The last decisive day of the VI Open Championship of Russia in the class of EM-Ka yachts in Konakovo bay was just wonderful. The wind blew from where it came from - from the north-west with gusts up to 10 knots, there was not even a hint of rain, and by midday there was a bright sun, no other way to make the final race truly festive.
We're waiting for more crews from Belarus to visit. The distance was long compared to yesterday, and the fleet immediately changed the leaders. And if it hadn't been for the general review in the second race and the sagging wind in the third, we might have managed to hold all four planned races, but alas!
Svetlana Sorokina (RUS 75) with experienced racers Artem Markov and Artem Basalkin took the lead in the first race, as well as yesterday. Nikolay Vodyanitsky (RUS 11) with Alice Kirilyuk as a tactic and Igor Puzanov on a trapeze followed her, yesterday's leader Sergey Kuznetsov (RUS 71) came third.
The second race began with a general review, so everyone had to start again. Here the picture of the leaders of the race has changed significantly - Nikolay Vodyanitsky came first, and for him the second place was taken by the crew of "Granitogres" (RUS 69) with wheelman Denis Lankin and Shkotov Vladimir Mayantsev and Evgeny Egorov, The crew of Kirill Podolsky's Anywayanyday (RUS 70) with schoolchildren Alexander Bozhko and Roman Konstantinov came in third, and Svetlana Sorokina was only able to come in sixth.
And here is the decisive last race of the Championship. As if greeting the participants, the sky cleared and a bright sun came out. Multicolored gencers immediately flashed bright colors, and the race became more fun and beautiful (at least, it seemed so from the outside), until because of the silent wind densely and smoothly moving fleet mixed in a multicolored pile of small at the bottom sign, right in front of the audience.
In this difficult race, the Belarusian BLR 2 crew from Minsk took the lead with Denis Strakhov at the wheel and Sergei Desyukevich and Vasily Ushakov at schools. Second came RUS 71 again, and Nikolai Vodyanitsky third, but what was the third place!
The last race of the RUS 11 didn't work out: not only is it windy, but also the genaker got confused, and while the crew tried to remove it, several boats passed by and Nikolay became the seventh. But suddenly 200 meters before the finish his yacht was able to capture perhaps the only gust on the whole reservoir and it rushed, overtaking others, to the finish! Before the Russian Championship the crew (with Igor Puzanov) participated in only one regatta, so the first racing day, when they came only eighth and at the same time received three sheep from the Umpire, can safely be called a training day. Further the result of RUS 11 only improved.
As a result, according to the results of all eleven races the RUS 11 crew became the Champion of Russia 2013 in the class of eM-Ka yachts. Nikolay Vodyanitsky, the President of EM-Ka Association, has been walking towards this victory for six years, starting with a simple schoolboat one, and now he and his crew have received the deserved gold and a certificate for 150,000 rubles in addition.
Second place and a prize of 125,000 rubles went to Svetlana Sorokina. The girl has been training on different boats for several years, and she has an excellent crew at EM-K, and here's the logical result of long training - a silver medal of the Championship. "Svetlana has won all men except the President of the Association, and he does not count", - said the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the WFTU Artem Kuznetsov at the awarding. I must say that for the first and second place today was played a serious, truly match-racing struggle. As a result, the gap between the first two participants and all the others was more than 10 points.
Bronze and Br100,000 went to the Belarusians. BLR 2 helmsman Denis Strakhov just the second season as he got carried away by sailing and immediately started showing excellent results. Denis and his schoolboats - experienced racers Sergey Desyukevich and Vasily Ushakov have already won this year's Volga Cup, and at the last Russian Championship they also took 3rd place. Stability is a sign of skill! At home the Belarusians train on the huge lake Naroch, 150 km from Minsk, so there is where to turn around. Last year, there was only one yacht "EM-Ka" in Belarus, and this year there are four more wishing to get these boats - we are now waiting for more crews from Belarus.
At the award ceremony, the host of the ceremony, Oscar Konyukhov, said: "Thanks to the participation of representatives of Belarus, and the championship was attended by two crews from Minsk, and a representative of Ukraine - Olympic winner of the famous Rodion Luka, the Championship has received the status of international!
In general, according to all participants, this championship was the most interesting, tactically complex and unpredictable of all. There were many false starts, general reviews, fines, protests and disqualifications. For example, some participants were so forgotten in the heat of battle that they crossed the finish line going to the bottom sign.
Apart from victories, there were also small but no less important ones. The best results were shown by the hospitable owner and the owner of the helmsman yacht. "Conakovo River Club." Mark Kagansky, together with tactician Danila Odintsov and Shkotov Ivan Batrakov, took 16th place. Excellent result for his debut at such a status competition.
But apart from victories, there were also disappointments. The famous and experienced racer Kirill Podolsky was not enough to take the third place, and Kirill was, of course, disappointed with the result, but sport is sport and his rivals this time were a little stronger or a little luckier.
The awarding ceremony was opened by Grigory Aksenov, President of Konakovo Yacht Club and Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the current Championship, who promised to continue to develop sailing in Konakovo and soon to open a children's sailing school here. And immediately Mark Kagansky proposed to hold a charity auction in favor of the future school, exhibiting as a lot of the intricate installation of the famous contemporary artist. The starting price was a symbolic 1 dollar, but the future school eventually received as much as 1000 from businessman Gleb Fetisov (helm RUS 33), who won other potential benefactors.
Numerous awards followed immediately: Petr Terentyev (RUS 97) won the prize as the youngest (and Petr is only 15 years old) helmsman-pupil of the children's sailing school "PIRogovo". All family crews were also awarded: RUS 97 (cousins), RUS 44 (father and son), RUS 79 (other cousins), RUS 45 (husband and wife) and finally RUS 100 - a friendly family of the Kuzmins who participated in the most complete format: school father - Mikhail Kuzmin, helmsman - Irina Kuzmina and school daughter - Nastia Kuzmina. An experienced racer Sergey Ezhikov strengthened this family team as a tactic. In general, it turned out that the yacht "EM-Ka" is also a family boat, where you can spend weekends as a family. The helm-destroyers were also awarded. Then separately women helmsmen and, certainly, the youngest participants of the championship: 12-year-old Nastia and once again Peter!
The apotheosis of the evening was the lottery from the company "Stoloto". A new Chevrolet Spark car was raffled off. All the participants of the Championship were given 1000 tickets. Those who had a higher number of seats in the Championship got more tickets accordingly. Young pupils of the children's sailing school "PIROGOVO" were spinning the drum and pulling out the numbers, and the people were checking the dropped out numbers with the received tickets in excitement.
As a result, the car went to the steering RUS 67 Oleg Evdokimenko. Unfortunately, the yachtsman has already left home by the moment of drawing by the helicopter, and in fact could leave on a new Chevrolet Spark of pistachio-pearl color.
In the end Nikolay Vodyanitsky spoke, who said that he was very happy to win, but even more glad that the national class "EM-Ka" is developing and it is very important that new people come to sail and, of course, start with "EM-Ki". Because, according to the President of the Association, one can learn to feel a sailing yacht perfectly, its balance is possible only on the dinghy. And how can one not believe the Champion of Russia now?