A warm spring sun and an ideal air temperature have welcomed the 33 teams from 13 different countries taking part in the 13th edition of the Paul & Shark Trophy, International Dragon Cup, the event organised by Italy’s Yacht Club Sanremo and one of the key events of the season for the Dragon class.

Unfortunately the wind conditions were not ideal, a light, fickle and shifty easterly wind forced the Race Committee to make the crews wait ashore, to a postponement on the water, to reduce the first race and to abandon the second race of the day as the conditions were too unstable to guarantee fair competition. The wind that never exceeded six knots only allowed to complete only one race that was won by the Ukrainian crew on Bunker Prince ITA 77 led by helmsman Yevgeni Braslavets, gold medallist in the 470 class at 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, with owner Sergey Pugachev and bowman Sergey Timokhov.

“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. “We are members of the Yacht Club Sanremo, so we chose to use an Italian sail number, ITA 77. We love the location, the city of Sanremo is charming, the hospitality is great as it is the race management and, last but not least, the food is excellent.”

Second-placed in the provisional results is 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 the third step of the very provisional podium one of the crews coming from further away, 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.

Tomorrow the weather forecast is still for a light westerly wind, the first start signal is scheduled for 11am.

The Paul & Shark Trophy is the first event of the season for the class in Sanremo, anticipating the Dragon 90th Anniversary Regatta planned for next October on the Ligurian Riviera, the event expected to be one of the top rendez-vous on a national and international level for the quality and number of teams taking part.

Attached some photos from todays’ racing by Elena Razina/Yacht Club Sanremo.

The day’s video highlights can be downloaded at this link: https://we.tl/t-f2iDRyV7y9