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:

General KnowledGe

1.Kilimanjaro is the highest free-standing mountain in the world. What country is it in?

2.In the 1930’s who designed the Volkswagen Beetle? Food & drinK

6.What Cocktail is made from the following ingredients - Vodka, Cranberry Juice, Cointreau and Lime Juice?

7.What is the primary ingredient of the food Boudin Noir?

draGon & SailinG Trivia

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?

4.Which Dragon Sailor won three consecutive Gold Cups in 2003, 2004 & 2005? SporT

8.Which Country hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics?

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?

… and Some clueS

“I was rung up by Francis Gifford, Patrick’s daughter, suggesting that it would be good for both Patrick’s and my mental health to enter the Dragon quiz. I must say she was right!

The Dragon chat both before, during and after the quiz certainly helped to overcome the blues of lockdown and provided a great opportunity to talk with old friends.

My thanks go to Martin and also Nicky Wilton for organising it as well as Werner for supplying the prize spinnaker.”Mike Hayles

“This was my first time back on a public quiz since playing University Challenge in 1966. Definitely a “challenge”. Depressing how one’s knowledge, and reaction speed have deteriorated. Somehow the RAM in my brain seems to have got a bit clogged. It was very interesting to see how the relative strengths of the different teams expressed themselves. We were good on General Knowledge but patchy, at best, on the other subjects. Chris and Emma seemed to have encyclopaedic knowledge of every sport known. Well done by them. Martin did a great job as compere and Zoom wasn’t too daunting. I do hope that, if repeated, there is more non-Anglo participation, even if it makes it harder. Many thanks for organising it and best wishes to all who were involved. Patrick Gifford ” quiz answers

9.Romania. 8.South Korea. 7.Blood (It’s a French Blood Sausage)! 6.Cosmopolitan. 1020kg 5.Minimum 1000kg, maximum 4.Jorgen Schoenherr. Baastad, Sweden. in La Rochelle and Europeans in 3.Yvgeni Braslavets in 2015. Worlds 2.Ferdinand Porsche. East Africa 1/2pt. 1.Tanzania. 1pt. If they put