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The Czech crew of Pavel Belehrad’s First 40.7 01
Express is the winner of the 5th Annual Thousand Islands Race,
organized by the Sailing Club of Rijeka. The second 279.7 NM leg of
this two-leg race started on Thursday, 21 September from Porto
Montenegro in Tivat and finished on Sunday, 24 September in Rijeka.
Like the first leg of the race, this demonstrated again how
conditions on the course among more than one thousand Adriatic
islands may be unpredictable, highly variable, and require a lot of
patience, strength and stamina.
The exit from the Bay of Kotor with favorable winds was this year a
bit faster then last year. Immediately after passing Prevlaka, the
most southern point of Croatia, the fleet encountered stronger north
to northwest winds of up to 20 knots, requiring the fleet to beat
upwind with increasing waves as one would expect in such an offshore
regatta. The crew of the Hanse 540 Lucia X experienced difficulties
in such conditions after their main halyard broke. A crew member
climbed up the mast in an attempt to fix the failure but the wind
was too strong to perform such repair and they were forced to return
to leeward of Prevlaka where they successfully repaired the damage
but with significant time lost.
Although wind predictions for this second leg were not promising
everybody kept hoping that the breeze would last, which it did for
the half of the second leg. After that, the conditions changed
completely, with the wind dying out and the fleet having to fight
with drifting conditions for the remaining 100 NM. The boats in the
fleet tried to use every breath of the fickle winds to achieve
speeds from 0 to 3-4 knots, requiring a strenuous effort over two
days and two nights.
The time limit in Rijeka was set for 72 hours, which was Noon on
Sunday 24 September. On Sunday morning the fleet was from 9 to 20 NM
away from the finish line and at 9 o'clock in the morning the whole
Kvarner Bay was in the lull and it seemed impossible that anyone
would finish before 12 o'clock.
However, like magic a «Nevera from Kvarner» (a summer storm typical
for Kvarner Bay) emerged and saved the day, bringing a «Bura»
(northeasterly wind) that first helped the X-55 Mardivino helmed by
Miguel Gonzales to cross the finish line first at 09:45:47 hours
thus validating the second leg and enabling all other boats to
finish by 1400 hours.
With little real time finishing differences, under corrected time
the best placed boats were the three that crossed the finish line
last. Overall results show how the race was equal and that the
winner was decided after the second lap of 279 NM by only minutes in
corrected time.
So, being the slowest-rated in this fleet, it was Pavel Belehrad’s
Czech-based Redside Sailing Team on their chartered First 40.7 01
Express that won the second leg, and combined with a fifth place in
first leg was awarded the overall winner title with 6 points.
Trailing by one point was the Chilean X-55 Mardivino skippered by
Miguel Gonzales, winning a tie-break with Boštjan Jančar’s Slovenian
First 40.7 Macropus, followed by Anatolii Evdokimov’s Lithuanian
Evento 42 Hispaniola in fourth.
Another Josef Muzikar’s Czech crew on the First 40.7 Sultan, also
chartered in Croatia, won 5th place with 8 points - the first five
places thus decided in only two points difference.
In the Multihull division Werner Stoltz’s Proteus finished in Rijeka
at 12:52:10 hours on Sunday, but had no competitors after his
competitors in this division opted to not sail the second leg.
Complete results
....
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The Latvian Roccabella with Edgars Salmanis at
the helm is the winner of the first leg of the Fifth Thousand
Islands Race. Favourable winds accompanied sailors throughout the
entire course and it turned out that the first leg was different
from the previous years. At the start in Rijeka in light wind
Chilean Mardivino singled out and given the forecast at one point it
seemed that for the first time Mardivino would be the boat to choose
the course on the west side of the island of Cres.
However, the wind soon filled Kvarner bay and less risky course
would be to leave island of Cres to the right and continue through
narrow straight between islands Krk and Cres was chosen by everyone.
This year's fleet is fairly balanced in performance and all
sailboats throughout the course were often within just a few
nautical miles. The average speeds were generally between 8 and 10
knots until Monday morning when calms in the area between Šibenik
and Rogoznica put the fleet to rest and waiting for Maestral.
In past years, one of the decisive points in the regatta was to pass
island of Korčula either onto starboard or through the channel
between islands Hvar and Korčula. The former was the choice of
entire fleet thus avoiding twisters that occurred after fleet passed
island of Korčula.
And then in the end, once again, the unpredictability of Boka
Kotorska Bay was revealed. The finish line in Tivat in front of
Porto Montenegro first crossed Chilean Mardivino helmed by Miguel
Gonzales after 52:41:19 hours of sailing hoping that this will be
enough to win under corrected time. But it was not, because the
Latvian Roccabella finished almost exactly 2 hours after Mardivino
what was enough giving them 43:08 minutes advantage under the
corrected time. The wind slowed down after that in the bay of Boka
Kotorska favouring Roccabella in relation to still racing boats.
Along the real time tracking system on the web sites of the regatta,
finishing times for each boat to take the lead under corrected time
after first boat finished, were also posted. As long as these
numbers were marked in green boats behind had chance to overtake
Rocabella, but once they all turned red Roccabella’s victory of the
first leg was confirmed. Mardivino held second place ahead of
Lithuanian Hispaniola helmed by Saulius Veselauskas taking third.
Rest of the fleet crossed the finish line during the night from
Tuesday September 19 to Wednesday September 20.
In multihull category Austrian Sayg I retired after breakdown near
Šibenik, luckily without any severe consequence to the boat or the
crew and after British Proper Job Two did not start German Proteus
helmed by Werner Stoltz remained the only multihull still competing
and crossing the finish line after 57:23:56 as fourth boat in real
time.
Latvian Roccabella will not race the second lap and fight for title
of overall winner of the Fifth Thousand Island Race will be
interesting to follow.
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This is to announce Thousand Island Race Facebook
contest. Courtesy of Ventex Rijeka, official IT provider, Action
Camera and VR glasses may be won for each leg of the race. The rules are:
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Photos from competing boats needs to be sent
by message to
Thousand Island Race Facebook or sent by mail to
scor@scor.hr
-
As soon as received photo is post on Facebook
wall
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Winning photo getting most likes will be
awarded the prize
- For Leg 1: until Wednesday, September 20th at 12:00
- For Leg 2: until Sunday, September 24th at 12:00
-
Ties will be resolved in favour of photo
posted earlier
-
By accepting this competition you are giving
rights to the organiser to use any photo received for
promotional activities.
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Sailing Club
of Rijeka and Porto Montenegro Yacht Club are privileged to announce
dates and invite sailors to the fifth Thousand Islands Race from 14
- 24 September 2017. The race that is run among more than 1000
Adriatic islands is sailed on what we like to call as the best
offshore course that nature may design.
The format remains the same as in previous four editions. There are
two legs and participating yachts can choose to race leg 1 only, leg
2 only or both legs. First leg is starting on Sunday, September 17th
in front of the historic Rijeka harbour in Croatia. Race course is
set to leave islands Unije, Susak, Premuda, Dugi Otok, Kornat, Vis,
Lastovo and Sv. Andrija on starboard and finish in front of Porto
Montenegro marina in Tivat, Montenegro. Over distance of about 280
miles, challenge of navigating among the many islands and channels
of the Croatian coast and fascinating Boka Kotorska bay await
competitors. In return they are awarded by pleasure of sport and
stunning region's natural beauty known around the world for its
character.
After the prize giving party on Wednesday, September 20th, the fleet
races back to Rijeka on the same course, starting on Thursday,
September 21st followed by the prize giving scheduled for Saturday,
September 24th in Rijeka.
A short promotional tune-up race is planned in Rijeka on Saturday
16th September and "1000 islands + 2 race" in Boka bay on Wednesday
September 20th. Thousand Islands Race, already outstanding sailing
experience in addition with its social events in Rijeka and Porto
Montenegro marina would give good time together, seeing fellow
sailors and meeting new friends.
Both legs records were set in 2015 by Hungarian Wild Joe. 27h 25m 5s
with average speed of 10.14 kt for Leg 1 and 32h 45s with speed of
8.86 kt for Leg 2 are recognized by the World Speed Sailing Record
Council. This is new challenge for Thousand Islands Race
participants and opportunity to be listed in World Speed Sailing
Records.
Entries in monohull division need an ORC Club or ORC International
certificate and for multihull division, MOCRA certificate. Accepted
are also double handed, one-design or boats of same type or
production model as separate categories. Entry fee is 700 EUR but
significant discount to 500 EUR for the first 20 entered boats
following by 600 EUR for 21st – 30th entered boat.
Please
consult Notice of Race for details,
and also accommodation
details in Rijeka and Tivat as well as
logistic information about both
venues. There are options for crew availability. In addition we would be very happy to answer your queries
via scor@scor.hr. The easiest way to make
your entry is on-line entry form.
We are looking forward to see
list of entered boats
grow and host top sailors on
this unique offshore race.
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