SAILING/Dragon European Championship: A classic fairytale of a prince battling three dragons is on the cards this morning as the final race for the Setanta Dragon European Championship takes place off Kinsale.
After a thrilling duel yesterday, just four boats are in contention for the title out of the 51 starters in the fleet, with the weather likely to be the deciding factor.
Dutch helm Fred Imhoff, on Danish Joker, scored an emphatic win yesterday with a three-minute lead at the end of race five, which was compensation of sorts for the failure of his newly-fitted main halyard which broke on Thursday, forcing him to retire and to incur maximum points and to use his valuable discard.
This incident may yet prove to be the price of his title hopes, as that race was sailed in his preferred conditions of heavy airs while this morning's finale is expected to be a light-airs affair.
The line-up counts Imhoff and fellow windy specialist Vincent Hoesch from Switzerland, who is placed second overall. Danes Frank Berg in third and Prince Frederik in fourth are thought to hold an edge in less demanding wind-strengths.
All four are separated by just under 10 points.
Now ruled out of a title win, four-time winner Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen can, at best, hope for a second overall depending on the final outcome of today's results, mainly due to a sixth place yesterday.
"Our target was always a top 10 result coming to this event," Hoesch told The Irish Times yesterday afternoon. "We can't get worse than seventh overall - even if we don't race the final."
Currently the Dragon World Champion, the Swiss helm is a six-time winner of the equally prestigious class Gold Cup and provides a useful benchmark of the standard in Kinsale this week.
Hoping for seventh place or at least a top 10 is Andrew Craig on Chimaera, who would also like to achieve best Irish boat.
Yesterday saw Neil Hegarty on Phantom ghost past the former national champion on the overall rankings to take over 10th place by just 1.7 points.
"Today was another fantastic race and we played the middle right-hand side of the first beat to round the weather mark in third place," said Craig.
"But we went left at the leeward gate and a wind-shift dropped us eight places."
Having started this championship with a goal of a top 10 result, Craig is confident that seventh is possible as the difference between 11th and this place is just four points.
Either way, he is pleased with his performance so far saying, "You can't be disappointed with 75 per cent of the fleet behind you: you must have a target, must have a goal."
