Club Member, Peter Bowring in “Danish Blue” is the Open Dutch Dragon Champion 2011
27 June
Fresh from his win in La Baule with Poul-Richard Hoj-Jensen, George Member Peter Bowring again crewed for this yachting legend last weekend where they won the Open Dutch Dragon Championship.
Excerpt from article on http://www.intdragon.org/idablog/?p=1105
The final day started with a bit of a shock for many of us as most of the boats were still arriving at the starting area as the first warning signal was fired off, on time, by Theo Smits (Race Officer)! Perhaps the majority of the fleet were still feeling the affects of a most splendid Championship Dinner hosted in the superb Castle situated in Medemblik, on the night before. However, as it was such a light and fickle wind, Theo postponed the start just to allow everyone time to prepare themselves, clear the hangovers and get on the long start line. It was 50/50 which way to go. So at the gun half the fleet went right and half left. “The Man” could not take it easy and sail conservatively as he already had an OCS so he knew that with Heerema only so far discarding a 7th place, it was still all to do!!!!
As the fleet neared the first windward mark, it was clear the right-hand-side had paid handsomely. The boat that gained the most was BEL 78 Thomas De Schrijver, who was first to round the top mark. Also NED 402 Jan Bakker and his two son’s Oliver and Dominic who had already won race 3, were again in great shape after having a super start and finding more breeze in their 2003 Petticrow on the starboard side of the course. These two boats had a tough battle and with the first downwind leg sensibly made much shorter due to the lack of wind, it was NED 402 who led through the gate and went on to convincingly win the race which gave the happy team 3rd place overall…
Meanwhile the race was still on for the overall Championship, as everyone of the 34 boats battled hard in this extremely light wind final race. GBR 745 was keeping a watchful eye on NED 316 as ”The Man” and his team also fought to stay in the top 10. Finally they recorded a 7th place which was enough to take this prestigious title from Heerama by just 3pts. So well done to both boats for some great entertaining sailing over the four days.
Photo taken at Prize Giving (L-R) Peter, Joost and Poul-Richard displaying the wonderful Trophy.
