The Inaugural Nord Stream Race kicks off on Thursday 18th October attracting five experienced international crews aiming to compete in tough conditions which the month of October is guaranteed to deliver. The Baltic will require teams to have excellent sailing skills and knowledge, coupled with a high level of endurance to complete the race. The pressure is on to win first prize at €100,000, while the other boats win nothing raising the stakes even further.
David Lees, Chief Umpire and Chairman of the International Jury is well renowned in these high profile races and will be overseeing the racing fleet, commenting from his position, David Lees summarises this latest offshore race:
“The Nord Stream Race is a very new event; Gazprom Swan 60 Class boats, a very large prize for the winner and we will be moving from city to city which makes life interesting. There are two separate Jury teams; one working in Helsinki and one in Greifswald of which both are formally constituted International Juries whose decisions are final and cannot be appealed. We will be following the racing with the greatest interest and with all the technical means that we have. The boats will probably finish quite far apart and we will have to time our hearings to be convenient for sailors who may arrive at the finish tired and in need of sleep, rather than dictate a time convenient to us.
As like many other sailing events, the process for ‘offending’ boats during the Nord Stream Race will follow that of a ‘protest,’ where a tribunal hears both sides of the case after the race, finds the facts and awards the penalty, in this size of race usually disqualification of the offending boat. However depending on the breach of rules, we can impose other penalties such as finishing a boat in a worse position than she did on the course. We are due to umpire the first 15 minutes of the race from the start when the boats are likely to be close together enabling decisions to be made immediately on the water, and from then on protests will happen in the normal way.
The Nord Stream Race is very unusual, the Gazprom Swan 60 Class yachts are large, luxurious, very well founded and quite beautiful. I understand as well that it is quite unusual to see boats of this size and quality racing in the Baltic. Like any offshore race, the skill is to choose the best course to the finish line which involves assessing the likely weather conditions and sea conditions over the whole of race. Tactical considerations against the other boats are less important than in inshore races but can still be relevant.
We have five very experienced skippers and navigators who will no doubt be working on all these considerations throughout the race. The choice of sail is one of the key aspects the teams will be striving to get right as this is an important factor on deciding who wins the passage. The teams are allowed all the usual forecasting information which prevents them from accessing information not available to the general public.
Technology also plays a big part in the race – Radio contact is paramount for safety reasons and the AIS transponders will enable the race management to know where the boats are at all times often helping immensely to have independent and accurate evidence to track each boat. This will also help from a Jury point of view in that incidences can be retraced.”