News

“Ust-Luga Cup 2013” medalists have been determined

The race along the Hanko-Tallinn route, which ended late on Monday evening, introduced even more intrigue into the balance of power within the top three. At the first moment it seemed that "Rosterminalugol" was confidently advancing forward to take the silver medal, but later after weighting it was found that “Rosmorport" was leading by one point, thus showing the best adjusted time. The eighth race of the regatta, scheduled for Tuesday in Gulf of Tallinn was supposed to bring a little more clarity to the course of the events.

Although long awaited, the morning weather was truly wonderful bringing the competitive racing spirit out of everyone. A strong steady northwest wind being 15-17 knots with gusts up to 20 knots inspired not only the organizers, but the racers themselves. Today presented an excellent opportunity to change their ranking positioning even for those teams that did not make that many mistakes – during the Capitan’s meeting it was resolved to  make two exclusions based on results of eight races and scores earned by fellow competitors. In short, the events of that day promised a beautiful, spectacular rivalry, which did not keep long waiting.

The distance set by the judges, not far from the east coast of the island Naissaare, is a leeward race being more than 8 miles long. Regatta participants were expected to go around the vast shoal, formed by three small sandy banks - Naissaare, Keskmadal and Littegrund. The starting line was located between the main boat and the first southwardly milestone. By three o'clock in the afternoon everything was ready and set for action.

The races began with a false start on “Ust-Luga Company” team’s (yacht Gloria), which penetrated the starting line ahead of the schedule and after an individual recall signal, it was bounded to come back to the initial position and start all over again. While the rest of regatta fleet was vigorously gaining its speed and moving ahead toward the island, Gloria was just making its first steps on the course. It’s not only Gloria that had its share of bad luck today; racers of the team "Rosmorport" also experienced a few technical difficulties. Today, in just a couple of minutes right after the start, race leader, considering their status, were supposed to move ahead, making their way to silver medals, but to everyone’s surprise were left with no other choice but to fight to survive in a challenging battle just to deserve the right to continue being a part of the race. For instance, under the load, a halyard sheave clamp fractured and the Solitaire crew spent a lot of time trying to hoist the sail once again. Sailing to leeward, the yacht found itself a long distance away fleet and later continued the race from this disadvantageous position. Meanwhile, Gloria’s efforts paid off letting it come into the fourth position on the second course mark falling behind “Anna” (“SMM”), “Seventh Wave” (“Rosterminalugol”) and “Dixie» (“Russian Railways” team – “Krasnaya Strela”).

The race was a rather dynamic one with the average moving speed of 8 knots. One hour after the start the first boats began to appear on the finishing line. "Anna" proved itself once again coming in first with noticeable advantage over its pursuers. After having tabulated and judged the results of the race, there were absolutely no doubts which team deserves the victory – it was the "SMM" team that won in every regatta race, rightfully taking the "Ust-Luga Cup" championship title. Next, eight minutes later, Seventh Wave came in making "Rosterminalugol" team the silver medalists of the regatta, leaving the third place to"Rosmorport". Aleksandr Aliyev, the crew member of Seventh Wave and Director for strategic development of special projects at LLC ”North-Western Management Company” commented on the successful performance of his team: "Today, we came out determined for the race – with  heavy air like this, you can’t allow to be focused on anything else. The race itself was really enjoyable and the fact that we took the second place is a great result that we are extremely happy with!”

In a memorable duel right at the finishing line Gloria had a run-in with Dixie. Despite the fact that neither medals nor cups were longer a part of the competition, both “Ust-Luga Company" and "Krasnaya Strela" were fighting to the end. Literally when just a hull was separating two boats, Dixie performed a sudden maneuver at the finishing line earning “Russian Railways” team – “Krasnaya Strela” the victory and ranking it as fourth in standings. “Peter I” was desperately trying to save the early advantage, this attempt not to have any effect on the ranking positioning.

After the race was over, Sergei Pokrovsky, yacht skipper of "Anna” and Deputy General Director of JSC "SMM" shared some of his thoughts on the team’s victory: “It has been two years of work that let us achieve this goal. If you remember, last year when we finished second I made a promise that this year “Anna” would take the main prize and as you can clearly see, at “SMM” we keep our word!”

Regatta “Ust-Luga Cup 2013” standings:

1. “Anna” (“SMM”), 6 points
2. “Seventh Wave” (“ROSTERMINALUGOL”), 15 points
3. “Solitaire” (“ROSMORPORT”), 17 points
4. “Dixie” (“Russian Railways”– “RED ARROW”), 22 points
5. “Gloria» (“UST-LUGA Company”), 24 points
6. “Dolorosa» (“PUL trans”– “AVOS”), 29 points
7. “Sanuk» (“NORD”), 34 points
8. “Galatea» (“BALTINVESTBANK”), 40 points
9. “Evita» (“Merchant sea port Ust-Luga”), 42 points
10.“Peter I” (“Mining Technologies” – RUSARC), 55 points

 

All news →