South West Championships sponsored by Aberdeen Asset Management.

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Falmouth, UK, Tuesday 7 July 2009 – The twenty-four crews competing in the Dragon South Western Championship sponsored by Aberdeen Asset Management and hosted by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club from 5-7 July 2009, enjoyed three days of challenging and closely fought sailing with eight of the ten scheduled races being completed. The regatta was also the warm up event for the Edinburgh Cup (the Dragon Open British Championship) which will be hosted by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club from 8-11 July.

America's Cup veteran and Etchells and Melges 24 World Champion Bill Hardesty from San Diego, USA, helming for Quentin Strauss of Medway, Kent, claimed the South Western Championship by a ten point margin from Ireland's Andrew Craig, with IDA Chairman Rob Campbell, from Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, third overall.

As winds ranged from the high teens to over 30 knots it was very much a heavy airs regatta. The opening four-race day was sailed in 20-25 knots from the southwest with regular rainsqualls leaving the crews exhausted and several boats mending broken gear. Day two brought even stronger south westerly winds with a steady 25-28 knots, squalls of over 30 knots, more rain and more gear failures including a broken rig for the crew of GBR740 Pageboy X - Clive, Graeme and Rory Page. Having completed two races the Race Committee wisely elected to send the crews in for the day as conditions worsened - a decision supported by everyone. Fortunately the wind abated a little and the sun came out for the third day enabling the fleet to enjoy two final races in 16-20 knots from the north, which brought the added advantage of flat water.

This was Bill Hardesty's first experience of racing a Dragon, but that didn't stop him putting in a bravura performance. Sailing GBR723 Gorgeous Worgeous crewed by owner Quentin Strauss and Nigel Young of North Sails, both extremely successful keelboat sailors in their own right; Hardesty opened the regatta somewhat contentiously. He finished race one in first place, but was subsequently disqualified by the protest committee over a port/starboard infringement. This proved to be a minor blip however, and in race two he took third, before going on to win the remaining six races of the series. As a result he found himself being the only boat to fly the special blue "Aberdeen Asset Management" spinnaker, which is awarded daily to the event leader.

Dragon South Western Championship - Top Ten Results