KOREG Team Wins Moscow Act III(Moscow, Russia)- The third event of the Russian J/70 Sailing League took place on the Khimkinsky Lake just northwest of Moscow, hosted by the Royal Yacht Moscow in a fleet of nine J/70s. After this third stage (the first two were in Sochi and Sevastopol) and three days of sailing that produced 21 races, it is the QPRO Sailing team that is leading the Russian J/70 Sailing League overall, followed by the Sochi crew on KOREG Team in second and the CALYPSO Team in third. Team KOREG won the third stage held in Moscow, giving them a significant boost in the overall standings.
Nine teams were competing including the Koreg Sailing Team (Oleg Kuzmin, Sochi), Ugar Crew (Ruslan Yakupov, Moscow), 100 Captains (Alexey Moskvin, Astrakhan), Calypso (Igor Lipen, Tuapse), Traktor Sailing Team (Eduard Podshivalov, Chelyabinsk), QPRO Sailing Team (Anna Burykina, Moscow), Kadetov Team (Ivan Kadetov, Taganrog), Caramba! (Alexey Znamensky / Dmitry Kuznetsov, Moscow) and ZilArt Sailing Team (Zoran Paunovich, Moscow).
During the three days of racing on the flat waters of the pretty, tree-shrouded lake, the sailors experienced completely different weather every day. Friday was heavy airs with just three races. Saturday saw ten races in winds from 10 to 18 kts. Sunday had eight races in just 4 to 9 kts of breeze.
FRIDAY- Windy and shifty!On the first day, three races were held. Two races were won by the Koreg Sailing Team and one by the QPRO Sailing Team. These teams also occupied the top spots at the end of the day. In third position was the Traktor Sailing Team.
“Today, the racing was held in heavy wind conditions- 3-4 m/s from the south-west,” explains the Chief Judge of the regatta, Vitaly Trushin. “Everything was fine, without excess issues or fouls by any teams. Teams participating in the competition are mostly good, "strong” would be a good description. Other, however, might be described as ‘rude’ and we will certainly educate them!”
“The feeling was amazing,” said the helmsman of Ugar Crew- Ruslan Yakupov. “The Moscow Lake always presents surprises, some races can be real lotteries! Of course, for a team like ours, it is convenient to write off everything as a lottery. But, here the percentage of unpredictability is really high. And, we also have maneuvers on which we must work on. The opponents are very strong, especially the three leading teams. They are the league ‘standard’, so it adds excitement to our progress!”
“It
was interesting, of course, I would have liked to race more on the
first day, but we understand that the weather did not allow it with so
much wind,” said Ivan Kadetov from Taganrog. “The conditions were
complex, as always on the Moscow lakes! All the guys are good fellows,
the competition is high and the racing turned out to be challenging. I'm
on a J/70 for the first time, it’s a great boat, we feel quite
comfortable sailing it!”“It's fun,” said the helmsman of 100 Captains- Alexey Moskvin. "The wind was on all sides, and at the same time! The conditions were very difficult. The biggest problem we have was gybing the gennaker in big breeze. For a long time we coped with it, but at the end of the day, we mastered the turning technique, so that we didn’t broach!”
SATURDAY- Perfect Shorts & Shades Day!
The weather on Saturday weather permitted the judges to provide excellent racing all day. Unlike Friday’s puffy, unstable wind, the weather changed drastically, a beautiful stable north wind of 10 knots with gusts to 15 enabled 10 races to be run.
At
the end of the day, the Sochi Koreg Sailing Team of Oleg Kuzmin rose to
the first place in the overall standings. The leaders of the overall
standings based on the results of the regattas in Sochi and Sevastopol,
the QPRO Sailing Team with woman skipper Anna Burykina from Moscow, was
not up to par and retreated to second place. Third place was held by the
team from Chelyabinsk, the Traktor Sailing Team with skipper Eduard
Podshivalov.“The competitors, as usual, sailed smartly,” said the helmsman Igor Lipen on the Calypso team. “It was a nice change of weather! If finally allowed us to enjoy the sun and good winds…it was fun racing! We are excited, too, as our team was selected to represent our club in the Russian J/70 Nationals that will be in the fall!”
"The race is challenging, the competitors are tough,” noted Igor Puzanov of Caramba team. “The wind was shifty, so each team had the opportunity to win a race. We try, we fight, we compete. Some good, some bad! We are in the middle of the fleet. Nevertheless, today was a success! We hope that tomorrow will be different and the wind will allow us to conduct a large number of races!”
SUNDAY- Cloudy Epic Finale!The final day of the regatta met the sailors with a gloomy sky and low clouds. The main thing was the wind, just enough to race with 4 to 9 kts of breeze.
There was hot competition with teams pushing the limits. The highly variable wind simply made the competitors more anxious, for those who wanted to improve their standings. And, for the race managers, they were worried to get in enough good racing for the teams assembled from across the vast empire of Russia.
At the conclusion of racing on Sunday, the KOREG Sailing Team managed to ultimately take a dozen 1sts in 21 races, finally sealing their victory in Moscow. However, with four 1sts and taking the silver, the Moscow QPRO Sailing Team remained at the top of the overall leaderboard in the series. Taking third was the Traktor Sailing Team with two 1sts in their race tallies.
The next regatta for the Russian J/70 Sailing League takes place from June 23 to 25 on Pskov Lake. After that it will be St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and back to Sochi on the Black Sea.
Some nice J/70 sailing videos from the Russian Sailing League:
https://www.facebook.com/russiansailingleague/videos/463076894030280/
https://www.facebook.com/russiansailingleague/videos/463517103986259/
https://www.facebook.com/russiansailingleague/videos/462655074072462/
https://www.facebook.com/russiansailingleague/videos/467630583574911/
https://youtu.be/zxMdWaK7YuY
Sailing photo credits- Andrey Sheremetyev Follow on Facebook the Russian J/70 Sailing League here For more Russian Sailing Federation Sailing League information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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