Jorgen Schönherr, Anders Kaempe and Axel Waldersdorph from Denmark have won the Royal Hellenic Cup, the Hanseatic Lloyd-sponsored World Championship trophy for Dragon sailors awarded only every two years. This year’s event took place within Rolex Baltic Week and a total of 73 boats from 12 nations took part.

The Danish crew defended its lead from the previous day with fifth place in the seventh and last race and The runners-up were Harm Müller-Spreer, Markus Wieser and Thomas Auracher (Hamburg/Starnberg/Tegernsee). Third place and bronze went to Vincent Hoesch, Harro Kniffka (chairman of Hanseatic Lloyd AG in Bottighofen, Switzerland) and Max Scheibmair.

“We had a poor start,” explained Jorgen Schönherr after the last race. Many boats vied for a good position right at the front on the starting line. Schönherr, who had also already won the Grand Prix in France and the Dragon Gold Cup in Sweden, did not want to risk a false start. “We caught a shift in the wind just right and caught up with Harm again,” Schönherr described the further course of the race. Harm Müller-Spreer from Hamburg crossed the finish line one place ahead of Schönherr. “It wasn’t enough. We made too many mistakes in the fourth and sixth race and thus defeated ourselves,” Müller-Spreer summarized.

Vincent Hoesch, who won the title two year ago as sheet hand for Dieter Schoen (the German lives in Elsbethen near Salzburg), was extremely satisfied with third place. Whereas the first two crews have been sailing with the same line-up in each case for years, Hoesch/Kniffka/Scheibmair competed together as a crew for the first time. They defended their position on the winners’ podium with sixth place in the last race.

Title holder Dieter Schön (with Andreas Huber and Stig Westergaard) improved up to fourth place in the course of the event. The Danish former champion of the Dragon class, Poul-Richard Hoj-Jensen (with Jann Neergard and Jacob Guhle), came in fifth, ahead of the youngest helmsman in the competition, Philipp Ocker from Geretsried (with Sebastian Hubert and Florian Grosser).

The social high point of the World Championship took place the day before the first race: 63 Dragons took part in the Childhood Charity Race, which Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden watched personally as the founder of the World Childhood Foundation and patron of the event on the water.

Over 110,000 Euros were collected for the foundation from registration fees, donations and an auction at the Charity Evening. The World Childhood Foundation is particularly committed to helping exploited and abused young women and mothers.

Overall Results

1. Jorgen Schönherr, Anders Kaempe and Axel Waldersdorph (Denmark), 24 points

2. Harm Müller-Spreer, Markus Wieser and Thomas Auracher (Hamburg), 34 points

3. Vincent Hoesch, Harro Kniffka and Max Scheibmair (Rimsting/Chiemsee), 41 points

4. Dieter Schoen, Andreas Huber and Stig Westergaard (Elsbethen near Salzburg), 71 points

5. Poul-Richard Hoj-Jensen, Jann Neergard and Jacob Guhle (Denmark), 72 points

6. Philipp Ocker, Florian Grosser, Christopher Sachs (Geretsried), 82 points