After the strong winds and drama of the opening day, day two of the Dragon HM King Juan Carlos Trophy, being hosted by the Clube Naval de Cascais Royal St. George's Martin Byrne are now sixteenth overall in the second leg of the 2019 European Cup. As Afloat previously reported, crewed by Brian Matthews and Mark Pettit, the Dun Laoghaire trio are now 13 points outside the top ten in the 29-boat fleet. A second Irish boat, Jonathan Bourke's Cloud, is 28th. Full results are here

The change in conditions brought a welcome change of pace with light to moderate breezes and plenty of hot sunshine. Races three and four of the eight race series, brought some surprise results and a significant shakeup on the leader board.

Just prior to the start of racing all attention was on the recovery of Peter Gilmour's Team Yanmar JPN56 following her sinking after yesterday's race. Excellent work by the club staff, Pedro Andrade of 8th Dimension Racing and a professional dive team saw her rapidly recovered. Fortunately, the boat had come off virtually unscathed and Gilmour has confirmed that they will be back with the fleet tomorrow.

Out on the race course, Cascais continued to offer superbly challenging sailing for this top-flight Dragon fleet, with lots of shifts and some tricky wave patterns to contend with.

On the starts the fleet struggled with current taking them over the line and it took three attempts to get each race underway. In race three the committee brought out the Uniform Flag and both Russia's Viktor Fogelson and Portugal's Pedro Mendes Leal had to take scoring penalties. In race four the committee went to Black Flag and four teams were disqualified, a move which was to have significant impact on the overall standings.

As always consistency is the key to success and Britain's Martin Payne, sailing with Ali Tezdiker and Antonio Matos, proved to be the most consistent performers of the day. A fourth in the opening race followed by a second in race four moved them nicely up the leader board from sixteenth to seventh.

Monaco's Jens Rathsack, crewed by Diogo Pereira and Frederico Melo also had a great day scoring a second and sixth. Scotland's Grant Gordon, sailing with Ruairidh Scott, James Williamson and Alex Warren took a third in race three and then a seventh, while Russia's Anatoly Loginov with Vadim Statsenko and Alexander Shalagin did the reverse with a seventh and then a third.

With overnight leader Gilmour temporarily out of the picture, Gordon jumps from fourth into the overall regatta lead by two points from Loginov who had come into the day in eleventh place, while Rathsack goes from seventh to third, a single point behind Loginov. Also scoring ten points for the day thanks to sixth and fourth places was Pedro Rebelo de Andrade, who remains in fifth overall by one point.

After racing Jens Rathsak spoke about how close the competition is: "Our third race was almost perfect. An easy start, we had good speed out of the start, we chose the correct side and ended up being second at the first mark. Normally it pays to go right here in Cascais, but today it was left so everything is changing. It was very close on the finishing line, we finished second tacking in just ahead of Grant Gordon. The fleet is closely matched, the points are very equal, so the championship overall is going to restart tomorrow and everything is still up for grabs."

Switzerland's Hugo Stenbeck won race four and with a twelfth in race three now lies in fifth place overall, one point behind Andrade and one ahead of Dutchman Pieter Heerema, who had a tricky day with a sixteenth and eighth place which pushed him down from second to sixth place overall.

Top French offshore sailor Gery Trentesaux got his day off to a great start with a win by the narrowest of margins in race three, but then fell foul of the Black Flag in race four.

Also caught by the Black Flag was fellow Frenchman Stephane Baseden, who came into the day in sixth place and took fifth in race three, but now drops down into ninth overall, ten points behind the leader.

In the Corinthian Division for the all amateur teams Portugal's Miguel Magalhaes, crewed by Jorge Pinheiro de Melo and Jose Magalhaes has taken a four point lead over his fellow countryman Manual Rocha crewed by Jose Bello and Bernardo Torres Pego. The Belgian team of Guy Celis, Willie Hambrouck and Steven Vermier are third Corinthians at this mid point in the regatta.

After racing the crews came together to enjoy some of the Clube Naval de Cascais' legendary daily hospitality and bask in the warmth of the late afternoon breeze on the club's harbour view terrace.

Two further races are schedule for tomorrow with the start time revised from 11.00 to 13.00 to again allow for the anticipated early afternoon arrival of the sea breeze. The regatta continues until Saturday 4 May with a total of eight races programmed.

Provisional Top Five After Four Races

Grant Gordon - GBR820 - (12), 1, 3, 7 = 11
Anatoly Loginov - RUS27 - (20), 3, 7, 3 = 13
Jens Rathsack - MON2 - (11), 6, 2, 6 = 14
Pedro Rebelo de Andrade - POR84 - 5, (8), 6, 4 = 15
Hugo Stenbeck - SUI311 - 2, (23), 12, 1 = 16

Royal St. George's Dragon ace Martin Byrne is lying 11th in the second leg of the 2019 European Cup. As Afloat previously reported, crewed by Brian Matthews and Mark Pettit, the Dun Laoghaire trio scored a 15 and a ten in yesterday's opening rounds. Full results are here

The opening day of the 24th HM King Juan Carlos Trophy in Cascais produced the strong winds and big seas for which this open ocean venue is famous. After the success of the inaugural Dragon European Cup regatta in Cannes in early April, the top Dragon teams from across Europe and as far afield as Japan, Hong Kong and Russia have made the pilgrimage to Portugal for this second leg of the four regatta plus Grand Final series.

The Clube Naval de Cascais provided two excellent windward leeward courses as the wind built from mid teens at the start of racing to approaching 30 knots by the end of the day. The racing was superbly competitive and first blood went to the Japanese Yanmar Team, helmed by America's Cup and World Match Racing Tour legend Peter Gilmour, crewed by Yasuhiro Yaji and Sam Gilmour. They followed this up with a fifth in the second race to end the day with a three point overall lead on their nearest rivals.

Lying in second place after two races is the Dutch team of Vendee Glove veteran Pieter Heerema, crewed by the multiple Dragon championship winning Lars Hendricksen and George Leonchuck. They opened their series with a seventh and then added a second to put them three points behind Gilmour and three ahead of the Spanish team of Javier Scherk, crewed by Paulo Manso and Diogo Barros, who put an eighth and fourth on their score card.

The second race was won by Scotland's Grant Gordon, crewed by Ruairidh Scott, James Williamson and Alex Warren, and this combined with a twelfth in race one, in which they had ended up on the wrong side of one of the big shifts, to put them into fourth overall on thirteen points, one point behind Scherk. Also finishing the day with thirteen points and now lying fifth overall is top Portugal's Pedro Rebelo de Andrade who came into the regatta leading the European Cup after his victory in Cannes and as a home waters favourite.

It was a tough day both physically and mentally for the crews. The wind was very shifty and frequently varying in strength from the low teens to high twenty knots. After racing Grant Gordon's team noted that they had done the final race with their medium jib and settings as although it was topping out at around 28 knots, much of the time it was significantly lighter so having the flexibility to change gears rapidly was vital.

Whilst the majority of the fleet racing this week are extremely experienced there is one young team taking part in their very first Dragon European Cup event. The British Scaramouche Sailing Project takes pupils from The Grieg City Accademy in London's Haringey District, one of the city's most deprived areas, and uses sailing to encourage them to reach their full potential. During the Cannes event the project's Kacey Marfo raced aboard the winning boat with Pedro Andrade, and this week Andrade has lent one of his fleet of Petticrow V6 Dragons to a team entirely made up of Project Scaramouch sailors. The boat is helmed by Jahvarn Knight with Martin Evans, Jessey Opoku-Ware and Jaydon Owusu crewing. They did themselves proud with a 21st and 25th today, no mean achievement against such a strong international fleet in such challenging conditions. The grins on their faces as they came ashore said it all and Jahvarn Knight summed up the day for everyone when he described it simply as "Epic."

The strong conditions led to a few retirements with gear failure, including one broken mast which will be replaced overnight, but the more serious incident of the day actually happened after racing. A sudden very strong shifting squall hit the fleet on their final approach to the marina. Unfortunately, Peter Gilmour caught the squall at the same time as an awkward wave and he was knocked into the boat resulting in an involuntary tack. With the jib pinned to weather and the main on the runner, the boat was simply blown down by the wind and large waves. Fortunately, his is one of the latest designs with raised floorboards and increased buoyancy so the crew had time to clear themselves safely from the boat before she went down. It also gave them time to take their GPS position so they could subsequently mark the location and a dive team has been organised for early morning and hopes are high that they will be able to recover the boat and continue to race tomorrow.

With the wind forecast to be lighter in the morning, the Race Committee has published an amendment to the sailing instructions to delay the start of racing from the originally published 11.00 to 13.00. Although published prior to the sinking of Team Yanmar, this delay might just buy Gilmour the extra time he needs to get his boat back and ready to race.

Two further races are scheduled for today and the regatta continues until Saturday 4 May with a total of eight races programmed. Three races are required to constitute a series and a single discard will be allowed once five races have been completed.

Royal St. George's Martin Byrne makes a welcome return to the Dragon in the second leg of the 2019 European Cup and will be crewed by Brian Matthews and Mark Pettit, who both have multiple Dragon titles to their names. Winner of the 2011 Dragon Edinburgh Cup, for the British Open Championship, Martin is looking forward to his return to international competition and, as a sailor who loves big seas and big breezes, is sure to find Cascais in Portugal to his liking.

The 24th HM King Juan Carlos Regatta, to be hosted by the Clube Naval de Cascais from 1 to 4 May 2019, will see the leading International Dragon crews come together for the second leg of the four regatta 2019 Dragon European Cup series.

After a stunning opening event in Cannes in April, the fleet moves on to Portugal’s Atlantic Coast for what promises to be another hotly contested regatta. Cascais offers spectacular open ocean racing with big waves and strong breezes. The top players from the Cannes event have made the trip to Cascais and with crews from Portugal, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Russia, Monaco, the United Kingdom and the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club all taking part it will truly be an international affair.

Portugal’s Pedro Rebelo de Andrade currently leads the series having taken victory in Cannes and goes into this regatta with home waters advantage. For Britain’s Grant Gordon Cascais is also familiar territory and having had to settle for third place in Cannes, following the abandonment of a race he was leading and a black flag in the penultimate race, he will be very much hoping to avoid incident and climb the rankings. Also hoping to move up the leader board are Switzerland’s Hugo Stenbeck and Russia’s Dmitry Samokhin, who finished fifth and sixth respectively in Cannes.

There are a number of new faces joining the fleet for this second leg including Britain’s Martin Payne, one of the fleet’s most experienced and successful sailors, who is teaming up with double and reigning Dragon World Champion Ali Tezdiker and top local sailor Antonio Matos. Martin has raced in Cascais for many years and knows the waters well, so this will certainly be a team to watch.

Fresh from a seventh place at the 2019 Dragon World Championship in Freemantle comes Charlotte ten Wolde from the Netherlands, who will race with her sister Juliette, Janka Holan and Francisco Rebelo de Andrade. Francisco represented Portugal at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics in the 49er class and also counts Cascais as home waters, so this team has huge potential.

Eight windward-leeward races are scheduled over the four days with courses set in either Cascais Bay or the Guia race area, depending on weather conditions. Ashore the Clube Naval de Cascais will offer a welcoming home from home for the sailors with après sailing gatherings each evening and a final prize giving on Saturday.

The 2019 Dragon European Cup circuit comprises four regattas plus a Grand Final. The four regattas are the Dragon Grand Prix Cannes (2-5 April), the 24th HM King Juan Carlos Regatta, Cascais (1-4 May), the Dragon Grand Prix Germany, Kuhlungsborn (3-6 July) and the Dragon Grand Prix Spain, Palma de Mallorca (11-14 November). The Grand Final takes place in Palma on 15 and 16 November. To qualify for the Final, teams must compete in three of the four regattas including the Grand Prix Spain. Twenty teams will qualify for the final and there will be a quota for Non-Corinthian and Corinthian sailors based on the proportion of non-Corinthian/Corinthian teams participating in all four qualifying events.

Going into yesterday’s final two races at the Dragon National Championships at Glandore Harbour Yacht Club three boats were tied on 11 points, with the discard yet to apply, and any one of four teams had the chance to win the title.

Download overall results below

Race 5 on Sunday saw Kinsale YC’s Cameron Good on Little Fella and the Royal St George team led by Neil Hegarty on Phantom battle it out at the front of the 21 boat fleet. Phantom won this one so after the discard had been applied they remained tied with Little Fella going into the last race.

The other contenders, Martin Byrne’s Jaguar Sailing Team and Danish sailor Paul Rickard Hoj Jensen on Danish Blue had their worst results of the event after a wind shift left them down the fleet in 5th & 6th respectively. However, Byrne had the better result after discard so he counted an earlier 3rd in his overall score. This left the Jaguar Sailing Team very much in contention for the overall title going into the last race.

The final Race 6 on Sunday afternoon was sailed in a 20-knot westerly breeze under the direction of Race Officer Alan Crosbie.

The start was a tense affair with the leaders keeping a very close eye on each other. Denis Bergin on Sir Ossis of the River took an early lead but was overhauled by Jaguar & Phantom on the 2nd beat. In the meantime, Little Fella was struggling in 4th and Danish Blue was further back in 6th.

Members of the runners up Jaguar team Adam Winkelmann (left in blue jacket) and Martin Byrne (right with half model)

To win the title Phantom just needed to stay in touch with Jaguar, who extended their lead and take their first win of the series. And Jaguar needed Little Fella to drop to 5th in order to take the runners-up spot overall. This is in fact what happened as Little Fella took a flyer to the left on the last leg of the course in an attempt to catch up. But this allowed Tim Pearson on Zu to sneak into 4th place while Sir Ossis sailed their best race to stay in 3rd.

So the final leg of the final race saw the overall title retained by Phantom with Jaguar 2nd and Little Fella 3rd overall.

This was easily the most competitive Championship in years but the most positive feature of the event was the number of young people sailing Dragons. The Glandore fleet have a strong youth involvement in the Dragon Class both as volunteers and sailors.

It was acknowledged by all the competitors that the event was superbly organised by Glandore Harbour Yacht Club with the help of sponsorship from Fehily Timoney & Company and the Dragon Class will be back in 2019 for their South Coast Championships.

Day three today and with just three races to go in the Dragon National Championships at Glandore Harbour YC, where 21 boats make up the fleet, it’s tight at the top.

Cameron Good on Little Fella from Kinsale YC leads on countback after winning both races yesterday.

Title holders Neil Hegarty, Peter Bowring and David Williams on Phantom are still in the hunt with four-time National Champions Jaguar Sailing Team with Martin Byrne, Adam Winkelmann and Mark Pettit.

This group are just ahead of Danish multi Olympic–medalist Paul Richard Hoj Jensen who is sailing with Simon Brien and Mick Cotter both former Irish Dragon National Champions.

Results downloadable below

Kinsale Yacht Club victorious Dragon crew stopped off at the Bulman Buoy this evening on the way home from Cork Week. The purpose of the impromptu break in the voyage was to photograph RCYC's famous 'Thomas Lipton Trophy' – won earlier off Crosshaven – on the well known Kinsale mark. 

Helmsman Brian Goggin with Daniel and Sean Murphy in Serafina were one point clear after seven races sailed in Cork Week's second biggest fleet.

Another Kinsale boat, Cameron Good's Little Fella was second overall in a show of Dragon class strength for the West Cork club. 

Celebrations will continue tonight at Kinsale Yacht Club!

Light and shifty winds combined with a sea left over from the big onshore breezes of the previous day created new challenges for the 28 teams competing in the Dragon Edinburgh Cup at the Royal Torbay Yacht Club writes Rupert Holmes.

The day's first race got away cleanly in 6-8 knots of breeze. Laurie Smith's Alfie tacked onto port early, which quickly gained him an early lead and he was soon followed by a number of others. Around 15 minutes after the start the wind began to swing to the right as a band of light rain moved across the course, giving those in the right a significant advantage.

Smith was first to round the windward mark, followed by Bocci (Atsushi) Aoyama's Yevis ll and Louise Racing. Peter Cunningham's Power Play rounded fourth, followed by the only lady helm in the fleet, Gavia Wilkinson-Cox, in Jerboa. However, Bailey – overall leader after the first two races – was unusually buried, languishing back in 16th place.

The leaders extended away quickly on the run, but the wind then eased as the sun returned, leading to a tricky balance between sailing high and gybing through less painfully large angles. Louise Racing rounded the right hand leeward mark first, followed closely by Power Play and Jerboa. However, Klaus Diederichs's Fever and Alfie were first to the advantaged left-hand side of the gate. Fever took first place, ahead of Jerboa and Alfie, while Power Play benefitted from being the left-hand most boat among the leaders to finish fourth, while Gordon took fifth.

"We were fourth or fifth on the first beat and on the downwind leg we got stronger wind coming from the right," said Diederichs. "Then we were first to get to the left hand mark at the gate. We protected our position form there, but Gavia had good speed and height, and challenged us hard."

The fourth race in the series started in more consistent conditions, with a 6-8 knot easterly breeze. Jono Brown's Storm and Peter Cunningham's Power Play appeared to be best placed of the boats near the pin and the fleet quickly tacked onto port as the wind shifted left after the start.

Aimee then flipped back onto starboard, becoming one of the left-hand most boats in the fleet in the early stages of the first beat. Meanwhile, Alfie remained on the right-hand side, while Louise Racing held a more intermediate position between the two. The latter rounded the windward mark first, followed by Tom Vernon's Badger, Alfie, Storm and Jerboa.

The boats on the right hand side of the first run again appeared to be advantaged. By the end of the leg Louise Racing had pulled out a 43 second lead on Storm, with Badger dropping down to third, while Alfie slid down to fourth place, 10 lengths further back. Gordon then continued to extend his lead for the rest of the race, finishing more than two minutes ahead of Eric Williams' Ecstatic. Alfie took third and Jerboa fourth.

A vibrant social scene is a core part of the success of the Dragon class and the day ended with a barbeque, prize giving and live band, hosted by Gavia Wilkinson-Cox. Among the daily prize winners, Grant Gordon won the spectacular Terry Wade Trophy for winning the fourth race of the series.

Gordon now holds the overall lead, one point ahead of Alfie, with Aimee retains third overall, a further 10 points adrift. Jerboa is fourth, on equal points with Power Play. Aimee still leads the Corinthian fleet, ahead of Storm and Bertie.

Results after Day 2:

Glandore Harbour Yacht Club (GHYC) will host the 2018 National Dragon Championship from 6-9 September.

Boats will come from all over Ireland, to enjoy four days of highly competitive racing between the top Irish Dragon sailors, joined by some boats from the UK adding an international flavour.

GHYC is preparing to support the largest number of Dragons participating in the National Championship for many years, due to the size of the resident fleet, and the attraction of the beautiful Glandore Harbour and its friendly pubs.

GHYC is currently home to the largest Dragon fleet in Ireland, with 16 resident Dragons, including one of the oldest racing wooden Dragons 'Gypsy', helmed by veteran Don Street.

Fehily Timoney, a Cork-based multidisciplinary management, engineering and environmental consultancy company has made it possible for GHYC to host this prestigious event through the sponsorship by their Managing Director, Eamon Timoney, himself an active Dragon sailor in the GHYC fleet and a generous supporter of local sporting events.

Download Notice of Race below

Martin Byrne’s, Jaguar Sailing Team, travel to Torbay on the south-west coast of England later this week, as in 2017, the only Irish entrant in the Dragon Edinburgh Cup 2018.

This year marks the 70th Anniversary of this event which is the British Dragon National Championships. This famous trophy was presented by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, in 1949.

While Byrne’s Jaguar Sailing Team from the Royal St George YC were winners and runners-up in 2011 and 2012 they have never fallen below fifth overall in their attempts to regain the trophy since. However, this year they return for the first time as a Corinthian team. Martin’s son Conor (a former Irish Laser National Champion) will renew his partnership with Adam Winkelmann at the business end of his dad’s Dragon.

At home, Byrne was the winner of last month's East Coast Championships at the Royal St. George Yacht Club.

Next week in Torbay they compete against the best of the International Dragon Fleet where their competitors include five former Edinburgh Cup winners, four World Cup Champions, two Gold Cup Winners and among the teams crewing, up to eight Olympic medalists.

Racing was very competitive at the Dragon East Coast Championships on Saturday amongst the 11–Dragons racing on Dublin Bay in a decreasing NE breeze which allowed for many place changes in two races sailed in less than 12 knots.

Download results below

Martin Byrne’s, Jaguar Sailing Team, with Adam Winkelmann and John Simms on board from the host club Royal St George returned a 1st & 2nd in racing to take the overall lead ahead of British rivals Mike Budd sailing ‘Harry’ GBR818, who were 1st & 3rd.

"Four teams still in the hunt for the overall title today" 

The title holders, Cameron Good’s ‘Little Fella’ dropped from 1st to 3rd overall with a 3rd & 8th today.

Also in contention are the new Kinsale YC team ‘Serafina’ helmed this weekend by Brian Goggin. They finished 2nd & 4th.

Two races are scheduled to complete the series today with four teams still in the hunt for the overall title.