Gold team Loginov

July 29, 20195min read

Yesterday

Gold team Loginov
The seventh and final race of the championship of Russia in the class “Dragon” took place in St. Petersburg today. The race was full of dramatic events.

Gold team Loginov

According to the website http://russiandragon.ru, a thunderhead came up to the water area of the Neva Bay half an hour before the start with gusts of wind up to 29 knots, which made it difficult to set the distance. However, as soon as the impulses decreased to an acceptable 17-20 knots, the starting procedure was started, and after 5 minutes the fleet went the distance.

Unfortunately, there were no incidents. RUS 34 Vasily Senatorov and RUS 48 Alexander Kulikov collided at the starting sign. At the same time, RUS 34 gained a lot of water, and the team was forced to stop the race. RUS 48 went to the coast. But this was not the end of the matter. Wind gusts at a distance of 24-26 knots and a sharp, short wave (especially noticeable a bit more seaward) forced by the end of the first tacking a few more boats, including the Portuguese crew Pedro Andrade (POR 84), RUS 55 Yuri Kulikova, RUS 84 Sergei Bakharev and RUS 651 Oksana Renny. Thus, only 18 teams remained at the distance.

The finish line was first crossed by the team of Anatoly Loginov (RUS 27). She also became the undisputed winner of the championship, winning five races out of seven. Going to the first upper mark together with Victor 35 Vogelson and RUS 76 Dmitry Samokhin, she was able to outrun her rivals on a full course and no longer lost her advantage, only increasing the gap at each stage. The other two teams also maintained their position throughout the race. The second came the team of Dmitry Samokhin (RUS76), in third place was Victor Fogelson (RUS 35). In fourth place is the team of Sergey Borodinov (RUS 81), which also held this position throughout the race. And given the gathering of the Portuguese team, this is the place of the team and in the overall standings.

Anatoly Loginov, winner of the Russian Championship:

– The last race was a confirmation of the thesis that the strongest win?

– Our task was to win in the last race. There were no rivals: Vasily Senatorov got off, and Dmitriy Samokhin was far enough away – all that remained was to get there. We tried to forget the whole championship about the numbers and to carry out each race as a simple race. But, nevertheless, it was psychologically a little easier than if we were faced with the need to recover by all means. But I must say thanks to Dima that the regatta was interesting.

– Did winning the championship become some kind of compensation for you for missing the Marblehead Trophy?

– I think that if the races continued indefinitely, then every day someone would be in front, someone in the back. In the Cup, the cut-off occurred at that level, in the championship – at that.

Dmitry Samokhin, silver medalist of the Russian Championship:

– From the third place the day before you got out on the general second, is that good?

– OK good. And the third is not bad, but the second is better!

– How do you rate the final race and the championship in general?

– Today's race was very interesting, because the whole championship was in a weak wind, and the last race was unexpected for everyone – in a strong one. Less was the story about tactics, more – about controlling the boat, its settings. I think the results are fair.

Yesterday's race made adjustments to the fight for the first places. There were those who won a lot, and those who lost a lot. We were among those who lost. And today it was already hard for us to fight for the first place. Almost unreal. Therefore, we tried to do as much as we could. As a result, climbed to second place.

If we talk about the championship as a whole, it can also be called interesting. It is very good that they were chasing almost every day, except one, – in St. Petersburg in July it can be worse. Quite a lot of participants, all on the go. We liked. We are waiting for the next championship. As for the plans for this season, we have a Cannes regatta ahead, then, perhaps, a regatta on Lake Garda. We like to chase there: there is always wind. Then – San Remo, the 90th anniversary of the "Dragon". And at the end of the season, like all the top crews in the "Dragon" – regatta on Palm. Now a new format is being tested, when all the regattas of the first grade are combined into the Eurocup, and the stage and the final of this Cup will be held on Palm. We are in the selection of the twenty strongest, which must compete there. Therefore, we will definitely go there, we hope that we will get to the finals and perform there with dignity.

Vasily Senatorov, bronze medalist of the Russian Championship:

– Today we have withdrawn. At the start, the yacht, uncontrolled at that moment, piled on us, we laid our sails on the water and took a lot of water – we had to pump it out while the others started. Sense to continue the race was gone.

In general, I believe that in such a strong and squally wind should not give a start. The racing fleet is not uniform, there are a lot of classic yachts, boats with quite mature crews – this also needs to be taken into account. The race should be held for all, and not only for 3-4 leading teams that can cope in such difficult weather conditions. See what happened in the end: eight yachts for various reasons have gone the distance – a third of the fleet! I believe that the race had to be given yesterday. And such a forecast as today – a sharp change in the direction of the wind – often suggests that some kind of natural conflict will occur. She, in fact, came. But even in this situation, one could wait for the wind to weaken – there was still enough time.

As for the results of the championship, I note that its winner, Anatoly Loginov, is an excellent rider, as well as the runner-up Dmitry Samokhin. I am pleased with my third place, although I note that we have already won silver and bronze awards, and, of course, we wanted to fight for first place. But even if it had not happened at the start, we would have been having a hard time with such weather conditions, because this is not our wind, it was too much. In general, I think, the Russian Championship was a success. For the first time in many years, we witnessed such a massive participation – 27 boats reached the start, foreign teams arrived. All was good!

Full results of the championship of Russia –

http://dragonopen.russiandragon.ru/docs/Results-RusDragonOpen2019-28072019.pdf

81 Yesterday # 9310

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