The Russian J/70 Sailing League has seen such strong participation and interest that it created a Premiere Division. The new teams that have joined the league can now sail the Premier Division series to, hopefully, qualify for the “A” division series in 2019. The first event had 13 sailing clubs from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg and Kazan. The goal over three days was to run 39 races to complete a full rotation.
Day one: On the first day of the regatta, 13 races were sailed. The racing was held in a southeasterly wind of 10 knots, gusting to 16 knots. As the breeze built and swung more south, it built in intensity and by the last three races, the winds were gusting over 20 knots. Each team sailed seven races. It was an impressive performance by 7 YACHTS Team that consisted of Karina Teliants, Alexander Andrianov, Vyacheslav Bukin and Dmitri Tarba. They managed to win five victories; their total was 11 points, giving them a 7-point lead. Behind them, it was a three-way tie on 18 points each between DEMIDOV EXPRESS (Vladislav Morozov), PARUSNIK 74 (Eduard Podshivalov) and GRANIT INVEST (Albert Gorkunov).
Day Two: Saturday saw 15 more races sailed, making it 28 in total so far for the regatta. Continuing to maintain her lead was Karina Teljants’ 7 YACHTS team, winning three more races for a total of eight victories in 15 races. Morozov’s DEMIDOV EXPRESS secured second, while Gorkunov’s GRANIT INVEST held on to third place. Podshivalov’s PARUSNIKA 74 dropped to fifth place, while leaping over them into fourth position was Zoran Paunovich’s ZID ART Sailing Team.
Day three: On Sunday, the Sochi NPL Race Committee and PRO managed to complete 37 races, getting nine more on the final day. As a result, each team sailed 20 races. In the end, Karina Teljants and her 7 YACHTS crew (Alexander Andrianov, Vyacheslav Bukin and Dmitry Tarba) were indomitable. The team won 11 races (of 20 total) and finished seven times on the podium for a total of 38 points. Finishing in second place was the team from Ekaterinburg- DEMIDOV EXPRESS sailed by Morozov and his crew of Sergey Musikhin, Maxim Podbeltsev and Alexander Shpagin. Clinching the bronze was the ZID ART Sailing Team, led by Zorana Paunovich with crew of Sergei Volchkov, Dmitry Narozhenko and Vitaly Ignatenko. Just one point back and having to settle for fourth place was Gorkunov’s team on GRANIT INVEST (Yuri Popov, Leonid Tarasov, Igor Shimko). “I now have a feeling that this event has become such a memorable moment of my life that I will remember it until old age,” reflected Karina Teljants, skipper of 7 YACHTS. “The organization, the refereeing, and the participants…everything was fantastic!” For more Russian J/70 Premiere Sailing League information, visit https://rusyf.ru/.