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Russia regained the lead in the Nord Stream Race

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After three offshore and three coastal stages of Baltic regatta Maxim Titarenko 's team«Leviathan» continues to hold first place in the standings. The Russians are four points ahead of their nearest rival, Danish Kongelig Dansk Yachtklub.

The largest offshore stage, Copenhagen - Stockholm, « Leviathan» finished third. As during the Kiel - Copenhagen stage, the Russians took the lead at first , but were unable to hold onto first place.

«We're not satisfied with the result, we were in the lead again, we had a 24-hour lead and again we lost in a situation which I do not understand», - commented the tactician «Leviathan» Mikhail Sheremetiev.

«Ironically, as in the case of the first offshore stage, the first to finish was the team which was going home». In this case it was the Swedish Kungliga Svenska Segelsällskapet. The Germans from Norddeutscher Regatta Verein won silver on this stage.

«You know, it was a very hard stage. Everything changed all the time: we were first, then we were last again, and finally we are very happy that we finished second. We are very proud of the Swedish team; they were super fast»," said Sven-Erik Horsch, skipper of the German team.

There were enough difficulties, in fact. «According to the Swedish team's trimmer Marcus Hoglander , during the race the crews experienced almost every kind of weather one can imagine», including three-meter waves and headwinds with gusts up to 24 knots.

Due to the third place finish before the coastal stage, the Russians slid down to second place in the standings.

The number of points was the same with the Swedish team, but on the whole the hosts of the third stage had better results.

The race in Stockholm was a dramatic one. At the start, the Danish and Swedish teams squeezed «Leviathan» into the «box» and almost immobilised the Russian boat, forcing her to come in last.

By the time they rounded the bottom mark the wind picked up to 15-17 knots and the Russians managed to overtake at least their German rivals, coming in fourth place and catching the Swedes, Danes and Finns.

At the sign the Swedish team broke the binding rules, prevented «Leviathan» to make a manoeuvre and seemed to finally deprive the Russians of any chance of winning. The judges agreed with the Russian team's protest and Kungliga Svenska Segelsällskapet was fined.

Despite actually coming in first, the Swedes are only third in the results table of the coastal race in Stockholm, behind the Danes and Russians.

The teams left Stockholm for Helsinki at 1 p.m. on June 30. Race Copenhagen - Stockholm was the longest in the Nord Stream Race and one of the most difficult water areas in the Baltic Region awaited the participants. In the wind of 22-25 knots the Swedish team had to spend more than an hour to set a new sail for full courses. The Danish team was caught in the broach twice and the Russian team about ten times. Two of the winch handles on«Leviathan» just fell apart due to the stresses.

«Our speed was up to 22 knots, I've never been at that speed, it's the first time in my life! » - said the Russian helmsman Vadim Yakhinson.

After 24 hours on the road, which the crew spent almost without sleep, «Leviathan» finally managed to finish first in the offshore stage.

Contrary to the established «tradition», the Finnish team came last in Helsinki.

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