(Sochi, Russia)- As if winning the Monaco J/70 Winter Sportsboat series
was not enough, Valeriya Kovalenko’s ARTTUBE RUS-1 team also won the
Russian National Sailing League winter series in Sochi, Russia on the
Black Sea! The primary condition for qualifying for the final was the team's participation in at least three stages of the Winter Series. In total, six qualifying regattas were held for the Winter Series finale. The final regatta took place from March 2nd to 4th with the sponsorship support of SFGB YUG SPORT and RADIO MONTE CARLO.
Despite
the vicissitudes of the weather, one can safely say that participants
in the Winter Series finale were lucky regards the conditions. On Friday
it was sunny, with 7-8 kt winds, seven races were held. On Saturday,
the wind was much greater, perhaps, too much for some crews- by the end
of the third race of the day, wind speeds reached 21+ knots, and gusts
over 25-27 kts! As a result, the organizers decided to end the race day.
The start of races on the closing day was scheduled for 8:00 am. In 3.5
hours, six more races were held. Thus, in the final tabulation of 16
starts, each team had 11 races.Thirteen teams from across Russia, from St Petersburg to the west (on the Baltic Sea) to Vladivostok (on the edge of the Pacific) and all points in between participated in the event. The teams included: Art Tube RUS-1 (Valeriya Kovalenko); "Sail Lord- ASIA" (Sergei Musikhin); Zid Art Sailing Team (Zoran Paunovich); Calipso (Vladimir Shishkin); Fireball (Yuri Morozov); Navigator Sailing Team (Igor Rytov); DC Team (Denis Cherevatenko); Trem Sailing 2 (Alexander Peterson); Valentine’s Angels (Valentin Uvarkin); Parma Lukomorye (Vitaly Tarakanov); Region 23 ( Evgeny Nikiforov); “Seven Yachts" (Karina Teliants), and ”East-West" (Ivan Batrakov).
On the first day of racing, seven races were held. Therefore, 11 teams had 5 starts and two teams (Fireball and Navigator Sailing) had just 4 starts. The leader after the first day was Valeriya Kovalenko’s ArtTube RUS-1. Second was Sergey Musikhin’s "Lord of the Sail- ASIA". Third place, tied on points with Musikhin’s team was the crew of Zid Art Sailing Team, helmed by Zoran Paunovich.
As
if on cue, Kovalenko’s ARTTUBE RUS-1 crew continued to dominate the
event on the final day. They accumulated a staggering scoreline of
three 1sts, six 2nds, and one 3rd to win with just 18 pts net. It was a
stunning display of consistency from such a talented crew. For Lera’s
team, it was a repeat win from last year. "We are very happy for our winter season and are happy to race again in Sochi," said Ms. Kovalenko. “The success of our team is based on the guys from Taganrog!”
Taking second in the final regatta was the Navigator Sailing Team skippered by Igor Rytov. Then, rounding out the podium in third place was Team Fireball, helmed by Yuri Morozov.
The official sponsoring partner of the Winter Series was the drinking water "Shishkin Les". The principal media/ press partner- Radio Monte Carlo, and the host yacht club was SFBG Yug Sport. Sailing Photo credits- Roman Chugunov and Elena Razina For more Russian National J/70 Sailing League information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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