Dragon European Champion Pedro Andrade and his team of top dinghy sailors claimed the Dragon Grand Prix Cannes.
Andrade with Goncalo Ribeiro and Joao Vidinha da Costa plus youngster Kacey Marfo claimed first blood in the 2019 Dragon European Cup series by three points from Thomas Müller.
Grant Gordon’s second place was enough to secure him third overall, a single point behind Müller.
Back ashore Andrade was fulsome in his praise of his fellow competitors and his crew:
“I think I have to say that I profited from the misfortune of some of my biggest opponents. First of all Grant Gordon was leading a race and the wind dropped off and the race committee had to abandon, and then the next day he was black flagged”
“And again today Tommy is sailing so well and at one stage at the end of the first beat I thought that was it and we weren’t going to catch him at all. But we had a good run, we were quite fast downwind, and then he had an issue on board with the genoa and we profited again.”
“The boys I am sailing with haven’t sailed much in the Dragon, but they are fantastic sailors and I am really happy with them and it made my life easier.”
In the Corinthian Division, Germany’s Tanja Jacobsohn, a former 470 World Champion, sailing with husband Bernard Jacobsohn and Jan Scharrfesser, put in another great performance to take the Corinthian overall title from fellow German Maximillian Dohse with Sweden’s Karl-Gustaf Löhr third.
Vasily Senatorov also invited all Dragon sailors to join him at a very special Dragon 90th Anniversary Regatta, which is to be hosted by the Yacht Club Sanremo on Italy’s beautiful Liguria coast from 5 to 13 October 2019.
Already 120 teams have confirmed their entry and the final attendance is expected to be considerably higher
Dragon Grand Prix Cannes 2019 Final Top Ten
1st POR84 – Pedro Rebelo de Andrade – 6, (14), 1, 1, 6 = 14 pts
2nd GER33 – Thomas Müller – 4, 4, 2, (12), 7 = 17 pts
3rd GBR820 – Grant Gordon – 1, 7, 8, (BFD 52), 2 = 18 pts
4th GER1170 – Marcus Brennecke – 7, 3, 5, 5, (13) = 20 pts
5th SUI311 – Hugo Stenbeck – 5, (19), 10, 2, 9 = 26 pts
6th RUS76 – Dmitry Samokhin – 9, 5, 9, (11), 4 = 27 pts
7th GER1162 – Stephan Link – 15, (21), 6, 7, 1 = 29 pts
8th NED412 – Pieter Heerema – 10, 1, 7, (22), 15 = 33 pts
9th RUS77 – Yvgeny Braslavets – 2, (26), 22, 8, 3 = 35 pts
10th RUS27 – Anatoly Loginov – 14, 6, (21), 4, 12 = 36 pts
Full results available here
IDA Press Officer Fiona Brown