Norddeutscher Regatta Verein has won the second Semifinal of the SAILING Champions League 2018 in St. Petersburg, Russia after four days of challenging racing. Norddeutscher Regatta Verein only just beat fellow Germans Deutscher Touring Yacht Club by 2.8 points, with Russia’s Navigator Sailing Team in third overall. Now, 32 clubs from 12 nations are qualified for the Final of the SAILING Champions League in St. Moritz from 30 August to 2 September. The Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV) team (Florian Haufe, David & Dorian Heitzig and Miklas Meyer) mastered the most challenging of river-racing conditions in St. Petersburg to win the 24-team Semifinal #2 of the SAILING Champions League. It’s a repeat victory for the German club that won in Russia a year ago. The Deutscher Touring YC team (Julian Stuckl, Patrick Follmann, Jonas Vogt and Tobias Bolduan) never let them get too far into the lead. Across the four days of competition, the Russian Navigator Sailing Team (Igor Rytov, Igor Lisovenko, Viacheslav Martynov and Alexander Bozhko) won six of their 16 races, an impressive number of bullets. However, no one could match the consistency of NRV that scored five bullets, but also never scored worse than fifth in any of the races, each of which was an eight-boat short-course windward-leeward contest. Florian Haufe, helmsman of NRV, commented, “Every single maneuver counted. We made a few mistakes less than the other teams. With the 3-knot current, we tried to sail a bit more conservative than normally. It worked, we played our cards well.” The event was blessed with four days of westerly winds: two days with lighter winds, two days with stronger winds, but always sun. The summer conditions drew big crowds of spectators to the banks of the river. Boathandling was critical on the final day, with the winds gusting close to 30 knots and many crews unable to control the boats through maneuvers. In total, 16 of the 24 teams in St. Petersburg have qualified for the Final. The 16 clubs from Russia will join the final’s host club Segel-Club St. Moritz, the SCL champion from 2017 Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and the 14 clubs who qualified from Semifinal #1 in Porto Cervo back in June, making it 32 international clubs from 12 nations who will be competing for the title of “Best Sailing Club of the Year.” For more SAILING Champions League St Petersburg information, visit http://sailing-championsleague.com/events/st-petersburg-russia/.