Eight miles to cover, all sails up, a magnificent show on the opening day for the classics: the big J Class designed by Charles E. Nicholson opened the party for the hundred boats participating to the 34th edition of the Régates Royales-Trophée in a light easterly/south-easterly of ten to twelve knots.

Shamrock V finished in a bit more than 1 hour and twenty minutes, before Teewa 5 and the Tofinou 9.50 Speedbird both competing in the Spirit of Tradition division. But on corrected time it was the brand new Dilong (a Dragon hull equipped with a gaff rig) owned by Jacques Fauroux, Catleya to get the top spot.

The Dilong concept, developed by Jacques Fauroux, well known naval architect, the navigator Jacques Lalanne and Christian Boillot, double french Dragon Champion, is to fit a powerful gaff rig on Dragon hulls, old and new.

The gaff rig in carbon fibre, allows to carry a significant sail area of 49m2 upwind and 80m2 downwind, boosting the performance of the boat in light conditions. This will be of particular importance in regions like the Mediterranean or on lakes.

Two Dilong versions will be available. The old and numerous Dragon wooden hulls could be transformed into Dilong and benefit from a new breath of life. New hulls, in strip planking, cold moulded or GRP, will be manufactured by several european boatyards.

And the 43 Dragons finally found the right conditions, albeit quite tricky for tacticians, to finish two windward/leeward races on the Golfe Juan bay. With the Iles de Lerins shadow and a southerly breeze of around six to eight knots all the crews opted for the left hand side of the course.

If the first race had to be abandoned because the wind completely died away, the second race was won by Russian Anatoly Loginov (Annapurna) followed by his countryman Vassily Senatorov (I feel Good), while the second race went to one of the few female skippers in the fleet, UK's Gavia Wilkinson-Cox (Jerboa) followed by ever-consistent Danish crew led by Soren Pehrsson (Blue Lady) and the reigning champion Guiseppe Duca (Cloud) from Italy.

After three races the overall scoreboard is led by the Danish at 12 points, the Italian with 13 points and the Russian at 19 because of a not so brilliant second race of the day. In fourth Germany's Helmut Schmidt at 20 points.