Rory Bowman and his crew of Duncan Grindley and Chris Pank sailing Yeah Baby, have won the International Dragon Class Edinburgh Cup -the class national championship.

In light breezes, Bowman and crew on Yeah Baby finished 11th in the first of two races on the final day, but managed to keep their main rival, Martin Payne sailing Elusive, behind them.

This meant that in the second race, and the final one of the series, Payne would have to beat Bowman by seven places to rob him of the Edinburgh Cup.

The Yeah Baby crew weren’t about to let this happen, and sailed a tactically clever race to take second place, and claim the Cup for the second successive year.

Bowman has now had his name engraved on this trophy seven times, though when asked, he say he was won it six and a half times, because on one occasion he shared the championship.

There is no doubt that experience counts in this class, and Rory Bowman has a long history of Dragon sailing, having first won this event in 1985.

Commenting on the day’s racing he said that the first race of the day was the tactically most difficult one, because due to a delayed start, it appeared that it would be the only race of the day, so it had to be sailed as if it was the final race of the series.

However he praised the Royal Torbay Yacht Club for managing to get a second race in to complete the series, but by this time he was in a very strong position, and could sail a tactically easier race.

It was evident during the week that the Yeah Baby crew had got their boat organised to perform well in a wide variety of conditions, producing top three results in 25 knots of wind, and 8 knots.

Martin Payne held on to second place in the series, despite not having a good last day, while Richard Jordan sailing Chaotic got it right on the last day, to pull up to third place overall.