Smith has Dragon Gold Cup in sights

A finishing place anywhere inside the top 12 in today’s final race of the Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup should secure the 65-year old trophy for Britain’s Lawrie Smith, who is sailing for Glandore Harbour Sailing Club.

In theory at least, Smith’s performance this week — apart from one slip on Monday — has been consistent enough to deliver the result .

The former round the world race skipper placed second yesterday in breezy conditions off the Old Head of Kinsale but that was more than enough to overtake the previous overnight leaders, Dmitry Samokhin with Andrey Kirilyuk and Aleksey Bushuev from Russia, when the St Petersbrug crew had their worstresult of the series, finishing 20th.