Dragon World Championship: Favourites win off Vilamoura, NRV trio shines in the final sprint

The new kite world champions had already secured their titles before the final: Andy Beadsworth, Simon Fry and Enes Caylak were unstoppable at the predominantly strong-wind Dragon World Championship. The eight races in the Portuguese sailing area of Vilamoura were challenging and varied.

Beadsworth kite dominant in strong winds

With just 17 points on their World Championship account and three race wins, the trio on the Turkish "Provezza Dragon" left no doubt about their ability in powerplay conditions from the outset. For British professional sailor Andy Beadsworth in Enes Caylak's boat, it was his fourth World Championship title after 2013, 2017 and 2019. The 58-year-old Soling Olympic silver medallist from Sydney 2000 won his first Dragon gold twelve years ago with Klaus Diederichs under the British flag.

Klaus Diederichs, on the other hand - also a two-time Dragon World Champion - narrowly missed out on the podium in this World Championship edition with Starboat World Champion Diego Negri and Jamie Lea in the boat in fourth place. Team Ginkgo Racing secured silver: sailing under the Swiss flag, Jan Eckert, former match race world champion Torvar Mirsky from Australia and Starboat ace Frederico Melo finished second with 44 points, 27 points more than the winners.

Just two points behind the Swiss Dragon, Pedro Rebelo de Andrade, José Leitmann and former America's Cup sailor Charlie Nankin finished the World Dragon Championships in bronze. The best team under the German flag was Christoph Toepfer, Michael Koch and Markus Koy from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein in Hamburg in seventh place. Stephan Link, Frank Butzmann and Ingo Borkowski sailed to 16th place, Nicola Friesen with Michael Lipp and Martin Westerdahl to 21st place. Click here for the final result of the 2025 Dragon World Championship in Vilamoura.

Strong World Cup premiere for the Toepfer team

Christoph Toepfer and his crew got more and more into their stride at their first world championship together. This was also due to the fact that the initially strong winds combined with steep waves put the NRV team to the test. But then the trio improved significantly. In the final phase, Toepfer, Koch and Koy shone with 9th and 2nd place before concluding the series in lighter winds with a convincing victory on the day.

Christoph Toepfer said: "We have already achieved some good results in recent years. That's why we thought that the top ten might be possible. We are very happy with the result. Seventh place is a great result. Perhaps we hadn't practised enough in such strong conditions in the run-up to the World Championship. So it took a while..."

"There are many professionals in the top eight. I am a full amateur." Christoph Toepfer

The Toepfer team has thus made a promising start to what is only their second season together. The helmsman knows: "The power density at the front is very high." But the GER trio wants to advance further. Christoph Toepfer's outlook: "It has to be said that Andy Beadsworth and his team have raced very consistently. But we have also been able to beat him in Grand Prix regattas. See also the last World Championship race in less wind. Unfortunately, the last World Championship day had to be cancelled due to too little wind. We hope to make it onto the podium at major events in two or three years' time."

REPLAY! A clip from race 2 of the Dragon World Championship shows how powerful the action was, especially in the first half of the race: