Dragon Italian Championships @ San Remo March 2016 5 Apr 2016
An impressive 33 Dragons competed for the International Italian Dragon Cup, that had 15 “Corinthian” boats in the line-up. There were 5 British entries that included David Hall, Geoff Butcher and Luke Malissa in FlameAgain. The Brits all came aboard Bolero for a wine and Pizza evening social after the first days sailing.
On Thursday the first day of racing, the wind was extremely gusty, around Force 6. Six of the Dragons did not take part including Fei-lin’s Flirtation, Bear, and FlameAgain. Jerboa did well to finish 11th and Naiad 23rd. The UAE team Bunker King and Bunker Queen dominated this race together with Russia 27 Annapurna. They were to show the same consistency throughout the Regatta with Makus Wieser finishing with 4 Firsts, a Second and a discarded third.
The weather for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th day’s racing followed a pattern of windless mornings with excellent Force 3 – 4 racing conditions in the afternoon, warm sunshine, blue skies and blue Mediterranean waters. The local Casino sponsored the prizes for the first day, and the 3 leading boats took away €3,500 of Casino chips. On day 2, during the evening with Prosecco and Canapés at the Royal Hotel, a 1975 Classic Fiat was raffled and won by a local Italian boat.
Jerboa again sailed extremely well in this last of the Mediterranean series, finishing 7th overall; now lying 2nd in the International Ranking. Ron James in Fei-Lin’s Flirtation was 16th overall. In the Corinthian division, Francois Lamaignere in Poulice FRA 404, was 1st, Karl Lohr in High Times SWE 389 was 2nd, Mike Hayles in Naiad was 8th – one place ahead of FlameAgain, who is staying on in San Remo for the next San Remo Dragon regatta to take place 14th, and 15th May.
David Hall
FlameAgain GBR617