Battle of the Baltic

On June 7, the third Baltic offshore regatta Nord Stream Race ended, in which the «Battleship»team won, thus winning the title from the British, who finished last year a few seconds earlier.

Nord Stream Race is held for the third time this year and represents two offshore stages with one stop, conventionally repeating the route of the Nord Stream gas pipeline«», which gave the name to the regatta.

The route of 750 nautical miles passed through the territorial waters of Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, bypassing the islands of Gotland and Bornholm. There were 2 divisions represented in the competition: the main fleet of monotypes - maxi yachts Gazprom Swan 60, as well as the free division ORC, in which this year only 2 teams were declared (Gratitude 2 and Blue Nights).

Among the teams of the main fleet were: the united team from Europe, teams from Germany, Estonia and China, and two yachts from St. Petersburg. This year the Yacht Club of St. Petersburg was represented by two crews: an experienced and experienced «Battleship» Commander and a brand new team on the yacht «Tsaar Peter», in which the youth team of the Gazprom Youth Sailing Challenge program performs. Last year it was on this boat that the British won!

The regatta started in St. Petersburg on May 30, the length of the first crossing should have been 150 nautical miles, but due to the weak wind the distance was reduced. On the night of 31 May, the Race Committee recorded the position of the yachts relative to the declared finish line and announced the winner. The «Battleship»was the first to finish, followed by the Chinese Windward, with the Estonian team in the top three. On the first of June, a one-day fleet race was held in Helsinki, where the teams held three competitions with ever-changing winds.

Tallinn. Already at the training at the "youth" began to malfunction the electrician.

The youth national team was not lucky when they had problems with electricity during the transition from Tallinn: the Swan 60 is a big and modern boat, so the winches are driven.

It seems that after the English «Tsar Peter» did not want to work for the Russians!

Having repaired the malfunctions in Peter, the crew went to the start, but 15 minutes before the signal there was another malfunction - the hydraulics flew. Having started in the thick fog of the Gulf of Finland, which literally within a few minutes enveloped the entire starting area, the team on the move to solve problems. Later, a breakage of the backstag and a torn spinnaker were added. All these incidents put into question further participation in the race. However, despite the difficulties, the crew led by Sergey Borodinov overcame the whole distance. None of the guys were not ready to give up so easily!

In Helsinki the crew worked hard all day preparing the boat for the fleet races, nobody slept. Thanks to this, after three races of the day the crew took the 4th line.

Already the next day, on June 2, the second offshore was launched, which implied the passage of the key points of the Baltic Sea: the Helsinki Majakka lighthouse, which had to be rounded on the starboard side, and the Estonian island with the difficult for Russians name Hiiumaa, where the yachts changed tack. After that the participants reached the island of Gotland by starboard at two points. The finishing line from Bornholm remained almost straight ahead of the German Wittow, where the yachts changed tack again. Then there was Darser-Ort Lighthouse and the last point before the finish in Warnemünde Bay.

At the start of the second stage, the youth team worked much more cohesively, approaching the start line of a second per second. On the distance they went second, just behind the Chinese, and soon bypassed them, for some time becoming the leaders of the race.

There were few Chinese aboard the Windward, by the way. Lorenzo Bortolotti, an Italian, was in charge.

This balance of power was for several hours until the tactical

struggle gained momentum. At night, when the wind rose to 23 knots, the Spirit of Europe led the regatta.

The next morning, the «Battleship»took the lead and won the race.

Team Windward followed him, Team Europe, Team Estonia and the Gazprom Youth Sailing Challenge were fighting for third place at that moment. As a result, the third place was taken by the united team of Europe, leaving the youth and Estonians fighting for 4th place. The Gazprom Youth Sailing Challenge reached the finish 7 minutes earlier than Petite Flamme. The Germans were the last to come in the second stage.