Yava Trophy Match Race - Team Gilmour wins the 20th edition

by Team Gilmour on 12 Aug 2014 After three days of next to no wind on a small lake in the middle of Russia, Team Gilmour managed to overcome the light and shifty conditions to take the win in a white wash final against Eugeniy Neugodnikov from Russia at the Yava Trophy Match Race.

The two middle days of the regatta were pretty much a right off with so little breeze that only three flights were completed of these days. Fully credit to the race committee who spent long hours on the water monitoring the breeze and getting in a race whenever the conditions were suitable. These two days were filled with extremely competitive card games and enthralling and intellectual conversations!

The fourth and final day arrived and after only a short wait ashore the breeze filled in and appeared to be quite stable (compared to what we had had over the days before).

The race committee again did a good job at getting through all of the round robin with enough time to start a semi finals series. Me managed to top the round robin after winning a close race against Neugodnikov. We chose to sail against fellow Aussie Neville Wittey, a veteran of the event and a local celebrity. We won the first race convincingly over Wittey and started another which we were also winner for it only to be abandoned due to a massive wind shift on the first beat.

With the time limit for the semi-finals approaching fast the race committee decided to run another race of the semi-finals, which Wittey managed to take from us. However after that race the time limit had expired and we were through to the final due to a tied semis which we won on count back as we topped the round robin.

Neugodnikov won is semi-final in straight sets against other local Sergey Musikhin. By this time the breeze had steadied and we had a five to eight knot southerly.

We dominated Neugodnikov in the prestart of the first race and lead the whole way around the course, with tactician Ed Powys picking every shift almost perfectly. The second prestart was a little more even but we still had the better of the starts and managed to massage Neugodnikov to a layline early on the first beat, from this point it was all about clean defensive sailing. The team managed to get the boat around the course with superior speed and boat handling to win the second race and take the win in the Jubilee Yava Trophy, albeit with a slightly nervous last downwind where Neugonikov came around the top mark with better pressure and managed to make some small gains.

'We are really stoked to take the win in what has been a very tough and tricky week, the boys did a great job and really stepped it up in the final. Everyone has really made us feel welcome here and it has been a great event,' said skipper Dave Gilmour.