Sails on the North Stream

Yesterday in St. Petersburg press conference and presentation of the regatta was held. NordStream Raceorganized Yacht ClubSt. Petersburg under the auspices of Gazprom. The route of the regatta runs from St. Petersburg to Greifswald (Germany) with intermediate finishes in Helsinki (Finland) and Gotland (Sweden) - exactly along the gas pipeline route. Nord StreamThe race is held in honor of its opening and is planned to become annual in the future. The length of the course will be 750 miles with an additional match race between yachts in Helsinki. The total prize fund of the regatta is 100 000 euro. The title sponsors of the regatta are Gazprom and its affiliated companies.

Five crews take part in the race - Russian, German, Dutch, French and united from the European Union, they compete on yachts of the type Gazprom Swan 60. The boat, recently recognised as an International Class by ISAF, is the largest recognised International Monotype to date, so the race will be handicap free, «by arrival». All yachts are owned Yacht ClubSaint-Petersburg Yacht Club and provided to foreign crews specifically for this race.

The Russian (or rather, mixed Russian-Italian) crew participates on the yacht «Bronenosec» which has shown good results in this year's regattas.

The Gazprom Swan 60 Class yachts, first officially announced to the general public on September 12, 2012 in Porto Cervo (Sardinia) for the regatta Rolex Swan Cup(Sardinia), are powerful and agile racing machines that have already reached speeds in excess of 25 knots. To date, eight boats in this class have already been registered (including one in the US) and further expansion is expected, so Gazprom and Yacht ClubSaint Petersburg Yacht Club have fairly broad plans for at least the next five years of cooperation with the company Nautor's Swan. These include participation in next year's race Fastnet Race, holding regular world championships in the Gazprom Swan 60 class in different countries, organizing the Gazprom Swan European Regatta in 2013, 2015 and 2017 and various events (both sailing and social) for Swan boat owners and ClubSwan members.
At 2pm today, the full five will take the start behind Tolbukhin Lighthouse
and set course for Helsinki. Finish of the yachts in Greifswald is expected on October 27.

Of course, autumn Baltic is not at all the same as summer Mediterranean.

I wonder what the crews' feelings will be like. In any case all doors, hatches and lockers are already securely taped over with a huge amount of adhesive tape - so they won't open accidentally on a wave.