Imhoff secures Dragon crown

Sailing News round-upAn exciting six-race series for the Setanta Dragon European Championship ended with a tense final on Saturday afternoon that saw Dutchman Fred Imhoff sail Danish Joker across the line to secure the title. Fog and almost no wind had threatened the last day but lifted in time to allow the completion of the event.

Battling a foul tide, the 50-boat fleet eased their way around two laps of the shorter, one-mile course instead of two, and were getting set for the finish when the eight-knot breeze began to weaken.

A fishing-boat trawling across the course to within 100 metres of the finishing-line created concern for the front-runners before it bore away.

Just ahead, a classic duel between two Irish crews leading the pack ended with Peter O'Reilly, Fran Rhatigan and Eddie Tingle on Electra scoring a memorable bullet as the only home-fleet race win.

Ulsterman Simon Brien with Ruan Ó Tiarnaigh and David Gomes had been leading but were edged into second place by a mere boat-length. Meanwhile, astern of this pair, the battle for the championship was being decided with the tide and the trawler each trying to be the deciding factor.

Of the four contenders, Imhoff appeared best having scored two wins but in the final race he trailed rival Frank Berg from Denmark after the first lap of the course. A shift at the leeward gate found Berg dumped down the fleet and positioned worse than eighth place, his discard, and with no hope of recovery sailed ashore without finishing.

Imhoff made for the line with Switzerland's Vincent Hoesch in fourth and Prince Frederik of Denmark picking up places from 10th.

The latter was beaten into sixth place by Kinsale's James Matthews with Rob Jacob and John Good on TBB but the championship had already been decided.

For the second time in the series, Irish boats lived up to their reputation amongst their continental colleagues by dominating the top 15 places at the finish. For Neil Hegarty with Peter Bowring and David Williams on Phantom, the event resulted in the double achievement of a top-10 overall result - eighth - making the Cork helm and Dún Laoghaire crew best Irish boat in Europe this year.

Placing a close ninth overall was their clubmate Andrew Craig from the Royal St George YC with Ed Peel and Aidan O'Connell who achieved one of his two goals for the event - a top-10 overall place.

Setanta Dragon European Championship (at Kinsale YC, Ireland); Race 6: 1 Electra - Ireland (O'Reilly, Rhatigan, Tingle); 2 Kin - Ireland (Brien, Ó Tiarnaigh, Gomes); 3 Danish Joker - The Netherlands (Imhoff, Van Rijj, den Outer); 4 Hanseatic Lloyd - Switzerland (Hoesch, Kniffka, Faber); 5 TBB - Ireland (Matthews, Jacob, Good); 6 Nanoq - Denmark (Frederik, Hendriksen, Harsberg). Final overall after six races (includes one discard): 1 Danish Joker - 23.7 points; 2 Hanseatic Lloyd - 30.8; 3 My Way - 37.0 Denmark (Berg, Kaestel, Christensen); 4 Nanoq - 39.4; 5 Danish Blue - 54.7 Denmark (Hoj-Jensen, Hoj-Jensen, Rappel); 6 Bahati - 70.0 Germany (Brennecke, Weiser, Auracher). Best Irish: 8 Phantom 81.0 (Hegarty, Bowring, Williams); 9 Chimaera 88.7 (Craig, Peel, O'Connell); 14 TBB (Matthews, Jacob, Good).