Andy Claughton
Paolo Manganelli
Klaus Roeder
PCT (Dubai)
8.9 m
1.95 m
1.2 m
1700kg (with Mast)
Composite (glass fibre)
June 2015
Hugo Stenbeck
ACHIEVEMENTS 2016:
6th King Carlos Trophy
1st Grand Prix Guyader
7th European Championship
7th Swedish Open
10th Europeans
7th German Grand Prix
11th Gold Cup
2nd Hans-Detmar Wagner Cup
10th International Ranking List
Following the 2015 Hans-Detmas Wagner Cup the Dragon was shipped back to Dubai, as Martin Westerdahl comments:
"How can you turn down one week a month from November to February in perfect sailing conditions with some of the best sailors, sailmakers and boatbuilders in the world gathered together at the same venue working to get quicker? The answer is simple: you don´t.
So after The Hans-Dieter Wetmar Cup at Lake Garda in October (where Sophie Racing with good boat speed pulled off a second place) we shipped our PCT-Dragon back to Dubai for winter training. During the first two sessions we felt that we brought our speed from Garda and had an edge on the rest but with names like Marcus Wieser, Jochen Schumann, Theis Palm, Werner Fritz putting their heads together, we knew it was only a matter of time before all the boats would be similar in speed and height. Which was the whole purpose of going to the land of sand and The Arabian Sea in the first place. But overall we developed a habit, we were sailing higher and faster than before. And out of 30 days we sailed 28. Hard to beat elsewhere.”
The Sophie Racing team has had an excellent start to the 2016 season, whith a 6th place at the King Juan Carlos Trophy in Cascais and then winning their first ever Grade One Event in Douarnanez.
The 5th Premier Dragon prototype “Sophie III” was launched in Bastad during the 2015 Euopeans. and was raced very well by its crew the Sophie Racing Team (SUI311).
Even though the Sophie Racing Team (SUI311) had a tough start to the 2015 Europeans, with a disqualification due to a black flag start, they still managed to achieve an overall 10th place.
Helmsman Hugo Stenbeck: “Sophie Racing finished 10th with a bullet and a second, a good start with our new Premier Dragon. Looking forward to the Gold Cup”.
The team already performed extremely well at the Swedish Open Championship a few days previous to the Europeans. Sophie Racing crew Martin Westerdahl comments: “7th out of close to 40 boats counting two DNS and never scoring higher than an 8th. And then we followed with a top 10 at the Europeans despite carrying a BFD from the first race where they let us finish and we were 5th. We are very happy with our performance up to now!”
Sophie Racing achieve a 7th place at the German Grand Prix in Kuehlungsborn and an 11th place at the Gold Cup.
They completed the season with a 2nd place at the Hans-Detmar Wagner Cup in Torbole and an overall 10th place in the International Ranking List.