Today
"Dragon" on the crest of a wave
This conversation today published the site http://russiandragon.ru. We decided to reprint. First of all, because the conversation turned out to be interesting.
© Elena Razina
We bring to your attention an interview with the Chairman of the International Association of Dragon Yachts (IDA), Vasily Senatorov (RUS 27).
– This year is a jubilee year. What form of “Dragon” is coming up to its 90th anniversary?
– I think that the class is now stronger than ever in the last ten years. The number of regattas has rapidly increased. Top-level riders travel to major competitions, as well as a small number of amateur crews who want to race with professionals. And a lot of local competitions are held in Germany, France, Holland, Italy, in other countries. For example, I can name Estonia, where they revived the national championship.
This year, for the first time, as an experiment, we are holding the European Cup – Grand Prix, combining four regattas of the first grade. In early April, races were held in Cannes, in May was Cascais – traditionally, the prize of King Juan Carlos. Then in July the competition was held in Kühlungsborn. The final stage will be the regatta in Mallorca, in Palma in early November. And there will be a grand final. Twenty best crews will enter it, with a certain number of places reserved for amateur teams.
The Grand Final has two days allotted. It will be carried out according to the formula borrowed from Stars Sailing Leаgue. As a result, the four best teams will compete for the Grand Prix in racing for a short distance. The race committee will be chaired by Nino Shmuli Israelis, who in 2016 was the main judge at the Rio Olympics.
– Much depends on the main judge …
– Yes, and improving flight management is one of those tasks that IDA is trying to solve. It is not very easy. Many clubs oppose the invitation of qualified judges from the side, believing that they can do it on their own. But, unfortunately, their judges are good, when the races are held in good weather, and when there are some disasters, they are sometimes lost. Therefore, a group of active riders made some contributions, and we had the opportunity to invite the best experts as chief judges.
All of these are some class upgrade badges that attract more and more famous riders. For example, Australian Peter Gilmore, a participant in several America's Cups, a two-time world champion in match flight, came to Dragon, twice according to ISAF, was the best yachtsman on the planet. The famous Olympic racer Robert Scheidt was going to come to the 90th anniversary, but now he has his own Olympic campaign in "Laser" … Appeared in our fleet Mateusz Kushnerevich, who a month ago won the world championship in Star class, Olympic champion. At the same time, young amateur crews appear who show themselves very well.
The class is developing in waves, and now we are on the rise. To ensure that this success is not temporary, we pay great attention to promotion and popularization. For example, all stages of the Cup were filmed by the professional team of one of the world's leading media agencies, ICARUS Sports. Plots every day appeared on 62 world channels!
“Dragon” is attractive for yachtsmen because it is a truly democratic class of yachts. Only at competitions in the "dragon" you can find such a combination of famous racers, representatives of royal families, captains of big business and ordinary yachtsmen. There are no VIP boxes, VIP rooms, VIP berths. By this we differ from many other classes.
– Will many yachtsmen come to the anniversary regatta?
– Yes, we expect about 160 teams to take the start. The regatta will be held in Sanremo. Sanremo Yacht Club President Giuseppe Zaoli has just participated in the Marblehead Trophy races. The coastal program of the jubilee regatta is managed by Tatyana Kurbatova. Thanks to the contributions and promotional donations that some members of the Association have made, we have formed a budget that allows us to hold a regatta at a high level. Racing will be held at two distances. Gold, silver and bronze fleets will be identified. It will be a real sailing festival, in which to win is, of course, prestigious, but the main thing is to take part. High activity from the Russian crews – 12 teams go there.
– How do Russian class yachtsmen look internationally?
– We have two crews included in the top five leaders of the world fleet: Anatoly Loginov and Dmitry Samokhin. They have excellent professional crews, teams have good mutual understanding. This year they have already won several prizes. In addition, Victor Fogelson, who performs with Oleg Khopersky, is doing well. Not bad chases Mikhail Senatorov, with whom we constantly compete. Igor Goichberg sometimes shoots … As for our team, we set ourselves the task of entering the TOP-20 according to the results of the European Cup.
The Russian fleet gained respect. And those international regattas that we managed to hold in St. Petersburg and which were attended by European yachtsmen showed that Russia can organize competitions of any level. As, for example, the European Championship 2016, which was recognized by racers as one of the best for all time of these tournaments.
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