Russia J/70 Winter Series Announcement

(Moscow, Russia)- The 2021 J/70 National Sailing League in Russia has announced their NSL Winter Series has started in Sevastopol, Crimea and will run for five total events from mid-January to the end of March. The fleet of twelve matched one-design J/70s are available to teams from across Russia, from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, and Moscow down to Sochi on the Black Sea. 


There was real winter weather at the 1st Stage in Sevastopol. Everything including the kitchen sink was thrown at the fleet by the weather Gods...light airs, squalls, planing mode, drifting mode, sunny skies, snow, sleet.  No matter what hit the fleet, the sailors were undeterred. Air temperatures ranging from 28 F to 45 F didn't seem to affect any of the sailors who were determined to get on the water, having missed sailing so much because of covid pandemic canceled events. 

Enjoy some of these very cool photos taken over the course of three days of competition.



The next stages will all be sailed in Sevastopol, easily the "warmest" southern port on the Black Sea for the Russian sailing teams. Here is the remaining schedule:

• Stage 2-January 29-31
• Stage 3-February 12-14
• Stage 4-February 26-28
• Final - March 12-14

 ⠀Follow Russian J/70 Sailing League on Facebook here   For more Russian J/70 Sailing League informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.

ARTTUBE RUS-1 WINS TENZOR CUP BY PROYACHTING J/70 CHAMPION SERIES

 

(Sochi, Russia)- For the 2020 sailing season, PROYachting partnered with TENZOR Consulting Group to launch a new series that gathered together the best Russian sailing teams in the J/70 class. The regatta was run along the lines of the notable sailing leagues in Russia and across Europe. The event was composed of matched J/70 one-designs with new sails, professional refereeing, convenient locations, and of course the best sailors in all of Russia dueling for top honors. The series started in Moscow at the Royal Yacht Club, thereafter to the Konakovo River Club, then to Pirogovo, and then the finale in the famous Black Sea resort of Sochi.


After five races, winning the finale in Sochi was the DC Team, followed by Team ARMORED in second and Valeriya Kovalenko's familiar ARTTUBE RUS-1 Team in third. 

As a result, the ARTTUBE RUS-1 team of Ms. Kovalenko and crew of Sergey Avdonin, Igor Lisovenko, and Denis Rozhkov were declared the overall winners for the TENZOR CUP by PROYachting series! The team performed great at all four stages and deservedly took the overall championship. Congratulations! 


For the balance of the podium, taking the Silver was the DC Team skippered by the ever-competitive Denis Cherevatenko. And, taking the bronze was Team BARS skippered by yet another top Russian woman- Karen Stepanyan.  For more J/70 one-design class sailing information.  For more Russian J/70 Class sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.

AKHMAT Crowned Russia J/70 National Champions

 

(Pirogovo, Russia)- An eighteen-boat J/70 fleet from across Russia gathered together at the amazing Pirogovo Yacht Club on the Klyazma River immediately north of Moscow for an excellent four-day weekend of racing. With nearly perfect fall weather, the regatta PYC PRO managed to run fifteen races for the happy sailors.


The first day dawned sunny, warm with a 5-10 knots breeze flowing down the river that ultimately built to 1- to 17 kts of breeze. For the next two days, the weather hardly changed, with the same conditions blessing everyone with great racing conditions on flat water.


In the end, it was the AKHMAT TEAM that won with a very strong 48 pts in the fifteen races, for an amazing 3.7 average in 13 races counted.  A very familiar team took the silver, Valeriya Kovalenko's ARTTUBE RUS1 with a nearly similar scoreline for 52 pts. In fact, she just beat by one point a newcomer to the Russian J/70 circuit, the ELF TEAM.  Sailing Photo Credits- Valeria Isaenko   For more Russian J/70 Championship sailing information

ZID ART Team Wins Russian J/70 Sailing League- Act IV

 

(Sevastopol, Crimea)- Traditionally, Russia's National Sailing League competitions in their swiftly growing fleet of J/70s (now 36 in three locations!) consist of six stages, including the Grand Finale generally held in Sochi, Russia on the Black Sea. However, like just about everyone else around the world, the 2020 season was heavily affected by the pandemic.  The regatta schedule was adjusted to the same number of events but compressed into just three months and just two locations- Sevastopol, Crimea and Abrau-Durso, Russia. Both are southern locations on the Black Sea and, generally, have comfortable weather and sailing conditions, even in the late fall season. Here is the report from Act IV held in Sevastopol. 


Day 1- Light and shifty
Fifteen teams from different regions of Russia are participating on the spectacular waters of Sevastopol Bay; including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Tuapse, Grozny and, of course, Sevastopol.

The first day of racing did not begin until noon, as the wind in the water area was constantly shifting and oscillating in pressure. However, the race committee still managed to start ten races during the afternoon.

“We waited for the wind until half past twelve,” said Chief Judge Anna Deyanova. "By the end of the day, the wind increased in gusts to 12 knots. In the morning, a west wind was blowing, but in the evening, it shifted into the east."

From the first races, the Moscow ZID art Sailing team took the lead. The ZID ART Sailing Team skippered by Zoran Paunovic scored only 11 points in six races, winning three of them.

“We were worried, because this is not really our weather,” said Zoran Paunovic. "We have a very well-coordinated team, we have been working together for a long time, and today we just waited for our moment."

“Master of the Sail-ASIA” was just three points behind, which had only five races. The crew of Sergei Musikhin celebrated only one victory for the day.

“At this stage, there are just three very competitive teams racing,” says Sergei Musikhin. "We are just adapting to this situation. The shifty wind only adds to the difficulty!"

Another contender for the medals was Kirill Frolov's Bronenosec crew from St. Petersburg. The team from the northern capital managed to score 16 points in six races, including three victories.

The closest pursuer of the virtual medalists was Moscow's X-FIT. At this stage, Boris Kucherenko is at the helm of the team. The team is separated from the third position by only 6 points. The top five is rounded out by the Academy of Sailing of the Yacht Club of St. Petersburg. The crew, led by skipper Anna Basalkina, scored 27 points in seven starts.


Day 2
Contrary to all forecasts, the wind died by noon, but then filled back in with a gentle sea breeze. The racing committee managed to get 12 more starts, so the regatta had 22 races completed.

“The day was very productive, we used all the time allotted for the races," said Chief Judge Deyanova. "A distinctive feature of today was the parade of Russian Navy ships. We have never seen such a number of huge ships crossing our fleet! The people on the beach were also happy to see the show."

For Saturday's racing, the ZID ART Sailing team broke away from their rivals by a crushing number of points - 21 pts total. Zoran Paunovich's team never finished below third place in seven races.

Nevertheless, a new slate of teams was able to adapt to the variable conditions on Sevastopol Bay, some gained significantly, while the previous day's leaders tumbled down the ladder. 

The St. Petersburg team, led by Anna Basalkina, gathered strength. Having started the second racing day with a victory, the “Academy of Sailing of the Yacht Club of St. Petersburg” confidently finished the day in second place overall.  

“It cannot be said that the sea conditions are strong, as the wind often came from the shore, so it was not easy,” said Anna Basalkina. "At this stage, we have an updated line-up for our team. The races are very tight, it's tough sailing! ZID art gives no mercy to anyone, but everything will be decided for us in the last races."

Two teams are fighting for the third step on the podium; Akhmat and Calipso sailing teams. The national team of the Chechen Republic, the AKHMAT Sailing Club, had a new crew under the leadership of Christian Chech. They got accustomed to the sailing conditions and rallied fast, climbing five places after fourteen races! They are racing neck-in-neck with the team from Tuapse; Maxim Taranov's CALIPSO crew, they also adapted to the conditions, taking first three times!


Day 3
On the final day of racing, the Crimean wind again was unstable in the first half of the day. The sailors had to wait for more than an hour for the wind to become steady enough to resume the races. Again, the race committee managed to get 8 more good races in to complete the regatta; 30 races in three days, and each team had 18 races to count!

“In the morning, the wind was blowing along the bay, its direction was completely incomprehensible,” said Chief Judge Deyanova. "In the afternoon we got a great wind from a completely opposite direction, which gave us tight starts and interesting finishes. Thanks to Sevastopol for these great conditions!"

Sunday's races helped some teams catch up with their rivals and rectify the situation for the past two racing days.

After a hard start, the 2019 League champion AKHMAT Sailing Club was still able to climb several positions. The new crew from the Chechen Republic, skippered by Christian Cech, did not quite reach the podium, just eight points shy, but enough to take fourth place. 

The Sailing Academy of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club managed to garner the bronze medal. Anna Basalkina's crew, replenished with new members, was able to climb onto the podium with steady sailing.


“We are glad to have the bronze medal, because we were still fighting for second position,” said Anna Basalkina. "We had serious shortcomings; it was hard to fight through them. This weekend did not go as I expected. We will arrive at the next stronger, for sure!  I hope it will be easier for us."

This event was hard for the CALIPSO team from Tuapse, which tried to adapt to the difficult waters of Sevastopol Bay on Friday. Then, on Saturday, their team gathered strength and earned six victories in two racing days. As a result, the elated and relieved CALIPSO team took home the silver medal.

“In the last race, we had to finish no lower than fifth place," said Maxim Taranov. "Starting the last downwind leg, we were sixth, everywhere we went, we got into difficulties. On the last run, the smart ones went to the right, the other ones to the left, and we stayed in the middle. We chose our path, and it turned out to be the correct one! We arrived first to the weather mark, then finished first, and dashed Anna Basalkina's hopes for second place. Thankfully, Lady Fortune smiled on us!"

There was no equal in Sevastopol to the ZID ART Sailing team. From the very first day, the Moscow team began to break away from their rivals. By the end of the third racing day, the gap between first and second place was 20 points. With seven victories to their credit, Zoran Paunovic's crew won the gold in the Upper Division for the first time.

“This is my first win in the Premier League. Of course, I am very happy," said Paunovich. "Standing on the stage, I recalled our victory here last year in the Sevastopol International Cup. By comparison, I don't know when it was more difficult, then or now. This time I was more worried, as we are a heavy team, and the forecast did not promise a strong wind. As a result, we have shown that it's not in vain that we have been sailing with such a line-up. The crew understands each other perfectly."

Thanks must go to the following supporters of the Russian National J/70 Sailing League:

• the Government of Sevastopol
• the Sailing Federation of Sevastopol
• Gazprom AG
• Nord Stream AG with the Nord Stream Race project
• the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping
• the federal network of X-FIT fitness clubs.
• communications: Down-the-line.com, Ocean TV, Yachting magazine.

Follow the Russian Sailing League on Facebook here.  For more Russian National J/70 Sailing League informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.

Russian J/70 Wins Primo Cup- Trophee Credit Suisse!!

ELF Dominates J/70 Primo Cup- Credit Suisse Regatta
(Monte Carlo, Monaco)- Yacht Club Monaco's 36th Primo Cup– Trophée Credit Suisse took place last weekend off Monte Carlo, Monaco in what could only be described as "champagne" sailing conditions. For the first time in recent memory, the enormous sixty-five-boat J/70 fleet was treated to brilliant sunshine, relatively flat waters, and southerly breezes in the 8 to 15 knots range for all three days.


The regatta was the first "dress rehearsal" for the 2021 J/70 World Championship that will be sailed in the same waters and hosted by YC Monaco from 18th to 23rd October, 2021. Last year's winner, Ludovico Fassitelli on JUNDA, commented that, “you have to be constantly on the alert, always on the lookout without ever lowering your guard. Obviously, we want to win, but at the same time we are trialing new sails to decide which to use for the Worlds”.


From day one, the Russians on ELF flew into the lead, never to relinquish the top of the podium.  On the first day, they were fast out the starting blocks with three 2nd places. By Sunday afternoon, they had won their first-ever YCM Primo Cup Trophee Credit Suisse regatta; their skipper Mikhail Sheremetev and crew (Sergey Sobolev, Maksim Sheremetev, Pavel Sysoev, and Mikhail Chegurov) were overjoyed with their amazing performance. The Swiss team on CER APROTEC- VILLE DE GENEVE, skippered by Nelson Mettraux, took back to Geneva the silver medal. Finally, taking the bronze was YC Monaco's own Giangiacomo Serena di Lapigio, skippering G-SPOTTINO. The balance of the top five included the "hard-luck" American team on FURIO in fourth place, they were in second place overall going into the last day, but a disastrous last race 26th dropped them off the podium. Taking fifth position was the Cyprus/ Russian team on AMAIZ, skippered by Viacheslav Martynov.


The Corinthians Division saw extremely tight racing with the winners determined on a tie-breaker at 60 points each.  Winning that tie-break on count-back was United Kingdom crew on BRUTUS- skipper Charles Thompson with crew of Tony Hanlon, Ian Southworth, and Craig Burlton. Taking the silver was Cesar Gabasio's Monaco team on TINNJ70 that included Paolo Canale, Pietro Corbucci, and Gianluca Caboni.  Third went to a well-known YC Monaco crew- Stefano Roberti's PICCININA with crew of Axelle Foucaud, Yves Drappier, and Ludovic Broquaire.   Sailing video highlights of first day   For more YC Monaco Primo Cup- Trophee Credit Suisse sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.

Russian J/70 Winter Series in Full Swing!

(Sochi, Russia)- The third stage of the Russian J/70 Sailing League Winter Series just completed last weekend in Sochi, Russia.  The fleet was blessed with wonderful racing weather on the sometimes-tempestuous Black Sea; over the two days of sailing, the sailors enjoyed a total of nine races! Yug Sport FSBI played host to the teams from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Tuapse.


The first race day produced fantastic sailing.  The PRO managed to run six races in winds up to 19 kts of breeze. Most races were around 30 minutes duration, so the teams were being pushed to their physical and mental limits, all races being double windward-leeward courses.

“We were very lucky with the weather! On the first day, the wind was from 10 to 19 knots with good waves," said Nikolai Yushkov, Chief Judge for the Winter Series. “We had six races of 30-40 minutes each, which all participants were very pleased with.”


The results after the first day produced a very tight standings at the top of the leaderboard, with BARS Sailing team leading with 11 pts, followed by ZID ART Sailing team in second place with 13 pts, and the Battleship Team in third position with 15 pts.


Sunday's wind was not as nice as the first day, so the PRO managed to run three races for the teams. For the first time this season, the winter series awarded both Professional (Open) and Corinthians Division teams. Winning the Professional Division for the first time was Ilya Polishchuk's BARS Sailing team. Taking the silver just behind and also winning the Corinthians Division was Zoran Paunovich's ZID ART Sailing team. Taking the bronze medal on the podium was Cyril Frolov's “Battleship”.

Rounding out the top five were Maxim Taranov's CALIPSO in fourth position and Igor Ignatov's DOBRYNYA in fifth place.

There are three more events taking place in the Russian J/70 Winter Series in Sochi in January, February, and March 2020.  Follow the Russian J/70 Sailing League on Facebook  For more Russian J/70 Sailing League Winter Series information Add to Flipboard Magazine.

ZID ART SAILING Win J/70 Sevastopol International Cup

(Sevastopol, Crimea)- The inaugural Sevastopol J/70 International Cup was sailed from the 4th to the 6th of October. The regatta was held in conjunction with the Sevastopol Sailing Week festival.

Eighteen teams from Russia, Serbia and Ireland participated in the first open international regatta in Sevastopol.  Some of the leading teams included, B-TEAM (Russia, Artem Basalkin), M-SAILING–CSKA (Russia, Alexandr Bozhko), MATRYOSHKA (Russia, Natalia Kravez), WILD CARD (Ireland, William Twomey), X-Fit (Russia, Vladimir Chaus), ZID ART Sailing team (Serbia, Zoran Paunovic), GALS (Russia, Sergey Dzhienbaev), DOBRYNYA (Russia, Igor Ignatov), ROSMOSPORT (Russia, Anton Timakov), and BLACK SEA NAVAL School (Russia, Petr Gorkunov). Here are the daily reports how the competition unfolded in a unique format.  The first two days were qualifiers for the top 10 teams. Then, on the final day, the “Gold Medal Races” for ten teams would determine the champion in a winner-take-all finale of three races.

Day 1
The sailing was good on the first day, with twelve total races run (6 for each team) before the close of racing for the day due to lack of sunlight! Leading after the first day was Artem Basalkin’s B-TEAM from Russia. Leading after the first two races was Alexander Bozhko’s M-SAILING CSKA team from Russia, however, they dropped to second place after posting a fourth place in their last race. Third place was a free-for-all, with four teams tied on 22 pts each after their six races.

Four different teams were claiming the third place. PEK: Sport won two races, Zoran Paunovic’s Serbian team on ZID ART SAILING won one and Sergey Dzhienbaev’s GALS also won one. The fourth crew was a top Russian woman sailor- Natalia Kravez- skippering MATRYOSHKA.

Day 2
The second day was full of surprises. The sailors were greeted in the morning with heavy rain that thankfully ended before noon. The Race committee then sent the teams out and ran 10 more races (5 for each team).

M-SAILING- CSKA showed an excellent performance and climbed back into first place back after two victories. B-TEAM has also won two races, but scored 5 extra points and ended the day in second place overall.

ZID ART Sailing team from Serbia beat all rivals after winning three races and ended the day in third place. GALS and X-Fit won one race each and were now fourth and fifth. MATRYOSHKA dropped to sixth place.

Day 3- Medal Race Finale
The final day of racing saw six qualifying races and three medal races. It was the first time the National Sailing League used this format.

After three days of racing, PEK: SPORT closed the Top-10 with two victories. Bill Twomey’s Irish team on WILD CARD finished 9th. The Saint Petersburg Yacht Club Youth Team was in 8th place. ALGA TATARSTAN from Kazan was in 7th place, winning their last race. MATRYOSHKA was three points behind the Top 5.

The final “Medal Races” were unpredictable and spectacular. The final results were calculated by the following method: your place after qualifying races + the sum of the points gained during medal races.

The top five qualifiers were M-SAILING- CSKA in first, ZID ART SAILING in second, B-TEAM third, GALS fourth, and X-FIT fifth.

In the three Medal Races, B-TEAM won two races and GALS won one race. However, ZID ART SAILING was the most consistent team in terms of results, scoring three seconds! The fate of the Cup was decided during the last medal race. B-TEAM won the race, but ZID ART Sailing team won the first Sevastopol J/70 International Cup.  Follow the Sevastopol J/70 International Cup on Facebook here   For more Sevastopol J/70 International Cup sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.

AHKMAT TEAM Win Russian J/70 National Championship!

(Sochi, Russia)- Two-dozen teams from across Russia assembled in Sochi, Russia to sail the 2019 Russian J/70 National Championship. The Sochi Grand Marina by Burevestnik Group hosted the three-day event. After a ten race, two discards series; it was Alexander Bozhko and his amazingly fast crew on AKHMAT that were crowned as the Russian J/70 National Champions.  Here is how it all went down on the choppy waters of the Black Sea off the Olympic city of Sochi.

Day 1
Included in the 24 teams that started the Russian J/70 Nationals were many of the past few year’s leading teams. Remarkably, there were five women skippers (the most ever in a major Russian sailing event) participating; including DOLCE VITA (steering Inna Balashova); ARTTUBE RUS1 (Valeria Kovalenko); TREM SAILING 1 (Alexandra Peterson); TREM SAILING 2 (Irina Sorokina); and MATRYOSHKA (Natalia Kravets).

The leading men’s crews included X-FIT (Vladimir Silkin); ZID ART SAILING TEAM (Zoran Paunovich); AKHMAT (Alexander Bozhko); and M-SAILING TEAM (Andrey Malygin).

Sochi is one of the favorite sailing areas for Russian sailing events. Nevertheless, this was the first time the J/70 Class held their Russian National Championship in the Olympic capital city.

The first race day turned out to be quite complicated, despite the forecasts foreshadowing the complete absence of wind and heavy rain. Fortunately, neither of them happened. But, unfortunately, a quiet wind set at 50-60 degrees, which twice led to race postponements right after the start. In the end, two races were held in the light northeast winds offshore.

Leading after the first day was Alexander Bozhko’s Chechnyian crew aboard AKHMAT; they had only 4 points in 2 races. The second and third place teams were tied with 7 pts each- the twin teams of M Sailing Team (Andrei Malygin) and M Sailing Team CSKA (Mikhail Poslamovsky). Sitting in fourth place just one point back was top woman helm Natalia Kravets on MATRYOSHKA. Fifth place also had a tie at 9 pts each- Peter Nosov’s CARAMBA and Zoran Paunovich’s ZID art Sailing team.

Day 2
For the second day of sailing, Sochi weather was again distinguished by its inconsistency. Contrary to expectations, the wind was not stable enough.

The Chief Judge of the regatta- Nikolay Yushkov- commented, “the day started very well. In the first two races, the southeast wind blew a steady 15 knots. We were glad that the races were longer, each taking about an hour. In the middle of the day, the wind changed its direction 180 degrees! Then, we waited a couple of hours for the wind to settle. Amazingly, the wind returned to his original southeast direction, and we were able to run two more races.”

As a result, four more races were added to the results for a total of six races to score. Further increasing their lead was Bozhko’s Chechen Republic team on AKMAT after posting two 1sts and two 2nds! However, close friend and archrival Valeria Kovalenko on ARTTUBE RUS 1 had an amazing day, posting two 1sts and a 3-4 to race up the standings into second place! Rising to third place was Malygin’s M-SAILING team.

Day 3
The final day of the regatta turned out to be a sight for sore eyes- a stable wind of up to 8 knots made it possible to run four more races, to make it ten races in all. Coincidentally, the teams could now discard their two worst results.

Chief Judge Nikolay Yushkov commented, “we had a great day! The sun, warmth, stable southeast wind- all the components for high-quality sailing! It is a pity that the day was shortened, otherwise they would still be racing, with big smiles on their faces!. Congratulations to the winners and prize winners!”

Crowned as the 2019 Russian J/70 National Champion was the team from the Chechen Republic on AHKMAT. Bozhko’s team sailed a phenomenal regatta, winning with just 17 pts total and not having to sail the last race! Rising to the challenge of maintaining a podium position was Malygin’s M-SAILING Team, taking the silver over Kovalenko’s ARTTUBE RUS 1 Team, who finished with the bronze medal.

Rounding out the top five were Yuri Morozov’s RUSSOTRANS in fourth place and Peter Nosov’s crew on CARAMBA in fifth.  Follow the Russian J/70 Sailing League on Facebook   For more Russian J/70 National Championship sailing information here Add to Flipboard Magazine.

DAS Sailing Crowned Italian J/70 Cup Champion

L’ELAGAIN wins Finale in San Remo
(San Remo, Italy)- The Italian J/70 class continues to grow and gain an increasing number of converts from other one-design class sailors from across the Italian peninsula. In addition, more teams from middle and northern Europe are making the trek down across the continent to participate in some of the strongest one-design sailing fleets in the world; remarkably fifteen nations from across the Eurasian continent participated- Poland, Russia, Germany, Monaco, United Kingdom, Malta, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Ireland, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, Slovenia, and France. In addition, there were teams from the USA in North America and Argentina from South America.

For the 2019 edition of the Italian J/70 Cup, ninety-eight teams participated in the Overall Division and forty-four teams participated in the Corinthians Division (nearly 50% of the fleet). The four event series started in Scarlino, then went east to Marina Dorica Ancona, back north to Malcesine on Lago di Garda, then west to San Remo in the Italian Riviera. It was a nice way to end the season on the sunny Mediterranean in the fall, with good breezes and excellent sailing. The YC San Remo hosted the event and provided a warm welcome to the fifty-two teams that competed in the finale.

SAN REMO- Act IV
In the end, winning the San Remo event was a familiar team to Italian racers, Franco Solerio’s L’ELAGAIN Team of Giulio Desiderato, Manuel Giubellini, Nick Dal Ferro, and Simone Spina. However, the big surprise was the team that took the silver; Germany’s Markus Wieser skippered MISSION IMPOSSIBLE to an easy second place. In fact, his crew of Diego Negri, Victor Marino, and Wolfgang Kaefer nearly did pull off the “mission impossible” of winning the San Remo event as the first foreign team to do so! It all came down to their last race, posting a dismal 24th that became their discard race and, thus, losing the regatta by three points! Italian Alessandro Zampori’s DAS SAILING TEAM took the final step on the podium with crew of Andrea Felci, Enrico Fonda, Filippo Amonti, and Martino Tortarolo. Then, rounding out the top five were in Italian Mauro Roversi’s J-CURVE with crew of Carlo Fracassoli, Federica Salva, Michele Ivaldi, and Stefano Orlandi in the fourth spot, and Russian diva Valeriya Kovalenko’s ARTTUBE RUS1 with team of Denis Rozhkov, Fabio Gridelli, Igor Lisovenko, and Sergey Avdonin settling for 5th place. The Russians only missed the podium by four points, again due to their 8th place in the last race.

J/70 CUP Overall
As a result of the San Remo event, the final tabulations of the 28 race series, with 5 discards, showed a clear winner amongst the 98 entrants.  Winning by a margin of 57 pts was Italian Alessandro Zampori’s DAS Sailing Team with 155 pts total; his crew consisted of Andrea Felci, Enrico Fonda, Filippo Amonti, and Martino Tortaroio. Second was another Italian team, Carlo Tomelleri’s ENJOY 1.0 with 213 pts total; sailing with crew of Alberto Taddei, Daniele de Luca, and Umberto de Luca. This year’s series produced yet another surprise podium finisher! The final race 8th in San Remo would surely come back to haunt her as finishing just 2 pts back was top Russian women skipper Valeriya Kovalenko on ARTTUBE RUS1; finishing with 215 pts! Nevertheless, after winning Monaco’s famous Primo Cup, Kovalenko has proven that she has not lost her touch once she has a strong team with her. Rounding out the top five was Luca Domenici’s NOTARO Sailing Team in fourth place, winning a tie-breaker at 231 pts on countback over another Italian team- Gianfranco Noe’s WHITEHAWK with crew of Emanuele Noe, Giuliano Chiandussi, Irene Giorgini, Maurizio Planine.

In addition to placing 5th in the Overall division, Noe’s WHITEHAWK team also collected more silverware as the winner of the 44-boat Corinthians Division. Behind them in second place was Alessio Zucchi’s WHY NOT SLAM with crew of Alessandro Maldina, Elisabetta Saccheggiani, Gabriele Arnulfo, and Amerigo Brandimarte and taking the bronze was Mauro Brescacin’s LA FEMME TERRIBLE with crew of Francesca Russo Cirillo, Paolo Tomsic, Matteo Omari, and Lorenzo Coslovich.  For more Italian J/70 Cup sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.

BYC Tops J/70 SAILING Champions League 3rd Qualifier

(St Petersburg, Russia)- Bayerischer Yacht-Club from Germany won the third and final Qualifier of the SAILING Champions League 2019. They won by 4 points from another German team- Wassersport-Verein Hemelingen. Union Yacht Club Wolfgangsee from Austria finished third. Of the twenty teams competing, the top six qualified for a place at the Finale in St. Moritz next month. They are:

• Bayerischer Yacht-Club (Germany)
• Wassersport-Verein Hemelingen (Germany)
• Union Yacht Club Wolfgangsee (Austria)
• PIRogovo (Russia)
• Regattaclub Oberhofen (Switzerland)
• St. Petersburg Yacht Club (Russia)

The event was frustrated by no racing on day one, due to excessively strong winds. This was followed by two days of very light airs, which meant only five flights of racing could be completed before the final day. The wind for the last day was also light, but consistent, and enough for another three flights, making every result count more than usual.

Skipper Julian Autenrieth from the winning Bayerischer Yacht-Club team commented, “The location in St. Petersburg is great here in the middle of the city. But, the conditions were really tricky, with the low winds and the current. You always had to be able to stay calm. What we did well throughout were the starts with the current. This meant that we were often starting off among the top three, which made the races easier for us.”

On Friday, there was a Gala Dinner under the theme of “Connecting Through Sport”, which took place alongside five international teams from the Nord Stream Race who had just completed the 1,000 mile offshore race along the length of the Baltic Sea.

Mans Lundberg from Finland was a sailor who competed in both the offshore Nord Stream Race and then went straight into the short-course J/70 sportsboat racing in the SAILING Champions League on the Neva River. “As I sailed in Nord Stream Race and SAILING Champions League, I knew a lot of the people at the Gala Dinner. It was very exciting connecting the sailors between both events. We were at the same table as the guys from Lithuania, and we talked a lot with them. It was a really nice event,” said Lundberg.

The Final of the SAILING Champions League will take place from 15 to 18 August in St. Moritz, Switzerland, high up in the Swiss Alps.

Livestream and results by SAP
The final two days of racing on Saturday and Sunday will be live broadcasted by SAP, with expert commentators providing blow-by-blow analysis of the racing, aided by the detail provided by SAP Sailing Analytics. The SAP Sailing Analytics provide 24/7 additional statistics and data for sailors, fans, spectators and media like GPS tracking, real-time analysis, live leaderboard combined with 2D visualization. You find all results on sapsailing.com!  Sailing Photo credits: SCL/Anya Semeniouk  For more SAILING Champions League information

Moscow PRO Yachting Evening Series Announcement!

 
(Moscow, Russia)- PRO Yachting Moscow announces that the Moscow Royal Yacht Club will be starting a new series of evening regattas on their fleet of a dozen J/70s.   

The Royal Yacht Club, located in the Dynamo Water Stadium just west of Moscow’s Red Square, will now provide more opportunities for sailing. The PRO Yachting Fun Race is designed for young teams, novice helmsmen, and novices to participant in evening races on the lake that is convenient to downtown Moscow.

“We decided to organize a series regatta, where it will be interesting for novice skippers to learn how to race, the only qualification being that you have to know how to sail. In addition, this will also be a good opportunity for absolute beginners to get acquainted with sailing in comfortable Moscow conditions on our flat water lake,” said Mikhail Kondratyev, General Director of PRO Yachting.

The regattas will be held every Thursday. Sailors should meet at the Royal Y.C. for the 1800 hrs skippers and team meeting, then the start of the first race will be by 1900 hrs. We will sail as many short races as we can get in by sunset!  Learn more about PRO Yachting’s Evening Learn to Race Program on J/70s here

Russian J/70 Sailing League Report

(Kazan, Russia)- The Russian J/70 Sailing League is well into the heart of their summer-long series that started back in late April in Sochi, Russia.  Below are the two reports from the Act III in Kazan and Act II in Tuapse.

UGAR CREW Win Kazan Regatta- Act III
The thirteen teams sailed on the waters of Kazan- Lake Nizhny Kaban- for the first time in the history of the Russian National Sailing League (the lake is an offshoot of the Volga River about 510 miles (820km) to the east of Moscow). Those teams came from all over the country, such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi and Konakovo. The teams included; B-Team (Milena Nikitina), Sail & Sea (Vasily Kharabardin), PEC: Sport Molodyozhka ( Dmitry Popkov), UGAR CREW (Ruslan Yakupov), Skolkovo Sailing Team (Elena Mukhametzyanova), PEC:Sport (Vadim Filatov), Khimgrad-Kazan (Roman Medvedev), Demidov Express (Vladislav Morozov), Vostok West 2 (Ivan Batrakov), Rosmorport (Ivanov Sergey), Lead IT! (Yuri Mishchenko), Dobrynya (Ekaterina Stolbneva), RBF Sailing Team (Alexander Mamyshev) and ZID Art Sailing team (Zoran Paunovich).

Day 1- Friday
On the first day, the bad weather from earlier in the week had cleared up, so the sailors were met by clear skies and a nice fresh wind gusting up to 20 kts. The RC PRO managed to run twelve races in total, six per team.

“We were lucky with the weather, there was a steady northerly wind of 8-10 knots, and during one of the races the gusts reached 20 knots,” says Chief Judge Albert Sadykov. “The races turned out to be dynamic and clean.”

Ruslan Yakupov’s UGAR CREW team started fast out-of-the-blocks and won their first three races, followed by a 5-3-2, to have a comfortable lead on the fleet. However, behind the UGAR CREW it was a tight struggle for the podium. All but two teams won races.  The most successful in that battle was SAIL & SEA skippered by Vasily Kharabardina, posting a 4-3-3-3-2-1 tally for the day. Then sitting in third was Zoran Paunovich’s ZID ART Sailing Team, starting fast, but then having mixed results later in the day and ending up with a 2-1-5-2-8-3 record.

Day 2- Saturday
The fleet was greeted by more most excellent racing weather. On Saturday, another 12 races were held; thus, in the course of two days, there were 24 races, each team sailing 12 times.

The main breakthrough on Saturday was the ascent to the top of the leaderboard by ZID art Sailing team. After a not quite successful performance on Friday, the team from Moscow won four out of six races (1-3-1-1-2-1). Paunovich’s well-orchestrated ZID Art crew consisted of Sergey Volchkov, Daniil Banayan and Ilya Zaporozhets.

After posting a consistent 6-3-2-2-2-5 record, sitting in second remained the leader from the previous day, Yakupov’s UGAR CREW (Vyacheslav Ivanov, Inal Berbekov and Andrey Ignatenko). And, still sitting in third was Kharabardin’s SAIL & SEA team with a tally of 2-6-1-3-3-5.

Day 3- Sunday
On the final day of the regatta, the weather continued to delight both the organizers and the sailors.  Despite the gusty winds, the race committee managed to provide 12 more starts. Thus, for the entire stage, 36 races were held, and each team sailed 18 times.

At the top of the standings, there was a change of positions. The winner of the Kazan stage Paunovich’s ZID ART Sailing team; eight wins in eighteen races is an excellent result. Congratulations to Zoran Paunovich, Sergey Volchkov, Daniil Banayan and Ilya Zaporozhts!

Gathering strength, Kharabardin’s SAIL & SEA team won four of the six races held on Sunday and recorded a 2-3 in the others! This phenomenal result allowed Kharabardin’s SAIL & SEA team (Vladislav Bondarenko, Mikhail Nechvolodov and Leonid Klepikov) to take home the silver medal.

Yakupov’s UGAR CREW did not perform as well on the final day, posting a 5-5-3-6-3-3 to drop into third place. 

“There was a gusty wind, it often changed direction, and it was possible to run aground along the coast,” said Yakupov. “In general, we really liked the regatta. Both the city and the organizers did a great job of conducting the stage in Kazan. The capital of the Republic of Tatarstan is very beautiful, people are beautiful, friendly. Only positive impressions remained. If we talk about the secret of the success of the team, we will not disclose it ye …until the end of the season- for sure!”

SAIL & SEA Tops Tuapse Regatta- Act II
The second event for the Russian J/70 National League was held off a commercial port on the Black Sea- Tuapse- about 70 miles (100 km) NNW of Sochi. Fourteen teams came from all over Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Voronezh and Yekaterinburg) to fight for more medals in Tuapse. Those teams included B-Team (Alexei Lesnikov), Sail & Sea (Vasily Kharabardin), PEC Sport Molodyozhka (Dmitry Popkov), UGAR CREW (Ruslan Yakupov), Skolkovo Sailing Team (Sergey Shvilkin), PEK Sport (Vadim Filatov), Khimgrad-Kazan (Maxim Uvarov), Demidov Express (Evgeny Somin), Mossebo (Andrei Evstifeev), East-West 2 (Ivan Batrakov), Assol Home Companions (Igor Lipen), Rosmorport (Anton Timakov), Lead IT! (Maxim Krukelis) and Dobrynya (Ekaterina Stolbnev).

Unlike their first event off Sochi, Tuapse was blessed with almost perfect weather all weekend, but perhaps not enough wind!

Day One- Friday
"For the entire first day in Tuapse, for the first time there was a steady wind that did not change direction for the whole day," said Chief Judge Daniel Deyanov. “The wind was between 4.5 and 10 knots, beautiful sailing!”

Despite some delays caused by racing inside the fully functioning commercial port (like avoiding big ships transiting the channel into the harbor!), the race committee managed to start eleven races. As a result, half the crews managed to sail six races, and the other half- five.

The SAIL & SEA team of Vasily Kharabardin led after the first day of racing. The St. Petersburg-based team confidently finished in the top three throughout the day, with the exception of the last race, posting an enviable 1-2-1-1-2-4 record.

Sailing less consistently, but still right at the top of the standings was Ekaterina Stolbneva's DOBRYNYA team, hanging on to second place with a scoreline of 4-1-6-2-3-2. However, she was tied on points with Dmitry Popkov’s PEC:SPORT Molodezhka team that had a record of 2-3-6-3-1-3, with Popkov’s team sitting in third on countback.

The winner of the first stage in Sochi, Alexey Lesnikova’s B-TEAM could only manage fourth after posting a 3-2-5-3-6-1 tally. T

Day 2- Saturday
The second racing day had very scanty weather conditions from the beginning.  Pretty day, sunny, but weak winds. The race committee managed to hold only six races, for a total of seventeen over two days.

“In the morning there was borderline weather, the wind was around 4.5 knots, sometimes falling to 4 kts,” said Chief Judge Daniel Deyanov. “We thought about canceling the races, but in the morning we still managed to get four starts. Later, the wind fell to zero and did not rise above 1 knot for five hours!”

The leader of the first day, the SAIL & SEA team did not win a single race (5-5-3) and gave up their lead to fall into second place. Similarly, Stolbneva’s DOBRYNYA team had an even more miserable day in the light to drifting conditions, posting a 6-7-2 to drop into fifth place

Meanwhile, Dmitry Popkov’s PEC:SPORT Molodezhka won one of his two races (1-2), which jumped them into the top of the leaderboard. Then, the second place team on the first day, the B-TEAM had 2-3-1 that kept them on the podium in third.

Day 3- Sunday
On Sunday, the Tuapse wind almost abated, but the racing committee still managed to hold four more races. As a result, twenty-one races were sailed so that half the teams sailed ten races and the others eleven.

“In the morning, the wind reached 5 knots, so we managed to hold two races,” said Deyanov. “We caught every breath of wind, but we couldn't get more than four races on Sunday.”

Popkov’s PEC:SPORT Molodezhka failed to extend their brilliant Saturday performance on Sunday, posting a 4-3-3 to drop down the standings and take the bronze medal.

Winning in the end was Kharabardin’s SAIL & SEA, the original leader after the first day.  The collected their wits back together and closed the regatta on a strong note.

“I liked the race in Tuapse,” said Kharabardin. “The weather was different, but although the wind was not very strong, the judges and organizers managed to hold a good regatta. The fight was sharp and highly competitive. We were very worried when on the second day we failed!  But, luckily, we managed to stage a strong comeback!”

Taking the silver for the regatta and perhaps making the biggest comeback of all teams was Ruslan Yakupov’s UGAR CREW team, leaping three spots up the leaderboard in just three races!  Follow the Russian J/70 Sailing League on Facebook here  For more Russian National Sailing League information Add to Flipboard Magazine.