The Russian J/70 Sailing League is well into their summer-long series that started in April in Sochi. Below are the two reports from the Act III in Kazan and Act II in Tuapse.
UGAR CREW Win Kazan Regatta Act III: The 13 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 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). 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 knots. The RC PRO managed to run 12 races in total, six per team. Ruslan Yakupov’s UGAR CREW team 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. On day two, the fleet was greeted by more excellent weather. 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. The team from Moscow won four out of six races (1-3-1-1-2-1). Paunovich’s 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. On the final day of the regatta, the weather continued to delight. 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 was Paunovich’s ZID ART Sailing team with eight wins in 18 races. 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 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.
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 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). Tuapse was blessed with almost perfect weather all weekend, but perhaps not enough wind. On day one, despite some delays caused by racing inside the fully functioning commercial port, the Race Committee managed to start 11 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 a 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, managed fourth after posting a 3-2-5-3-6-1 tally. The second racing day had weak winds. The Race Committee managed to hold only six races, for a total of 17 over two days. The leader of the first day, the SAIL & SEA team, did not win a race (5-5-3) and gave up their lead to fall into second place. Similarly, Stolbneva’s DOBRYNYA team posted 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 a 2-3-1 that kept them on the podium in third. On Sunday, the Tuapse wind almost abated, but the Race Committee still managed to hold four more races. As a result, 21 races were sailed so that half the teams sailed 10 races and the others 11. 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. 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. For more Russian National Sailing League information, visit http://nationalsailingleague.ru/.