	Rumours	28	27	21	36	112	76
30	GBR709	Kuling	15	45	20	48	128	80
31	RUS3	Bars	33	21	43	29	126	83
32	GBR669	Supremacy	22	33	33	33	121	88
33	GBR660	Aimee	37	44	34	21	136	92
34	GBR610 / 788	Rackham	26	36	38	30	130	92
35	GBR710 / GBR679	Avalanche	25	38	35	43	141	98
36	GBR656 / GBR648	Apalala	32	28	46	45	151	105
37	GBR 700	Princess Jalina	38	31	41	41	151	110
38	GBR681 / GBR690	Stampede	40	47	45	39	171	124
39	FIN63	Nenya	43	42	40	42	167	124
40	GBR706	Chips	46	40	42	44	172	126
41	GBR593	Flamboyant	45	46	48	46	185	137