Royal St. George's Martin Byrne sailing with Adam Winklemann and John Simms are third after the first two races of the Edinburgh Cup, the British Dragon national championship.
It follows victory for the Irish trio at the Dragon Class Southern Area Championships at Royal Cornwall Yacht Club last week as Afloat reported here.
It was a clean start for race one with the fleet split left and right going up the first beat. With the sea breeze fighting the northwest wind, the conditions became patchy and light across the racecourse.
GBR 192 Bluebottle took a commanding lead, securing their first win, followed across the line by Provezza Dragon TUR 1212. Andy Moss’ GBR 760 Hands Off had a great race, chipping away at the fleet on each leg to finish third with GBR 763 Bertie and GBR 633 Fei-Lin’s Flirtation taking fourth and fifth respectively.
Andy Moss commented “We were absolutely delighted with our results today. We had a very frustrating day yesterday, we couldn't read the course, couldn't read the wind at all, but today was completely different. We seemed to get in the right shift patterns, we managed to find the pressure and to overtake boats right away through both races. It was fantastic teamwork; we are really enjoying it in Falmouth.”
As the sequence began for race two the NNW breeze increased with white caps welcoming the Dragons. It was exciting racing from the 24 keelboats up the first beat which resulted in a pile-up at the windward mark.
The increased pressure allowed the Dragons to stretch their legs across Falmouth Bay and it was TUR 1212 who crossed the line first with recently crowned Southwest Dragon Champions IRL 201 Jaguar Racing Team in second. Cowes-based Dragon GBR 761 Jerboa enjoyed a better race taking third place followed by Pageboy XI GBR 791 and Furious GBR 777.
TUR 1212 has a five-point lead over GBR 192 going into the second day and with a similar wind forecast it could make for another set of exciting close racing in Falmouth.
Edinburgh Cup Day One (Top five)
1st Provezza Dragon TUR 1212 Andy Beadsworth Bodrum Offshore SC 2.0 1.0 3.0
2nd Bluebottle GBR 192 Graham Bailey Royal Yacht Squadron 1.0 7.0 8.0
3rd Jaguar Racing Team IRL 201 Martin Byrne Royal St George YC 7.0 2.0 9.0
4th Hands Off GBR 760 Andrew Moss Royal Corinthian YC C 3.0 6.0 9.0
5th Pageboy XI GBR 792 Clive Page Royal Corinthian YC C 6.0 4.0 10.0
24 competing
