For the first day of the 39th Cannes Royal Regattas – Panerai Trophy, the sky was somewhat overcast, allowing only a meager thermal breeze to appear for the forty-four Dragon-class yachts competing in the two scheduled races and for some classic yachts looking to align themselves in the bay of La Napoule…
Eventually, after much hesitation, the fleet of forty-four Dragon-class yachts started under a black flag (any boat crossing the starting line before the cannon shot was automatically disqualified) for a windward-leeward course.
And once again, the regular Russian participants of the Royal Regattas were in high spirits: Anatoly Loginov and his crew (Annapurna) took the lead ahead of Igor Goikmberg and his crew (Zenith), while the German Michael Schettun (Chi) secured third place on the podium.
The second race of the day somewhat reshuffled the standings: the Russians descended from their Himalayas to end up in the middle of this fleet representing eleven nations, while the British and Germans reached nirvana…
As a result, the Briton Yvan Bradbury (Blue Haze), winner of this second round, took the lead ahead of the German Michael Schettun (Chi) and his compatriot Jonathan Brown (Storm), thus relegating Annapurna to fifth place and Zenith to eighth!
Let’s note the excellent performance of Jean Bréger (Ulysse), supported by Christian Gout and Gaëtan Aunette, as the first French crew in seventh place, while the Turkish crew of Ibrahim Arkun Demircan (Monday) made it into the top ten in its first appearance in Cannes!
