Sailing Champions League - new «business card of» sporting St. Petersburg

The qualification stage of the Sailing Champions League (SCL) is the final stage of selection before the final, this year it will be held in the Swiss Sailing Champions League. St Moritz. That's why the St. Petersburg water starts promised to be tense and gambling. That's what happened.

The weak, gentle wind that constantly changed direction and the strong current of the Neva gave a stage of unpredictability, which, of course, maximized the struggle in the leading group of yachtsmen.

St.-Petersburg met the athletes harshly.

On the first day of the yachtsmen it rained, and the wind on the gusts reached 15 knots, in the second bad weather it changed its calmness, so the racing committee managed to hold only four races, but on the final day of the competition there were 9 starts. In total for three days there were 24 starts, for each team - 8 races.

Russia in the Sailing Champions League was represented by five teams from different regions: Saint-Petersburg Yacht Club (St. Petersburg), PIRogovo («Moscow), Saint-Petersburg Yacht Club Sailing Academy», ArtTube RUS1 (Moscow), Calipso (Tuapse). Two of them qualified for the final.

«THE CAKE OWNED BY VLADIMIR»LIPAVA, OUR FAMOUS MATCH RACER, THE WINNER OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS FINAL AND THE SILVER MEDALIST OF THE SCL 2017 FINAL, FINISHED THE REGATTA ON THE 4TH PLACE.

«The conditions are difficult, this time the current was not particularly mad, it is usually stronger. But due to the fact that the wind was either weak or fickle, there were enough difficulties. Just get used to a certain configuration, and everything has already changed and you need to recalculate the time. On results in Switzerland I do not guess, it is senseless, St. Moritz - small lake where also can blow from under each corner, - Vladimir Lipavsky, the captain of team PIRogovo has commented»on results of a regatta.

The St. Petersburg Yacht Club's team of young and promising athletes (steering team - Artem Sudakov, tactician - Daniel Banayan) reached the final of the European League, taking the sixth place in qualification. In the last race of the day the racing committee decided on a false start of the team, but the guys filed a protest, as according to the tracker and the shooting from the drone there was no false start. As a result, after the analysis of the protest, the refereeing team left our team in the sixth place (if the false start was declared invalid, the guys would have moved to the second position).

The St. Petersburg Yacht Club Academy team led by Anna Basalkina, who reached the semi-final of the European Champions League in 2017 and took the third place there, was not lucky enough to compete in these competitions. First the team flew to the false start and got OCS (the race was not counted), in the next race our guys were punished with a penalty kick on the last top sign, and then the 360 degree turn threw the team of Anna Basalkina to several positions - eighth place.

The German teams - already traditionally - have won.

First and second places behind two German clubs - Bayerischer Yacht-Club from Lake Starnberger (south of Munich) and the club from Bremen Wassersport-Verein Hemelingen.

Racer Julian Autenrit from the Bayerischer Yacht-Club (BYC) in Bavaria shared his impressions:

«The water area is very demanding - current, frequently changing wind. And the place for racing is wonderful: city centre, beach. We had a very good start, it helped a lot. Although the first day turned out to be quite nervous, but then we got together, set up teamwork. It's a good thing it ends well!»

Karston Kemming of the German team Wassersport-Verein Hemelingen also noted that St. Petersburg has a special water area: the setting wind makes you adjust to changing weather conditions, while you still have time to think about strategy.

«You have to be focused all the time, and I love it. The races are very short, it's a bit unusual, but the rules are the same for everyone. I don't think that native walls help Russians much, because they don't race very often here either, and they didn't have extra training before the regatta.

Let's remind that 20 leading yacht clubs of Europe participated in the third qualifying stage of SCL. All participating teams are winners of competitions of their national sailing leagues. Apart from Germans, they came to compete for the right to compete in Switzerland:

- Yachtsmen from Finland. For them the Neva water area is almost home, they often visit St. Petersburg. This year the Suomi country was played for by a team of yacht club from the Åland Islands.

- Yachtsmen from France. The French are not frequent guests in the Northern Capital: only in 2017 were there teams from Antibes and France.St. Keten .. Now to fight for a place in the final of the Euroleague will be vice-champion of the French League 2018 - the team of the yacht club from Nantes (Voile Sportive Nantes). It's their first time in St. Petersburg.

- Yachtsmen from Italy. In 2017-2018, it was the Italians who won the Euroleague - clubs from Bari and the coast. Costa Smeralda. Earlier at the regattas in St. Petersburg, Italian clubs finished fifth twice. Now for the first time Italy will be represented by the yacht clubs of Bari and St. Petersburg.Civitanova-Marque.

- Swiss yachtsmen. The clubs in this seemingly unseaworthy area will be in the Euroleague finals between 2016 and 2018. Bronze in the final of 2016 was won by the Oberhofen Yacht Club (Lake Tun), which will now return to St. Petersburg.

- Yachtsmen from Holland. This country is always represented at the competitions in St. Petersburg, this time, for the first time, by the club from Leewarden WV De Meeuwen, which is actually located not even on the river - on a canal in Frisland. In 2018 the club became the second league club in the Netherlands.

- Yachtsmen from Sweden. The Segelsällskapet Kaparen team is based somewhere south of Gothenburg on the North Sea coast. So far the club is not very famous - in 2018 it was the fourth in the Swedish league.

- Yachtsmen from Lithuania. Lithuanian racers participated for the first time in competitions in St. Petersburg. And the league itself in this country was formed only in 2017.

- Yachtsmen from Poland. The capital club Legia «Warsaw has arrived in St. Petersburg and its»name is in line with the famous football club. As a guide, the capital's yachtsmen chose a multiple participant in the St. Petersburg races from Sopot. In the National League both clubs finished last season in the top five.

- Yachtsmen from Denmark. Copenhagen hosted the very first competition of the future European Champions Sailing League in 2014. Since then Denmark has not missed a single qualification in St. Petersburg, and in 2017 the club from the city of Frederikshamn won the silver medal. This season, the kingdom is represented by two clubs that have visited St. Petersburg for the first time: Bandholm Sejlklub and Horsens Sejlklub, the silver medalist of the second division of the Danish league, which was the fourth club in the National League last season.

St. Petersburg is hosting the qualification stage of the European Champions League for the fourth consecutive season.

Thanks to its format and the large number of participants, this is one of the most successful undertakings of the Yacht Club of St. Petersburg.

During this time, several thousand foreign yachtsmen have discovered the northern capital for themselves. Perhaps the regatta will be the same as the St. Petersburg Open tennis tournament.

General partner of the Sailing Champions League 2019 qualification stage in St. Petersburg -« Gazprom PJSC»