Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club

Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club - Overall

by Fiona Brown 14 Sep 2012 12:34 PDT 8-14 September 2012

Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup day 6 © David Brannigan / www.oceansport.ie

The 2012 Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup was brought to a close with a final race as dramatic as any Shakespearean play. Going into the day Britain's Lawrie Smith led the fleet on 31 points, Russia's Dmitry Samokhin was second on 43 points and Germany's Tommy Mueller lay third on 51 points. With no discard allowed Smith's lead was far from unassailable and Samokhin clearly had him in his sights. Mueller knew that realistically his chances of victory were slim as not only would he have to sail his socks off, but the other two boats would both need to have bad races if he was to overtake them.

The tension and excitement as the sixty strong fleet, from sixteen nations and four continents, left the dock was palpable and the boats were accompanied down to the race area by a host of spectator boats crammed with supporters keen to watch the final battle. A sudden wind shift forced Alan Crosbie to abandon his first start attempt just a few seconds before the gun. Having adjusted the course the second start was a general recall and so Crosbie went to the Z-flag for his third attempt. This time the fleet got away, but with 8 boats identified as over the line; two of these went back and were given a 20% scoring penalty, but the other six failed to return and were scored OCS.

On the line Mueller had opted for the committee boat end while Smith and Samokhin came off the centre of the line together with Smith to weather. Up the first beat Mueller struck out for the favoured right side while Smith and Samokhin traded tacks up the centre left. The two boats were clearly locked in a battle for supremacy to the exclusion of all else and meanwhile Mueller was sailing a textbook beat to round the first mark in the lead with Hoj-Jensen second, Germany's Tanja Jacobsohn third and Cameron Good from Kinsale fourth.

As the leaders streamed off down the run all eyes turned to the middle of the fleet where Samokhin had got the better of Smith. They rounded the first mark in a bunch of boats in twenty-eighth and thirty-fifth respectively putting Mueller into the overall lead with Smith second and Samokhin third. The breeze dropped off in the second half of the first run making for some tricky sailing. As Mueller stretched out his lead Smith and Samokhin continued to battle it out and as a result they lost more places and rounded the first leeward mark overlapped with Smith thirty-fourth and Samokhin thirty-fifth.

On the second beat there was a massive 20 degree right shift and at the weather mark Mueller and Hoj-Jensen continued to lead with Russia's Evgeny Braslavetz now up into third and Chris Hunt of Cornwall fourth. Smith and Samokhin had made big gains and Samokhin came through in twenty-second with Smith alongside in twenty-third. Now all Smith needed was to gain another three places and the championship would be his.

The second run was to be the deciding point of the race. The race committee had signaled a change of course and the new leeward mark was a single port rounding buoy instead of the more usual gate. Smith and Samokhin were still trading gybes and both boats lost some ground on the leg. They came into the mark together with a big gaggle of boats with Smith leading but on the outside and Samokin in the middle of the bunch. As they rounded Samokhin got a slight advantage but they were only up to twenty-seventh and twenty-ninth places. Smith now needed to make up nine places on the last beat if he was to claim the title and with the breeze going even further right it didn't look hopeful as he kept to the centre of the course while Mueller, Hoj-Jensen, Braslavetz and the main pack went right.

Yet again Smith sailed a brilliant beat and made up an impressive number of places. On the line Mueller crossed with a huge lead, Hoj-Jensen took second, Braslavetz third and Good fourth. Mueller clearly felt that Smith had done enough to win and he peeled off back to harbour apparently happy with his race but resigned to second place. However, the race was far from over and everyone was carefully counting off boats as they came to the finish. Smith did his very best and claimed a number of places, but ultimately he just ran out of runway and finished in twenty-second place giving Mueller the Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup 2012 by a single point. Mueller was blissfully unaware of his victory until the media team motored up and confirmed that he had taken the trophy for the second time.

In the overall standings Tommy Mueller, Vicent Hoesch and Michael Lipp claimed the title with 52 points. Lawrie Smith, crewed by Tim Tavinor and Joost Houweling finished second with 53 points. Russia's Dimitry Samokhin, crewed by Andrey Kirilyuk and Aleksey Bushuev finished third on 62 points. Fourth place went to Portugal's Jose Matoso sailing with Gustavo Lima and Stephen Hellriegel and in fifth was London based Klaus Diederichs crewed by Andy Beadsworth and Jamie Lea.

At the prize giving Tommy Mueller paid tribute to his crew, known in the Dragon fleet as the Bavarian Dream Team, and to his wife for her wonderful support of their campaigning. For Tommy this was a second Gold Cup win, his first being in 2002, but for Hoesch it was an incredible sixth win, two of which had been as a helmsman.

In the Corinthian all-amateur division first prize went to Kinsale Yacht Club Commodore Cameron Good sailing with Simon Furney and Henry Kingston. Remy Arnaud and his crew of Herald Arnaud and Pascal Civel from France came second and in third was Graham Bailey of the Isle of Wight crewed by Julia Bailey, Dylan Potter and Will Heritage.

The Nations Cup, for the top performing three-boat national team went to Britain, represented by Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen, Lawrie Smith and Chris Hunt. The actual trophy was awarded to Hoj-Jensen as the leading British boat in the final race.

Also concluded today was the Irish Dragon Grand Slam competition incorporating the Northern Area Championship, the Edinburgh Cup, the Irish Nationals, the Irish South Coasts and this regatta. The winner of the 2012 Irish Grand Slam was Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen with Klaus Diederichs second, Martin Byrne third, Lawrie Smith fourth and Cameron Good fifth.

Gold Cup - Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Boat	Helm	Crew	Crew 2	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	GER1123	Sinewave	Tommy Mueller	Vincent Hoesch	Michael Lipp	4	1	3	27	16	1	52
2	GBR763	Alfie	Lawrie Smith	Tim Tavinor	Joost Houweling	1	18	5	5	2	22	53
3	RUS76	Strange Little Girl	Dmitry Samokhin	Andrey Kirilyuk	Aleksey Bushuev	3	8	10	2	20	19	62
4	POR55	Drago	Jose Matoso	Gustavo Lima	Stephen Hellriegel	18	22	9	3	4	8	64
5	GBR758	Fever	Klaus Diederichs	Andy Beadsworth	Jamie Lea	13	3	15	25	3	13	72
6	GBR775	Danish Blue	Poul Richard Hoj‑Jensen	Theis Palm	Andrew Norden	2	5	34	17	13	2	73
7	HUN57	Bear	Ferenc Kis‑Szolgyemi	Tamas Kiss	Karoly Vezer	14	7	4	7	24	23	79
8	DEN406	African Queen	Jorgen Schonherr	Jan Eli Gravad	Axel Waltersdorp	6	2	28	9	9	26	80
9	UKR7	Bunker Boys	Lars Hendriksen	Sergey Pugachev	Georgil Leonchuk	5	16	25	15	6	15	82
10	UKR8	Bunker Prince	Evgen Braslavetz	Sergey Timokhov	Igor Sidorov	17	11	30	4	21	3	86
11	IRL201	Jaguar	Martin Byrne	Adam Winkelmanr	Pedro Andrade	11	4	33	8	27	7	90
12	IRL211	Little Fella	Cameron Good	Simon Furney	Henry Kingston	7	19	19	13	30	4	92
13	GBR768	Dark & Stormy	Christopher Hunt	Mark Hart	Mark Daly	10	20	22	6	32	5	95
14	IRL216	Chimaera	Andrew Craig	Brian Mathews	Mark Pettitt	24	29	14	12	1	20	100
15	RUS27	Annapurna	Anatoly Loginov	Vadim Statsenko	Alexander Shalagin	8	15	6	21	15	47	112
16	GBR720	Aimee	Graham Bailey	Julia Bailey	Dylan Potter, Will Heritage	30	25	1	1	47	10	114
17	GER1125	Dragoni Holly	Stephan Link	Frank Butzmann	Peter Froschi	15	17	13	24	31	18	118
18	IRL206	Cloud	Clare Hogan	Mel Collins	Laura Dillon, Graeme Grant	33	41	2	19	7	21	123
19	FRA396	Legend	Remy Arnaud	Herald Arnaud	Pascal Civel	28	13	27	23	5	28	124
20	RUS2	Alisa	Alexander Ezhkov	Alexey Grigoriev	Vladimir Krutskikh	23	10	21	22	18	39	133
21	AUS222	Puff III	Richard Lynn	Ian Olson	Roger Hickman	9	30	32	30	11	26	138
22	GBR761	Jerboa	Gavia Wilkinson‑Cox	Martin Payne	Rui Boia	34	48	18	14	12	12	138
23	IRL210	Diva	James Matthews	Rick Johnson	Rob Johnson	25	26	8	33	25	30	147
24	GER1042	Puck III	Philip Dohse	Christian Moeller	Oliver Mose	12	12	52	11	10	61	158
25	DEN266	My Way	Frank Berg	Konrad Florian	Jens Maklund	22	14	35	20	8	61	160
26	IRL213	Whisper	Mark Dicker	Nelson Moore	Sean Murphy	21	27	46	42	14	11	161
27	GBR708	Rumours	Simon Strauss	David Horgan	John Wolfe, Harvey Tucker	27	24	43	10	29	34	167
28	GER1121	Caroroo	Reemt Reemtsma	Petra Reemtsma	Lorenz Jensen	19	6	38	26	23	61	173
29	IRL214	Kin	Simon Brien	Jack Brien	Mark Brien	29	44	7	16	53	31	180
30	SWE345	Ming	Jacob Wallenberg	Henrik Baltscheffsky	Stellan Gross	49	23	42	18	26	24	182
31	GER1113	GP	Tanja Jacobsohn	Bernhard Jacobsohn	Jan Scharffetter	45	46	11	28	48	6	184
32	IRL188	Grey Hare	Philip Bendon	James Bendon	Ben Fusco	39	37	12	52	19	25	184
33	GBR766	Quicksilver V	Robert Campbell	Justin Waples	Rene Nel	47	35	20	32	33	17	184
34	MON2	Jeanie	Jens Rathsack	Mario Wagner	Stefan Waack	26	9	40	35	17	61	188
35	IRL198	Dublin Bay	Gary Treacy	Paul Maguire	Don O'Dowd	16	45	51	36	44	9	201
36	GBR774	Tigger	Thomas Olrog	Thomas Wilton	Nicola Wilton	44	21	31	44	28	33	201
37	GBR760	Hands Off	Michael Holmes	Andy Biddle	Peter Marchant	36	36	24	40	22	44	202
38	GER1110	Streumer	Norbert Ohst	Stefan Abel	Mark‑Raimondo Bayer	42	34	36	37	34	43	226
39	IRL195	D‑Cision	Philip Perkins	Richard Kidney	Declan Hayes	41	31	50	31	35	42	230
40	ANT10	Northside Dragon	Jay Bourke	David Cagney	Tommy Murphy	35	28	23	34	52	61	233
41	GBR742	Flotation	Richard Davies	Clive Hurn	Donald Milne	40	33	39	45	61	16	234
42	FIN88	Step By Step	Eeva Saukkonen	Catja Everhall‑Blom	Outi Kivimaki	37	32	54	46	42	32	243
43	IRL156	Mar‑J	Adrian Bendon	Shawn Kingston	Eoghan O'Mahoney	31	40	56	29	45	47	248
44	IRL157	Tenacious	Anthony O'Neill	Eoghan O'Neill	David Dwyer	52	38	47	47	38	46	268
45	IRL159	Zu	Tim Pearson	Conor Grimley	Matt Minch, Choryna Kiely	38	54	16	61	39	61	269
46	HKG46	Davinloong	Phyllis Chang	Lars Gelbjerg‑Hansen	Selin Dicker,Charles Street	46	52	17	54	40	61	270
47	IRL197	HY Brasil	Peter O'Reilly	Francis Rhatigan	Eddie Tingle	50	51	45	53	37	36	272
48	GER1018	Joy	Jakob Bergbauer	Andreas Moser	Andreas Hollwich	53	47	53	38	55	27	273
49	NED393	Cobweb	Richard Blickman	Daan Djixhoorn	Nick Spaans	20	50	44	48.5	50	61	273.5
50	IRL161	Sir Ossis of the River	Denis Bergin	Con Murphy	Paul Burke	32	49	49	51	54	40	275
51	IRL145	Jee	Tim Cronin	Caroline Matthews	Harry Lewis	61	58	26	58	36	38	277
52	GBR764	Naiad	Mike Hayles	Monique Hayles	Nicholas Hayles	58	42	48	39	49	41	277
53	GBR690	Blue Movie	David Atkinson	John Outhwaite	Steve Watson	55	53	55	50	46	29	288
54	GBR633	Fei‑Lin's Flirtation	Ron James	Julia Walsh	Nigel Young	57	56	37	41	61	37	289
55	GBR590	Mystere	James Peters	Dave Cummings	Rob Riddell	43	61	29	55	43	61	292
56	HKG50	Phyloong	Lowell Chang	Simon Pickering	Nick Burns	56	39	57	59	41	45	297
57	GBR777	Seabird	Owen Pay	Jon Mortimer	Steven Richardson	51	43	59	43	51	61	308
58	IRL163	Valkyrie	Paddy Bishop	Mike Walsh	Cormac O'Carroll	54	61	41	48.5	61	48	313.5
59	AUS206	The Old Bailey	Sarah Ross	Dave Ross	Insinger Mickiel	48	55	58	56	56	61	334
60	IRL40	Leprechaun	Dan O'Connor	Paul Moriarty	Bruce Noble, Norman McDonald	61	57	60	57	61	61	357

Corinthians - Overall Results:

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Helm	Crew	Crew 2	Crew 3	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	IRL211	Little Fella	Cameron Good	Simon Furney	Henry Kingston		1	4	7	2	8	1	23
2	FRA396	Legend	Remy Arnaud	Herald Arnaud	Pascal Civel		7	2	9	6	1	8	33
3	GBR720	Aimee	Graham Bailey	Julia Bailey	Dylan Potter	Will Heritage	9	7	1	1	18	3	39
4	IRL210	Diva	James Matthews	Rick Johnson	Rob Johnson		6	8	3	10	5	10	42
5	DEN266	My Way	Frank Berg	Konrad Florian	Jens Maklund		5	3	11	5	2	27	53
6	GER1121	Caroroo	Reemt Reemtsma	Petra Reemtsma	Lorenz Jensen		3	1	13	7	4	27	55
7	SWE345	Ming	Jacob Wallenberg	Henrik Baltscheffsky	Stellan Gross		20	6	16	4	6	6	58
8	IRL188	Grey Hare	Philip Bendon	James Bendon	Ben Fusco		12	14	4	22	3	7	62
9	GBR766	Quicksilver V	Robert Campbell	Justin Waples	Rene Nel		18	13	8	9	9	5	62
10	IRL214	Kin	Simon Brien	Jack Brien	Mark Brien		8	18	2	3	22	11	64
11	GBR774	Tigger	Thomas Olrog	Thomas Wilton	Nicola Wilton		16	5	10	15	7	13	66
12	IRL198	Dublin Bay	Gary Treacy	Paul Maguire	Don O'Dowd		2	19	21	11	16	2	71
13	IRL195	D‑Cision	Philip Perkins	Richard Kidney	Declan Hayes		14	9	20	8	11	15	77
14	GER1110	Streumer	Norbert Ohst	Stefan Able	Mark‑Raimondo Bayer		15	12	12	12	10	16	77
15	GBR742	Flotation	Richard Davies	Clive Hurn	Mike Donald		13	11	14	16	27	4	85
16	FIN88	Step By Step	Eeva Saukkonen	Catja Everhall‑Blom	Outi Kivimaki		10	10	22	17	15	12	86
17	IRL157	Tenacious	Anthony O'Neill	Eoghan O'Neill	David Dwyer		22	15	18	18	12	17	102
18	IRL159	Zu	Tim Pearson	Conor Grimley	Matt Minch	Choryna Kiely	11	23	5	27	13	27	106
19	GBR764	Naiad	Mike Hayles	Monique Hayles	Nicholas Hayles		25	16	19	13	19	14	106
20	NED393	Cobweb	Richard Blickman	Daan Djixhoorn	Nick Spaans		4	20	17	19.5	20	27	107.5
21	HKG46	Davinloong	Phyllis Chang	Lars Gelbjerg‑Hansen	Selin Dicker,Charles Street		17	21	6	23	14	27	108
22	GBR690	Blue Movie	David Atkinson	John Outhwaite	Steve Watson		24	22	23	21	17	9	116
23	GBR777	Seabird	Owen Pay	Jon Mortimer	Steven Richardson		21	17	25	14	21	27	125
24	IRL163	Valkyrie	Paddy Bishop	Mike Walsh	Cormac O'Carroll		23	27	15	19.5	27	18	129.5
25	AUS206	The Old Bailey	Sarah Ross	Dave Ross	Insinger Mickiel		19	24	24	24	23	27	141
26	IRL40	Leprechaun	Dan O'Connor	Paul Moriarty	Bruce Noble	Norman McDonald	27	25	26	25	27	27	157

The event website is www.dragongoldcup2012.com but note that the 2013 Dragon Gold Cup will be held in Douarnenez, Brittany, France from 16-24 August and further information about this event is available from www.intdragon.org