70th Dragon Edinburgh Cup at Royal Torbay Yacht Club

70th Dragon Edinburgh Cup at Royal Torbay Yacht Club - Overall

by Rupert Holmes 6 Jul 2018 21:06 BST 3-7 July 2018

The first three days of racing produced a tantalisingly close leader board in the 70th edition of this iconic regatta, which forms the Dragon class's open British Championship. With only one point separating the top three boats, there was enormous pressure on the leaders in the final race.

The event, run by the Royal Torbay Yacht Club, saw a wide mix of conditions, including big onshore seas and winds over 20 knots, while other races were sailed in fluky light airs in which the breeze frequently dropped below five knots.

Laurie Smith's Alfie delivered an impressive master class in consistency, counting a second place, three thirds and a fourth, while discarding a fourth. It was the kind of performance that would easily win most regattas. By contrast, Graham and Julia Bailey's Aimee had a wobble on Day 2 that saw them finish 12th in the first race of the day and a sixth they had to count in the second. However, in every other race they dominated the front of the fleet, scoring three wins and a second place.

Laurie Smith's Alfie in the Dragon Edinburgh Cup at Torbay - photo © Rupert Holmes

Aimee and Grant Gordon's Louise Racing went into the final race tied on 10 points, with Smith third overall on 11 points. After one general recall the fleet got away cleanly under a black flag. Aimee's strategy was clear at the outset – they hung back at the committee boat end in a conservative start and tacked immediately to the favoured right-hand side of the course.

The fleet split exactly 50/50 up each side of the first 1.0 mile long beat, until Laurie Smith was one of the earlier boats of the left hand group to tack onto port. However, Gordon held out on the left for longer. For a while it looked as though a growing number of boats in the middle were in better breeze, yet Aimee continued on port tack until 10 lengths off the layline.

Intense concentration on Grant Gordon Louise Racing during the Dragon Edinburgh Cup at Torbay - photo © Rupert Holmes

How did it feel to be hard out on the right hand side of the fleet on the first beat when the championship was at stake? "We were pretty confident," says Graham Bailey. "There's something going on with the current here – we were taking cross bearings on the fleet and could see quite early on that we were going the right way – we just wound round them all.

"The game plan was to get to the right – we wanted to be the first boat to go right and were prepared to sacrifice the start to achieve that. We had to queue a bit at the committee boat, but that didn't matter as long as we were fast dragging it out to the right. When you see Laurie Smith and Grant Gordon following a different strategy in a fleet like this you have to be brave."

By the first windward mark she had drawn out a commanding lead of more than a minute and a half on Eric Williams' Ecstatic. Andrew Millband's Supremacy was next round, followed by Ron James' Fei-Lin's Flirtation and Peter Cunningham's Power Play in fifth. However, Alfie was buried in 10th place, with Louise Racing a couple of lengths further behind.

Aimee on the way to a decisive victory in the Dragon Edinburgh Cup at Torbay - photo © Rupert Holmes

On the first run Aimee continued right to the layline before gybing, building her lead on Ecstatic even further at the bottom mark. This pair was not challenged again for the rest of the race. Peter Cunningham's Power Play had another good race, finishing third, while Smith worked his way up to fourth place. Fei-Lin's Flirtation also had a good day, finishing fifth. By contrast, Louise Racing never recovered and finished 12th, a result they discarded.

Aimee took overall victory with 11 points, with Alfie second on 15 points, and Louise Racing third on 16. Aimee also won the Corinthian Division, ahead of Jono Brown's Storm, Simon Barter's Bertie and Mark and Amanda Wade's Avalanche.

Jono Brown - Storm was second to Aimee in the Corinthian division at the Dragon Edinburgh Cup at Torbay - photo © Rupert Holmes

Huge thanks go to the Royal Torbay Yacht Club, vice commodore Phil Rumblelow, and race officers Bill Butcher and Gill Smith for organising an excellent series of racing and equally impressive après sailing events.

Overall Results:
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Pos	Sail No	Boat Name	Helm	Crew1	Crew2	Crew3	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	GBR782	Aimee	Graham Bailey	Julia Bailey	William Heritage	Wiliam Bedford	2	1	12	6	1	1	11
2	GBR815	Alfie	Lawrie Smith	Joao Matos Rosa	Goncalo Ribeiro	Diogo Pereira	3	2	3	3	4	4	15
3	GBR820	Louise Racing	Grant Gordon	Ruairidh Scott	James Williamson	Laura Dillon	1	3	5	1	6	12	16
4	CAY9	Power Play	Peter Cunningham	Pedro Rebelo de Andrade	Charles Nankin		7	10	4	5	2	3	21
5	GBR682	Ecstatic	Eric Williams	Rory Paton	Katie Cole		14	9	20	2	3	2	30
6	GBR819	Fever	Klaus Diederichs	Diego Negri	Jamie Lea		8	5	1	16	12	6	32
7	GBR763	Bertie	Simon Barter	Donald Wilks	Joanna Richardson		5	4	7	21	14	8	38
8	GBR761	Jerboa	Gavia Wilkinson-Cox	Mark Hart	Ade Bevan-Smith	Lauren Fry	12	8	2	4	16	13	39
9	GBR408	Joanna	Dimitry Bondarenko	Vadim Statsenko	Alexander Shalougin		6	14	13	11	5	7	42
10	JPN50	Yevis II	Bocci (Atsushi) Aoyama	Martin Stavros Payne	Junichiro Shiraishi		11	29	6	8	8	10	43
11	GBR810	Badger	Thomas Vernon	Ollie Spensley-Corfield	Adam Bowers		4	7	11	7	15	24	44
12	GBR770	Storm	Jonathan Brown	David Brown	Lynette Brown	Frances Wood	9.2	9.2	8	9	9	11	44.4
13	SUI318	CK1	Wolf Waschkuhn	Andy Beadsworth	Pete Cumming		10	6	29	15	7	16	54
14	GBR818	Harry	Mike Budd	Mark Greaves	Chris Gowers		15	11	9	10	13	29	58
15	GBR722	Avalanche	Mark Wade	Amanda Wade	Nigel Cole		16	12	15	14	10	17	67
16	GBR633	Fei-Lin's Flirtation	Ron James	Julia Walsh	Peter Aitken		23	29	16	18	17	5	79
17	GBR669	Suprmacy	Andrew Millband	Rob Goddard	Rob Smith		18	29	10	25	22	9	84
18	GBR777	Furious	Owen Pay	Dr. Jonathon Mortimer	Tom Hicks		13	13	23	12	26	23	84
19	GBR753	Fit Chick	Simon Raw	Chris Grosscurth	Emma York		25	18	14	22	24	15	93
20	GBR696	Good Grief!	Patrick Lomax	Georgina Dewar	Simon Cash		17	20	19	19	20	19	94
21	GBR617	FlameAgain	David Hall	Geoff Butcher	Julie Thomas-Page		19	21	25	20	11	25	96
22	GBR788	Quicksilver VI	Rob Campbell	Penny Anderson	Paul Fletcher		20	19	22	13	27	22	96
23	GBR806	Vixen	Tim Saunders	Carole Holme	George Davies		24	16	21	17	21	21	96
24	IRL201	Jaguar	Martin Byrne	Conor Byrne	Adam Winkelmann		9	29	17	23	19	29	97
25	GBR704	Ganador	Martin Makey	Tim Wilkes	Teresa Wilkes		22	17	18	27	28	14	98
26	RUS2	Riassa (809)	Michael Cope	Rob Eldridge	Susie Delves Lomax	Daniela Urban	21	15	26	26	23	18	103
27	GBR644	Tsunami	Colin Brereton	Chris Mills	Andy Wilkins		29	29	24	24	18	26	121
28	FRA341	Nanouck IV	Eric Le Bon	Muriel Requet-Barville	Aurore Declerck		29	29	29	29	25	20	132

Corinthian Results:

Pos	Sail No	Boat Name	Helm	Crew1	Crew2	Crew3	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	GBR782	Aimee	Graham Bailey	Julia Bailey	William Heritage	Wiliam Bedford	1	1	3	1	1	1	5
2	GBR770	Storm	Jonathan Brown	David Brown	Lynette Brown	Frances Wood	2	2	2	2	2	3	10
3	GBR763	Bertie	Simon Barter	Donald Wilks	Joanna Richardson		2	2	1	9	5	2	12
4	GBR722	Avalanche	Mark Wade	Amanda Wade	Nigel Cole		4	3	5	5	3	6	20
5	GBR777	Furious	Owen Pay	Dr. Jonathon Mortimer	Tom Hicks		3	4	10	3	11	11	31
6	GBR696	Good Grief!	Patrick Lomax	Georgina Dewar	Simon Cash		5	10	7	7	7	8	34
7	GBR753	Fit Chick	Simon Raw	Chris Grosscurth	Emma York		11	8	4	10	10	5	37
8	GBR806	Vixen	Tim Saunders	Carole Holme	George Davies		10	6	8	6	8	9	37
9	GBR704	Ganador	Martin Makey	Tim Wilkes	Teresa Wilkes		9	7	6	13	13	4	39
10	GBR788	Quicksilver VI	Rob Campbell	Penny Anderson	Paul Fletcher		7	9	9	4	12	10	39
11	GBR617	FlameAgain	David Hall	Geoff Butcher	Julie Thomas-Page		6	11	12	8	4	12	41
12	RUS2	Riassa (809)	Michael Cope	Rob Eldridge	Susie Delves Lomax	Daniela Urban	8	5	13	12	9	7	41
13	GBR644	Tsunami	Colin Brereton	Chris Mills	Andy Wilkins		14	14	11	11	6	13	55