Dragon Class Championship W O RD S: A NDY PID D EN | IM AGES: TA KUMI IM AGES PA NDA M A N
Sailing f the past year hasn’t been crazy weird enough here is a recap of the second Dragon Class Champs of 2020, held from 20 to 22 November. (The first one was actually 2019’s which delayed to January 2020.) Based out of Middle Island, the Dragon fleet was about to experience the best of NE monsoon sailing with a very light day, a heavy wind day and a perfect breeze day. The night before saw a weigh in (lots of heels on the ground and tip toes going on in the corner) and a briefing from Inge Strompf-Jepsen, our legendary Race Officer, “Lamma channel, L2, don’t be late!) Day 1 saw a decent fleet setting out from the dock. 15 boats; most with their regular and battle hardened crews. Straight off in Race 1, D1 scored a win and was sending a message to second place D55 that they were going to have to fight for it with D47 in third place – a combination that would change position but, as a three, remaining very consistent for the next couple of days. Race 2 and 3 however saw D55 assert themselves with two firsts. D1 and D3 kept up the challenge and so there was a very French
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atmosphere about the leaderboard. Elfie, helmed by the irascible Joe Roels, otherwise known as ‘Scrooge’ for never giving any space at the start, was the more consistent though, settling into third place after Day 1. There was more action down the fleet with some ‘coming
togethers’ and even a rafting up of three boats after the leeward gate as skippers compared tactics before realising there was still another circuit to do in the race. End of Day 1 was Middle Island at its best with a peaceful beer on the dock… at least that was
