Dragon Edinburgh Cup at Royal Cornwall Yacht Club - Day 2

Racing on day two of the Dragon Edinburgh Cup © Fiona Brown / www.fionabrown.com

Racing on day two of the Dragon Edinburgh Cup © Fiona Brown / www.fionabrown.com

Sponsored By Aberdeen Asset Management

It was all change at the top of the leader board on day two of the Dragon Edinburgh Cup, sponsored by Aberdeen Asset Management and hosted by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club. As the crews faced shifty light to moderate northerly winds the race committee did sterling work to produce two excellent courses that allow some truly nail biting competition amongst this highly competitive fleet.

With four races now completed in the six race series Rob Campbell, sailing GBR743 Quicksilver IV with John Torrance and Matt Walker, has taken over the lead by a margin of just one point. American Bill Hardesty, sailing GBR723 Gorgeous Worgeous with owner Quentin Strauss and Nigel Young, has moved up from fourth into second, while, overnight leader Andrew Craig, sailing IRL192 Chimaera with Pedro Andrade and Brian Matthew, has dropped down into third overall, although boats both count 19 points and are only separated on count-back. Len Jones, sailing GBR708 Rumours with Jamie Lea and Jeremy Jordan, has dropped from third to fourth while Tim Tavinor, sailing GBR744 Biff with Nicola and Thomas Wilton, had a very steady day to jump from 11th to fifth.

Race three was heavily dictated by the need to keep out of the ebbing tide forcing everyone off to the right side of the beat as race winner Gavia Wilkinson-Cox, sailing GBR716 Jerboa with Mark Hart and Mark Daly, explains. "We got a good start and went a short way on starboard before tacking over and going long haul on port. We were sailing very close to Bill [Hardesty] and went hard right with him and in fact we slightly overstood, but Bill went on further still and lost out. We rounded the first weather mark just behind Tim [Tavinor] together with Owen [Pay] and going down the run we managed to break through to round the leeward mark first ahead of Tim."

"Coming back up the second beat we maintained our lead until about two thirds of the way up. Tim had gone further left and when we came back to cross tacks with them they were actually ahead of us. We traded some really close tacks and as we approached the second weather mark they were coming in on starboard and we were on port and they tacked underneath us quite close to the mark and we rolled them.

"We then came into the mark nose to nose with Owen who had come up the left hand side. We rounded with him and rolled him but I had a complete tangle in the mainsheet which prevented me from bearing away so we had to stay right and the rest of them got in a bit of a scuffle giving us a clear lane all the way down. We managed to stay clear and were mighty relieved when they shortened the course at the end of the run. It's a really competitive fleet and it's fabulous to sail good courses and be able to focus on tactical big course racing."

As Gavia and Tim Tavinor crossed the line in first and second respectively Owen Pay was having a tougher time and struggled to fend off the chasing pack. First Andrew Craig, then Etienne Lafon, sailing FRA381 Ginkgo with Jean Claude Roumaillac and Alain Jacob, got past him and then as they approached the line Ron James and Julia Walsh, sailing GBR633 Fei-Lin's Flirtation with Axel Waltersdorph, also slipped through leaving Owen in a very disappointing sixth. His one consolation was that he did manage to fend off Bill Hardesty who finished just behind him in seventh.

Race four was won by Rob Campbell although he had to battle Bill Hardesty most of the way round the course to achieve it. Rob looked back on the race saying, "Today was another day of perfect sailing conditions. Winds were a little bit lighter; sometimes we had all three on the weather rail, some times only two, and we had good conditions all day. In the second race we felt there was a bit of port bias on the line and we started at the pin end and were actually able to tack quite quickly across the fleet so clearly we were right and that got us away cleanly. The tide was still ebbing although it was near the end of the ebb which caused it to pay significantly to go right to get the shelter from the tide coming out of the Falmouth River which got us into a nice lead. Bill and Quentin were giving us a hard time all the way round and in fact did get past us briefly on the second beat but we took the risk of going further right than them and it paid. On the last run there was a 25 degree wind shift which really meant you couldn't effectively go right because left wasn't that far off the lay line so it became a one sided third beat but that shift only took place when we were two thirds of the way down the run so there wasn't time to shift the marks."

Whilst Rob Campbell and Bill Hardesty battled it out for first place in race four the family team of Clive, Graeme and Rory Page, sailing GBR740 Pageboy X, did a little bit of giant killing. These youngsters may be new to top level Dragon sailing but they didn't let that stop them putting in an impressive performance to finish the race in third place just ahead of Tim Tavinor and very much on the heels of the leading pair. Thorkild Junker, sailing GBR748 Cool Runnings with Jochem Visser and Tom Whitburn, is another Dragon fleet newcomer and is also new to helming so was very pleased with his fifth place crossing the line just ahead of Julian and Claire Sowry, sailing GBR720 with Hilary Gallo.

Tomorrow the fifth race of the championship is scheduled and with its completion will come the introduction of the discard so we are likely to see further place changes on the leader board. Tomorrow's championship race will be followed by the traditional Edinburgh Cup crews race - when the lunatics take over the asylum and the crews get a chance to yell at their helms to hike harder for once!

Tomorrow evening the teams will enjoy a gala dinner, supported by Aberdeen Asset Management, at the famous Trebah Garden on the Helford River. The dinner celebrates both the Edinburgh Cup and the 80th Anniversary of the International Dragon Class with guests travelling to the dinner by traditional ferry and returning home again in historic buses.

The sixth and final race of the series is scheduled for Saturday.

Results after Day 2:

Correction: In a previous press release we incorrectly stated that Bill Hardesty is an America's Cup veteran. We would like to apologise for this error and note that Bill's sailing successes include winning two Melges 24 World Championships, the 2008 Etchells World Championship and the 2007 Match Racing World Championship. Bill is also Sailing Director for the newly founded Chicago Match Race Centre. Our apologies to Bill for any embarrassment our error may have caused.