North wind confused sailors
The second day of the SB20 Russian open pleased the participants with good weather for racing, brought some unexpected results and pre-outlined the circle of applicants for prizes. Before the final race intrigue remains quite high: six or seven teams claim for awards. However, most of the participants are inclined to believe that Vladimir Prosihin’s “Nika” would be unreachable.
“Such an intense struggle was quite expected: in very strong crews have come to St. Petersburg, races are held tightly, everything changes on every mark. For example, today during the third race we were 6th, 3rd, 6th again and, at last – the first… There is generally only “Nika” remaining stable. But even they didn’t made all the races ideal. Anyway, the whole struggle is still ahead – six teams of the top ten are almost equal in forces”, – shared his view on the current fight Kirill Frolov, the helmsman of the Melston Team, which currently comes second after six races, ahead of closest rivals by 4 points.
Vladimir Prosihin’s team is really a favorite of the SB20 Russian Open – 4 victories in six races only confirm that. But there is one factor that is still able to make the end of the race is not as predictable, as the leaders may desire. We are talking about the weather – or rather, the wind, which, possessing sufficient power, today turned out to be unstable in direction. In the third race of the day, it played a cruel joke with many teams: not all were prepared to respond to frequent and severe (up to thirty degrees) gusts. According to the forecast, Saturday race conditions are similar: strong and gusty north wind that is going to move away to the east often, then return to the original direction. This means that boaters shall expect not only physically strenuous, but also tactically sophisticated races with hardly predictable result.
One of those who have showed himself well in the changing wind conditions was Boris Latkin from St. Petersburg: “Today was an interesting day, wind conditions changed, so tactics became more important. At the same time steering was a little bit easier because waves at the north wind are not high, – shared his opinion about the race the My Marusia Team helmsman. – Today everyone showed different level. Someone failed; someone on the contrary, has risen. We’ve got two races to become prize-winners, but it would be complicated to join medal fight. The sailing doesn’t offer such miracles as do athletics, when you can just jump once – and that’s enough. Skill, experience and knowledge prevail here. But I think, we will enter Top-10. For me, this SB20 Russian Open is the fourth, so I see how the teams have reached nearly equal level, and how tight fight at a distance is.”
Saturday, 17, three more races are scheduled in the SB20 Russian Open 2016 and they will be crucial for the fate of the medals.
