“Anna” (SMM team) wins first race of “Ust-Luga Cup” (photo)
The yacht “Anna” with the team of SMM CJSC has won the first race of the Baltic regatta “Ust-Luga Cup 2013”, IAA PortNews learnt from the Regatta organization committee.
It took about an hour to get to the starting location as it was important to move out the area of a local archipelago full of reefs and cays in order to start the race on open water. The Referee Yacht located itself in the area of the Stenkobbsgrund lighthouse (59 25’8 N, 18 56’7 E) and engaged the starting procedure.
According to the organizers, “Anna” showed its top sea performance. The rest of the yachts finished significantly later, only nine minutes separate the yacht that finished after “Anna”. And the fight for the finalists was definitely worth witnessing: FSUE “Rosmorport”, JSC “Rosterminalugol” and GC “Nord” crews sorted all the things out only towards the end of the race, leaving just a few second gap between them. With an advantage of just one minute Dixie (The Oktyabrskaya Railway - “Russian Railways” PJSC branch) and Galatea («Baltinvestbank») took over Evita (Ust-Luga merchant sea port) and Gloria («Ust-Luga Company») respectively. After a difficult start, Mining Technologies LLC showed an exceptional perseverance in its effort to leave the competitors behind including the veterans “Avos"” represented by JSC “PUL Trans”.
Danil Gavrilov, a sailing master of “Peter I”, notes: “First and foremost, for us “Ust-Luga Cup” is a promotional event for as soon as we are back to Saint-Petersburg, we are setting our course to an arctic expedition. We do realize that the only way we could win in this regatta is with a help a strong wind - our ship is too heavy, but that does not mean that we are giving up and are not going to stay competitive towards our enemies.”
After accounting for handicap, the first race results look as follow
1. “Anna” (“SMM”)
2. “Solitaire” (“Rosmorport”)
3. “Sanuk” (“GC “Nord”)
4. “Seventh Wave” ( “Rosterminalugol”)
5. “Evita” (“CSP Ust-Luga”)
6. “Dixie” (“Russian Railways” - “Krasnaya Strela”)
7. “Galatea” (“Baltinvestbank”)
8. “Peter I” (“Mining Technologies” - RUSARC)
9. “Gloria” (“Ust-Luga Company”)
10. “Dolorosa” (“PUL trans”– “Avos’”)
