Black Swan Racing at the Sails of the White Nights regatta. Image copyright Anna Ivanova.
by Black Swan Racing media
After waiting all of Wednesday and half of today, the wind finally arrived in St Petersburg. Although light and variable the race committee managed to get through the first five flights quite quickly which meant it was time for us to hit the water.
We completed the day with 2 wins and 3 losses.
Despite leading every race at the top mark it was on the downwind legs where things became difficult as we pushed into strong current with a general lack of wind. This was very frustrating as we were starting very well and doing a nice job up the first beat. The hardest loss came against top Russian Eugeny Neugodnikov. We were leading this race by a huge margin but despite our best efforts, the wind shut down on the final leg. Rather than call the race off the race committee left us to try and sail against the current to the finish. Neugodnikov managed to simply sail around the top mark grab a small puff of wind and sail straight past us.
"Today was a tough day we sailed very well without much reward. These are the hardest sailing conditions I have ever encountered. It was difficult because many of the other teams competed in the qualifying event prior to this so they were slightly more accustomed to the boats and conditions. However we improved with every race and were very unlucky in a few situations. We are still on track to make the next stage and are looking forward to tomorrow. Jakob Gustafsson, Mainsheet & Strategy Black Swan Racing.
Black Swan Racing would like to thank our supporters: South of Perth Yacht Club, Kerman Contracting, Westrac CAT, Abbotts PTY LTD Chartered Accountants, McNally Group PTY LTD, Musto Australia & Sweden.
Black Swan Racing
