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HENDRIKSEN, who celebrated his victory by jumping into the outdoor swimming pool of Náutico de Palma, had not foreseen his second Gold Cup. In fact judging by his comments last Wednesday, when he took the lead in the overall standings, he was happy to finish amongst the top ten.

Eva won with 46.7 points, in front of Sinewave, owned by German sailor Thomas MULLER, who lost the lead after the fourth race, in which the course had to be shortened in two legs due to the wind dropping in the racing area. From that moment, at 15:00 hours on 11 April, an unusual calm affected the Bay of Palma caused the cancellation of the last two races. German sailor Markus WIESER, at the helm of Ukrainian Dragon Bunker Queen, was third overall with 81 points and very distant from the winner and runner up.

Tough Conditions

The Transbunker Dragon Gold Cup has been marked by the bad weather conditions. The lack of sunshine cancelled any possibility of welcoming the thermal wind of the Bay of Palma and the main easterly wind that blew during the competition never got over 15 knots.

The competition started on Monday 9 April with shifty wind forcing the Race Committee to change the course in almost all mark roundings. MULLER sailed very well to mark himself out as an early favourite

The second competition day was on 10 April and proved to be the best of the regatta. After the first race, sailed in almost identical conditions to the previous day, the Race Committee decided to give a second start at 15:00 hours with a stable 70º wind that reached 15 knots. The fleet was tired but it was worth trying. And it was a good decision: the third race of the Transbunker Dragon Gold Cup was fast and exciting with the wind never under 10 knots and with hardly any wind shifts.

On the following day, Wednesday 11 April, the Bay rose again with overcast skies, with the same light, changing east breeze of the first day. This was the last and decisive race. MULLER had a terrible setback and HENDRIKSEN sailed very well and benefited from the Race Committee's decision to finish the race after the second beat to windward when Eva was in the lead.

No races could be held either on Thursday or Friday and HENDRIKSEN was the winner of the 40th edition of the Transbunker Dragon Gold Cup, a competition with its origins in 1937 and that was held in Spain for the first time in history. The best Spanish finsher was Porto Pi, from Germán GIL, president of the Dragon Class Association in Spain, finishing in 58th position.