The last race showdown for the 2010 Dragon Edinburgh Cup in Cowes, hosted by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Cowes, was a spectacular affair with the overall results of the regatta being decided on the final finish line. Russia's Olga White was the star of that sixth race, winning in impressive style to take third overall in the regatta. But while Olga led the fleet, the other big story of the day was happening back down the course as a dogfight of epic proportions took place between Germany's Klaus Diederichs, and Denmark's Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen for the right to go home with the Edinburgh Cup. The two went into the final race in first and second position respectively with just one point separating them and they proceeded to give the watching spectators a truly edge of the seat experience as they fought it out for supremacy.
© Fiona Brown
Klaus Diederichs takes up the story, "We went into the last race with a 1 point lead and we needed to make sure that Poul Richard is not coming in the top three, so that was our race strategy for the day. We didn't have a good start at all and we missed him at the start. He went off to the left, so we had a bad start, we went to the right and had a good wind shift in our favour and we could basically tack back on him and he was by that time already quite a bit down the fleet and we said OK from now on we just need to control Poul.
"But Poul was steaming through the fleet and we were hanging onto him and he got ahead of us literally just a couple of hundred meters before that [the second weather mark] and from then on we had to chase him and make sure he doesn't climb up the fleet very fast as he normally does. And so we sailed downwind and the breeze got better and that was really good for us so he couldn't run away and we rounded the leeward mark just literally a boat [length] ahead of him. From then on it was a real match race, the last beat was a total match race up until the finishing line and with the breeze increasing it was really interesting sailing."
© Fiona Brown
On the finish line Klaus Diederichs, sailing NOR272 Fever with Andy Beadsworth and Simon Fry, crossed the line in 14th place just a few inches ahead of Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen, sailing GBR745 Danish Blue with Theis Palm and Andrew Norden, to claim the historic Edinburgh Cup, presented to the Dragon Class for their Open British Championship by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh in 1949. Poul Richard-Hoj Jensen took second place overall and Olga White completed the podium line-up.
Overall Results
1. NOR272 - Fever - Klaus Diederichs - 13 pts NORTH
2. GBR745 - Danish Blue - Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen - 19 pts NORTH
3. RUS69 - Murka 7 - Olga White - 25 pts
4. IRL212 - Kin - Simon Brien - 32 pts NORTH
5. GBR751 - Alfie - Lawrie Smith - 34 pts NORTH
Please see the full results on the Dragon Class Association site.
To see details of the North sails used at this regatta please go to our class page.
Klaus Diederichs Interview
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