July, 11 in the “Hercules” yacht-club the application filling for the Russian Dragon Open 2016 has finished. There are 24 teams to start – 19 from Russia and 5 from other countries.
Dmitry Samokhin leads the crew of the Yacht Club of Saint-Petersburg and he is going to protect the title of the champion of Russia. The vice-champions of the world, despite the successes of the previous year, come up to the upcoming competitions more than seriously. Samokhin’s RUS76 was one of the first who came to train well before the start of the competition.
One of the main contenders for the title – the Moscow crew of Anatoly Loginov. In 2015, the fight for the title of the Russian Champion went to the last meter of the distance. Then Loginov was not lucky, but this year RUS27 is ready to regain the title that this team had many times before. Especially that Loginov has serious plans for the European Championship – in 2015 the Muscovites won the continental bronze.
More than serious competitors for the Russian fleet in the overall standings will be by titled guests from abroad. Among them, the German crew of Marcus Brennecke with the three-time Olympic champion Jochen Schümann as a tactic. From the UK came the 2013 World Champion, Klaus Diederichs, which brings as a tactics an America’s Cup participant, World and European champion in the match race, the Pole Karol Jablonski, a familiar for Russian fans as a steering of the TR52 “Synergy”.
Klaus Diederichs:
– Russian Open is a good way to warm up, to get ready, to find out about the area and to have fun. We hope we’ll have a very high-level regatta, looking very much forward; there are more than 40 boats. We know our opponents quite well, because we were sailing against each other for the whole year already and I think there are ten boats, who can win. Russia 27, Russia 76, Sophie from Switzerland, Jose Matoso from Portugal can win, Michael Schmidt from Germany can win. It’s a very competitive fleet, and it depends in the end on a lot of facts: who’s in the best form, the best of luck, as well. I think, in of big regattas consistency pays. You’re at the top-ten in every race you can win the championship. And if to speak about weather, I hope, we have regatta with decent wind, enough to sail, and not too much to sink.
The large “classic” fleet has arrived for the competition from the St. Petersburg river Yacht-club of labor unions. Here Yulia Grigorieva’s boat “Secret”, Andrey Madison’s “Yachont”, Kirill Smirnov’s “Prometey” and Anrey Sevostyanov’s “Viking”. This old-school fleet will be enlarged by “Phoenix” of the vice-commander of the St. Petersburg Yacht-club Victor Los and Sergey Baharev’s “Lun” that was recently launched after restoration. Gleb Suloev traditionally arrived from Nizhny Novgorod with his “Tango” beauty. Traditionally, there will be a special contest for those boats.
The special attention deserves the involvement of Boris Habarov, the 82-years old participant of the 1972 Olympics. Permanently cheerful veteran remains an active sportsman and applied this competitions as the RUS23 steering.
According to the competition program, the Russian Dragon Open will be inaugurated on July 12. On the same day will be held the first race (start at 12:00). Champion of the country will be determined on Thursday, July 14th.
The Dragon European Championship will be July 15-22.
