2015 Open Russian SB20 Nationals - Day 1 action

by Ivan Bidzilya on 28 Aug 2015 Year after the World Championship has visited St.Petersburg the Russian SB20 Association maintains its momentum. For this year Open Russian SB20 Nationals around 30 boats are on the start line making the regatta one of the most competitive Russian keelboat championships. Races started on 27th August and will last till 29th August.

For the six year the St.Petersburg Yacht Club hosts the Russian SB20’s main regatta. In 2015 the bulk of the fleet is from home city and Moscow makes up the rest. Among the teams twice world championships runner up Ukrainian sailor Andrey Klochko as well as top ten finishers of the recent 2015 Worlds – Russian Team Nika and Melston Team.

The fleet is truly mixture of seasoned sailors, amateurs and young Olympians. Several acting and former Russian Olympic team members from 470, Nacra17 and 49er are competing. These are Daniil Banayan, Maxim Yezhov, Artem Basalkin, Maxim Sheremetyev and Maxim Sudachkov to name a few.

Enjoying perfect Finnish Gulf conditions on the first day four races were held. With four straight wins Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika emerged an early leader. “Key to our success was good starts and good first upwind leg. We were first to the mark all races but one. And even then we managed to win”.

As it might be expected, Vladimir’s main rivals are VIS Team with Vadim Pushev on the helm. “We followed our competitors closely finishing right after Nika in all races. Only the last race was unsuccessful as we caught nets on our keel”.

Battle for the third place was very fierce with several teams counted more than one top three finish during the day. With small advantage in this battle so far Vasiliy Grigoryev from Moscow managed to enter the leading group.

Forecast for the remaining two days of racing promises stronger winds in St.Petersburg. “This allows strong teams to concentrate on their own competition while amateurs will fight for survival – says Vadim Pushev, – so we expect the leading group to solidify their results”.