The Yacht Club of Saint-Petersburg, Russia, has a very positive second place on the scoreboard after day one of racing at the Rolex Volcano Race 2012. The Swan 60, sponsored by Gazprom, was in her element today beating off competition from around the world and finishing on corrected time just over a minute behind Sir Peter Ogden’s Mini Maxi, Jethou, a renowned racer on the international big boat circuit.
Vladimir Liubomirov excelled at the helm in light 10 knot wind conditions coupled with flat sea. The windward leeward racing style of today’s course suited the team from Swan 60, Bronenosec who were in a top flight position right of the starting blocks.
Tomasso Chieffi, Tactician aboard the Yacht Club of Saint-Petersburg entry was in high spirits post racing with the rest of the crew, talking on today’s experience he ran through their best race to date:
“We had a good start and were in a good shape right from the beginning, then we had clear lanes and strategically worked to protect the right hand side which paid off. We stuck close to the bigger boats in the fleet and really pushed to maintain our position for the entire race”
Having fought off 13 other race finishers on the first segment of the Rolex Volcano Race, including the Italian entry Swan 80, Berenice in 4th position and another competing Swan 60, Vertical Smile of Denmark, the Gazprom team have demonstrated a progression in not only performance on the water but also in securing valuable results to build their overall series.
Tomasso Chieffi continued, “we are all very pleased, this is a measured improvement from the Palma event, we will now keep this form for the rest of the season”.
With the wind set to build into the longer offshore style racing, Commodore of the Yacht Club of Saint-Petersburg, Vladimir Liubomirov, will work to maintain this exemplar performance throughout the Rolex Volcano Race.