Sergey Pugachev’s Bunker Prince with helmsman Yevgeni Braslavets, gold medallist in the 470 class at 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and bowman Sergey Timokhov won the first race of the Paul & Shark Trophy, International Dragon Cup.
Only one race was completed in the light wind on day 1 of the event organised by Italy’s Yacht Club Sanremo and one of the key events of the season for the Dragon class.
“Racing was rather difficult today because it was quite choppy, the wind was light and made our life not easy. We were happy because we won the fist race, in the second one we were leading but the race committee took the good decision as the wind dropped completely.” Said Braslavets.
Second was German team Khaleesi, led by Nicola Friesen – one of the two female skippers in the fleet together with Britain’s Gavia Wilkinson-Cox on Jerboa- teaming up with London 2012 Star silver medallist Frithjof Kleen and Vincent Hoesch.
On place was Finland’s Paloma skippered by Sami Salomaa while in seventh and eighth position two of the most accredited teams for the final title: UK’s Blue Haze with helmsman Ivan Bradbury and Annapurna skippered by Anatoly Loginov from Russia.
International Dragon – Paul & Shark Trophy after Race 1 (33 entries)
1st ITA77 BUNKER PRINCE, YEVGGENII BRASLAVETS, SERGEY PUGACHEV, SERGEY TIMOKHOV
2nd GER1207 KHALEESI, NICOLA FRIESEN, VINCENT HOESCH, FRITHJOF KLEENNRV
3rd FIN91 PALOMA, SAMI SALOMAA, KALLE PIHL, JARI BREMERHSK
4th DEN408 FLAWLESS, STIG LASSEN, SOREN HVALSOE, CARSTEN HEYDRAGOER
5th SUI311 SOPHIE RACING, HUGO STENBERG, BERNARDO FREITAS, MARTIN WESTERDAHLSN
6th SUI313 FREEDIRK OLDENBURG, D.ZYCHI, M.CHODUBSKISNST
7th GBR375 BLUE HAZE, IVAN BRADBURY, LARS HENDRIKSEN, GEORGE LEONCHEK
8th RUS27 ANNAPURNA, ANATOLY LOGINOV, VADIM STATSENKO, ALEXANDER SHALAGINYCC
9th ITA56 FAFNIR, ALBERTO MARCONI, ALBINO FRAVEZZI, ALBERTO CORNELIYCI
10th GER1113 FANTOMAS, THOMAS SCHERER, STEFAN STRAUCH, STEFAN HENBEUGER