The “Yeahnah” wins the first race of the Puerto Portals Dragon Winter Series

The “Yeahnah”, of Jan Eckert, has been claimed the champion of the first race of the Puerto Portals Dragon Winter Series which has been contested in the Bay of Palma.

The Australian boat arrived at the last journey of the competition as leader of the race and with a certain advantage, but its opponents did not make it easy for the ship and ended up winning in a tight finish by just one point ahead of "Miss Behaviour", which came second.

The races started on time thanks to the Northeast wind (060º) that was established at 11.00h in the morning. The fleet, composed by a dozen vessels of the Dragon class, have been able to complete three score sheets in nearly three hours and a half. It might seem that everything went smoothly, but, in reality, the continuous wind shifts did not make it easy for the Race Committee.

In the three races sailed, it was necessary to reposition the course halfway through the course, coincidentally in all three cases this occurred on the second upwind leg, and only the diligent action of the expert committee allowed the races to go ahead.

In the first one-mile race of the day, the Austrian boat "Basic Logic", of Werner Deuring, won, followed by "Yeahnah", of Jan Eckert, who, with this result, seemed to be settling at the top of the rankings, as he had managed to increase the gap over the rest of his pursuers.

But Jan Secher's "Miss Behavior" didn't give up and went for it in the second race of the day. The Swedish boat not only won this second leg, followed by Germany's "Goldkante" and Portugal's "Easy", but also saw "Yeahnah" lag behind and cross the finish line in fifth place.

As a result, the Australian leader had to face the last race of the Puerto Portals Dragon Winter Series with just a two-point lead over "Miss Behavior", a very slim margin in a fleet as evenly matched and competitive as the one that sailed this weekend in the Bay of Palma.

The final race was very exciting. The “Yeahnah" subjected "Miss Behavior" to a fierce marking, trying to get a boat in between them in order to overtake them in the classification, and the change of direction towards the end of the course added even more nerves to the situation. The Swedish team's objective was not possible and they reached the finish line in fourth place with "Yeahnah" just behind them in fifth place. Portugal's "Easy" took advantage of the fight between these two boats for the final victory to take the win in this third leg.

The overall classification of this first round of the Puerto Portals Dragon Winter Series has been headed with 14 points by "Yeahnah", which on this occasion has had a crew formed by Jan Eckert, Torvar Mirsky and Frederico Melo. Second place went to Sweden's "Miss Behavior", which scored 15 points, and Michael Zankel's Portuguese boat "Easy" occupied the third step of the podium.

Yeahnah's rivals will be able to take their revenge in less than a month, as the competition will return to the Bay of Palma from the 10th to the 12th of November with the second round of the VII Puerto Portals Dragon Winter Series.