Stav’s Interviews and Quizzes 2020 When it became apparent that normal Dragon racing would be severely impacted in 2020 as the world faced a major pandemic the IDA officers were keen to generate activities to keep the Dragon ‘family’ connected. So the idea of hearing from many top personalities in the class was born and over a number of weeks beginning in April I interviewed, via Zoom calls, a total of 13 international sailors. These interviews were broadcast and are still available to view via our IDA Facebook page where very well-known individuals answered a variety of questions sent to me by sailors from many different countries. I would like to thank everyone involved for sharing personal stories and many excellent racing tips. It was great to hear how our Dragon friends across the world were coping through these unprecedented times and learn, first-hand, how to improve our own skills on the racecourse. I would like to thank, in no particular order, Simon Fry, Andy Beadsworth, Poul & Sophia Hoj-Jensen, Tim Tavinor, Martin Palsson, Pedro Andrade, Vincent Hoesch, Lars Hendriksen, Lars Stenfeldt Hansen, Cameron Good, Daniel Murphy, Brian Goggin, John Holt, Jan, Dominic and Olivier Bakker, Marc Castagnet, Anne and Xavier Vanneste and finally our IDA Chairman Jens Rathsack.
In addition to these interviews we organised an IDA Quiz where 20 teams took part in four heats, with the top two teams in each heat progressing on to semi-finals and then the grand final. A call was made to top sailmaker Werner Fritz to ask if he would donate one of his excellent spinnakers for the competition and he replied “Sure Stavros, the Dragon Class has always been dear to my heart and I would like to give something back.” So a very special prize was up for grabs to the winning team! This added a certain amount of spice to the quizzes and each of the seven Zoom recorded episodes were also posted on our IDA Facebook page. The Finals eventually saw Chris Grosscurth and Emma York from GBR 753 win the Fritz Spinnaker from BEL 82 Anne & Xavier Vanneste 2nd, GBR 515 Mike Hayles & Patrick Gifford 3rd with TUR 1212 Simon Fry & Andy Beadsworth 4th. The Interviews and Quizzes certainly brought friends and fellow sailors together (albeit virtually) and my thanks again to Werner Fritz for the spinnaker and to all those who helped to compile the questions. We are currently working on a 2021 edition of the Quiz so watch the IDA Facebook page for further details. Higher, Faster, Longer…
Stavros
Example questions from the 2020 quiz… For each round the teams had to answer eight questions in each of the four categories – General Knowledge, Dragon & Sailing Trivia, Food & Drink and Sport. Here are some examples of the questions: Gener al Knowled g e
Food & Drin k
1.Kilimanjaro is the highest free-standing mountain in the world. What country is it in?
6.What Cocktail is made from the following ingredients Vodka, Cranberry Juice, Cointreau and Lime Juice?
2.In the 1930’s who designed the Volkswagen Beetle?
7.What is the primary ingredient of the food Boudin Noir?
Dr ag on & Sailing Trivia
Spor t
3.In the Dragon Class, since the year 2000 only one helmsman has won both the World and European Championship in the same year. Who was the helm and in which year?
8.Which Country hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics?
4.Which Dragon Sailor won three consecutive Gold Cups in 2003, 2004 & 2005? 5.What is the weight of the Dragon’s iron ballast keel? 8
9.In Gymnastics, Nadia Comaneci won five Olympic Gold Medals in individual events, at the age of 14 she was the first gymnast to be awarded the perfect score of 10. What Country did she represent?
