It took less than 24 hours for the crew of Cape Crow Yacht Club from Sweden to win the third stage of the Baltic offshore regatta Nord Stream Race Stockholm-Helsinki, which started on September 2.
The struggle for the championship was very tense; almost all participants finished with a narrow lead over the leader. In this case the Swedes' victory was evident practically during the whole 130-mile distance.
The start of the stage was postponed to 8 a.m. so that the teams had time to avoid encountering easterly winds of over 40 knots. Still, the conditions were brutal and challenging, especially for the novices.
» The Danish crew Frederikshavn Sejlklub, the last to reach Finnish peninsula Hanko, and the Russian crew «Lord of Sails from Ekaterinburg, who finished fourth almost two hours after the winner, made the wrong strategy in this stage.
Both competitors separated at the beginning of the stage from the main group of their rivals and went north. Having considerably lagged behind due to such a maneuver they could not reduce the gap any more.
The Finnish team Nyländska Jaktklubben finished second, 7 minutes behind the Swedes. The desire to win at «home» motivated the Finns, and they imposed an active battle to the favourite throughout the race.
The German Deutscher Touring YC finished third 15 minutes after the leader. The Germans, winners of the first leg of the regatta, finished third and stayed close to the leaders.
After finishing in first place in the overall standings after the second stage of the competition, the Swedish team only strengthened their position. The Germans gave way to the Finns in second place, while Danish and Russian teams are still outside the top three.
How the places will be distributed at the end of Nord Stream Race 2017 will be known very soon. The final fourth stage of the Helsinki - St. Petersburg competition has already started today.
