Last year, I already had the whole route of the second regatta with the guys. Firstbyfirst (aka Tchainik Cup) and now it was very interesting - what will be its third edition? Won't it turn from a friendly encounter into a purely commercial event «with blackjack and whores?»What kind of innovations will appear? With these thoughts, I packed a travel bag, put a powder «compactor on my shoulders,» and set off on my way.
Moscow, Zagreb, Split merged into one indistinguishable bouquet of stations and airports. And finally, last year's familiar Marina Cashtela, where we were waiting for two fleets of excellent club racers: Beneteau First 45 и First 35. These boats occupy a special niche in the family of today's mass yachts - strictly speaking, it is they who reserve the right to the long-standing definition of «
While the Festivals are exactly club (although there are higher level performances, not club) riders with a fully developed cruising component: a spacious salon, a normal galley, latrines, showers, heater - everything is available. Those who want to chase will find on these yachts a large area of sails, long and normally located epaulets






Of course, there is a downside to everything: Festivals are slightly more fragile than most comparable length mass yachts. There are subtleties - for example, last year during one of the races, our crew broke the engine control knob. That's ridiculous, but it just happened. The lightweight plastic on this handle was thrown. Well, then again, you can break a much more valuable thing. On the whole, there were no serious problems with these boats during all the regattas.
Though again it is necessary to note - Firstbyfirst tries to correspond to its name by all. In other words, Firstbyfirst gets the yachts right after the winter
Already on the first day in Cashtel, there were no hints that the weather would be bad this year. From the mountains crawled down unpleasant clouds that spilled shallow rain, it was time to try a new neprom, bought at the exhibition in Dusseldorf. This time the regatta was attended by a whole live meteorologist (and photographer) Leonid Dubeykovsky (who, by the way, serves as a meteorologist for our Olympic team as well). However, that a live weather forecaster, that weather sites - all gave for tomorrow«'s storm» (strong north wind blowing from the mountains).



The first day of the regatta was a little crumpled. The plan was to hold two races - a short loop race followed by a long route to the Milna Marina. Just at the beginning of the marina and expected the notorious drill. As a result, everything began with calm and the start of the first race the chief referee postponed 20 seconds before its start. The weather was windy as desired (however, for this bay it is okay), but with a sin in half the first race still managed to hold.
Before the start of the second all went
(And I must tell you that this year everything was serious. If last year the regatta was a friendly event (from the formal point of view), now everything has changed. The competition was included in the calendar of Sailing Federation of Moscow region - and even more so: in the calendar of Sailing Federation of Croatia. Oh, how cool! Not as if it was an official regatta)
Well, luckily it was pouring rain with gusty wind and everything was limited. The promised
The second day started again with minor troubles: the yacht went into the sea, leaving two crew members on the shore, saying
The race itself (on the route to
Marina Vrboska) proved to be very beautiful and tactically difficult. After entering the strait between the islands of Brač and Hvar, the yachts lifted the spinnaker. Sun-piermeated colored sails looked exceptionally spectacular, but those who got into brooches (and there were a lot of them), I think, it was not until the beauty of this sunny day. The fleet was divided into three groups: «brothers» (who went along the coast of Bracha), «stilts» (those who went closer to Hvar) and «center», who took a course to the middle of the strait.
The wind played with yachtsmen like a cat with a mouse - only one group got the advantage, as in half an hour one could give preference to another group. At the end of the race, the yachts were caught in the calm zone separating the two winds - the passing west and the passing east, blowing from the opposite end of the strait. Yachtsmen with experience of sailing in skerries are familiar with such weather phenomena and fluctuations. As a result, the yachts that started sailing under the spinnakers completed the race in the same compass course. Not a bad experience for further analysis, I must say.






Marina Vrboska met the participants in a warm evening, with a well-closed parking lot and beautiful surroundings. By that time the photo group of the regatta had already accumulated some decent shots, which were shown to the participants on the joint evening for all the yachts. A very important question was also decided here: whether to give or not to give tomorrow a
But the wind was not












The transition to Old Castle, which took place in pleasant sunny weather, initially raised doubts about the advisability of cancelling the night race. But already on the way to the harbour cirrostrates crawled across the sky - in other words,
Personally, I am more than confident that the proposal to hold a nearly non-stop day race at the «kettle»race, many of whom have seen the yacht almost for the first time, in general a little adventurous.
I suppose there should be at least two people on yachts participating in such a race who know how to drive a boat, who can drive a boat (or at least understand how to handle a
April 12 - Day of Cosmonautics - yachtsmen, as last year, met in the hospitable marina of Palmezhan. Taking into account the fact that there were many people at the regatta who were somehow involved in our space affairs and successes, we can say that the celebration of the holiday was universal. In any case, I have never heard Vizborovskoye: «the rocket is filled - of course, not with water ...» performed by two dozen people at once.
The extreme race of the regatta - from Palmezhana to Castelo - was, perhaps, the quintessence of everything we love sailing for. A great start - the start in the fresh wind, the transition, adjusted by periodically coming charges with rain and - unexpectedly! - A quiet finish when the yachts are almost up and ready to be assembled into a single fleet a few cables to the finish line. And then... and then suddenly there's a sneak. Careful and steady. The dense group of boats finished one after another, gliding on absolutely smooth water - at that some of them went on a sharp course under stacks, and one cunning crew by

















But it was Beautiful. Beautiful in all senses of the word - that's why we go to the regattas. I think there are no dissatisfied