Dragon 75th Anniversary Regatta at St Tropez - Day 4
by John Roberson 15 Oct 2004 08:07 BST
Action from the Dragon 75th Anniversary Regatta at St Tropez © Steve Arkley /
www.sailshots.co.uk
ROSS-MURPHY OF IRELAND WINS ANNIVERSARY RACE, ROYALTY SECOND
It was a very happy John Ross-Murphy who lent against the bar at the regatta village in St Tropez and commented, "words can't describe how I feel, and how my guys feel, it's just fabulous."
This was after winning the unique, and record breaking Dragon 75th Anniversary race, in which 267 boats lined up on a starting line that was 2.51 kilometres long.
Second place went to HRH Prince Henrik of Denmark, who managed to break clear of the pack, and hung in with the leading group all the way around the course, benefiting at the finish from the disqualification of a French boat for starting prematurely.
The first British boat to finish was Apalala in 12th place, sailed by Chris Caws of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, with Jeremy Field and Paddy Margham.
It was a grey and cloudy day, and race officer Tony O'Gorman was forced to abort four starts, before getting the fleet away under a black flag, with 69 boats being disqualified for starting offences.
The breeze was in the 12 to 15 knot range, but with a very short and irregular wave pattern, that made it very difficult to keep the boats moving at full speed.
John Ross-Murphy, who has sailed Dragons since 1997 praised his crew, "Ailbe Millerick is my co-owner, and he was up front, and Ed Peel only started sailing with me last year.
"The very first event we did, Douarnenez, we won, that was the first time I ever sailed with Ed, and that was my biggest win in sailing, and then to do this on top of that, it's awesome really."
Principal race officer Tony O'Gorman commented that he was "greatly relieved" that he and his team had managed to get the race away.
Russell Coutts and his crew of Yann Neergard and Sam Evans finished ninth, with the winner of one of Tuesday's races Sweden's Tom Lofstedt tenth.
There is a gala dinner this evening for 1,400 people, with more representatives of European royal families arriving, including England's Princess Ann, and King Juan Carlos of Spain.
Day 4 Results: (provisional)
1. IRL 174 Rigmarole - John Ross-Murphy/Ailbe Millerick/Ed Peel
2. DEN 346 Najade - HRH Prince Consort of Denmark/Lars Hendriksen/Lars Steenfeldt
3. GER 914 Ratlok - Christopher Opielok/Wolfgang Kohn/Thomas Auracher
4. NED 357 Wodan II - Roel van Olst/Tjacko van Olst/Volkert Teding van Berkhout
5. NED 316 Escapade - Pieter Heerema/Dolf Peet/Hay Winters
6. GER 982 Chrisco - Dieter Schoen/Vincent Hoesch/Andreas Huber