PRESS RELEASE: Over 100 Yachts with 700 People on Board to Start at the 55th Moonsund Regatta on Sunday |
The Moonsund Regatta is the longest running offshore competition in Estonia that this year will be organised for the 55th time. The Moonsund Regatta, which is also the third regatta of the Estonian Offshore Sailing Cup, will establish the Estonian champions in ORC, ESTLYS and Nordic Folkboat classes. 106 yachts from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia with nearly 700 yachtsmen on board – this will be a regatta with one of the largest number of participants ever held in Estonia. There will be a record number of yachts of the Nordic Folkboat class (12), which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. The Regatta will start in Pärnu on Sunday, 8 July, will make stops in Kuivastu, Heltermaa and Haapsalu harbours and will in the end arrive at Tallinn where the final celebration of the Regratta will be held on Saturday, 14 July on the main stage of the Tallinn Maritime Days next to the Admiralty Basin of the Old City Harbour.
The festive opening ceremony of the jubilee Regatta will take place at the flag square of the Pärnu Yacht Club on Saturday, 7 July at 18.30. The Regatta will be opened by the Minister of Culture Rein Lang. There will also be a performance by the Nordic Folkboats that celebrate their 70th anniversary, among them the oldest participating yacht Svea, which was built in 1957.
At
noon on Sunday, 8 July, the start will be given at the bay
of Pärnu and the yachts will start
towards the recently completed small vessel harbour of Kuivastu.
The second stage, the Kuivastu circle will be held there on Monday. During the
third stage on Tuesday, the yachts will race to Hiiumaa, to the Heltermaa
marina, where the yachtsmen were especially warmly welcomed during the last
year’s race. On Wednesday, the fourth stage – the Heltermaa circle will be
raced. On Thursday, the fifth stage of the Regatta will take the yachts, after
a ten year break to Haapsalu, where the yachts are welcomed by three marinas -
Westmer, Grand Holm Marina Veskiviigi. On Friday, the sixth stage of the
Regatta will bring the yachts to Tallinn,
to Peetri marina. On Saturday, the last, seventh stage of the Moonsund Regatta
will be held on Tallinn
Bay.
In
addition to sailing, the Regatta will also bring entertainment to the harbours.
At each harbour the best yachts of the stages will be awarded. At Kuivastu harbour,
the maritime cinema will welcome the yachtsmen with the help of Elion in the
evening of 9 July. At 21:00 the Estonian comedy classic Mehed Ei Nuta and the
newest comedy of Woody Allen Midnight in Paris
will be screened. Estonian cinema celebrates its 100th birthday this
year and with that, Elion will contribute to the centennial celebration of
Estonian cinema. In the evening of 11 July, Saatpalu & Rebane will perform
to the yachtsmen. In order to celebrate the regatta returning to Haapsalu after
ten years, the city of Haapsalu
will organise a warm welcome to the yachtsmen, Kukerpillid will be performing
for the participants. On Saturday, a media regatta will be held in Tallinn (starting at 15:00) – the participating yachts
will be sailing to the Admiralty
Basin of the Old City
Port. There, on the main stage of the Tallinn Maritime Days, the festive award
ceremony of the 55th Moonsund Regatta will be held on 14 July at
17:00.
There will be seven racing
groups according to the GPH (general
purpose handicap) system. GPH shows the estimated speed of the yacht in
the unit second/mile or in how many seconds a yacht should pass one mile in
average conditions. The coefficient of each yacht is calculated on the basis of
a special computer program, taking into account the measurements of the tackle,
measurements of the sails, shape of the hull, weight of the team and other
parameters. The first group consists of yachts the GPH of which does not exceed
615.0, the competitors of the second group have a GPH within the range of 615.1
– 651.0 and the third group’s GPH is 651.1-700.0. The fourth group’s GPH is
higher than 710.1. Additionally, there will be two groups of the ESTLYS class,
where the competition values are established according to the yacht’s
statistics of the previous years and a group of Nordic Folkboats.
The points for the ORC
groups are calculated according to the Performance Line Offshore/Inshore (the
corrected time is obtained by subtracting from the product of the time used for
racing and the offshore time coefficient of the yacht the product of the length
of the distance and offshore distance) method. The time-to-time method is used
for calculating the corrected time in the ESTLYS groups.
Kalev Yacht Club’s yacht Forte, steered by Jaak Jõgi and Dagö’s yacht Amserv with the team of Juss Ojala can be considered as favourites of the first group of ORC. Their strong competitors are other Estonian yachts as well as the visiting yachts from Russia and Latvia. In the second group of ORC there are many new yachts and teams as compared to last year – all of them racing for high positions. Last year’s second place holder, Pärnu Yacht Club’s yacht Merepärl, steered by Alari Akermann is certainly one of those to race for the medal again. The favourite of the third group of ORC is the winner of last year, the most successful offshore yacht of Pärnu during recent times, George with captain Viktor Feofanov, whose main competitor is another yacht of the Pärnu Yacht Club – Windwalker, steered by Raiko Lehtsalu, who won third place in 2011. They will be challenged by last year’s second place winner Tessa from Kalev Yacht Club, steered by Alar Ivanson. In the fourth group of ORC the race for the podium places will be probably challenged by the multiple champion of the Moonsund Regatta in its class, yacht Edasi from Haapsalu Yacht Club, steered by Koit Pauts. He will be strongly challenged by Russian yacht Prizrak, steered by Dimitri Mostovoi and many others. In ESTLYS1 class one of the medals will be certainly won by yacht Fanatic from Kalev Yacht Club, steered by Aina Jalasto, who has already won this year in its class at the largest offshore regatta of Finland around Suurisaari. In the ESTLYS2 class, the Hiiumaa yacht Marie, steered by Mart Rätsepp can be considered a favourite since he won the class last year. Due to the fact that the fleet of the Nordic Folkboats has grown this numerous only this year, it is difficult to predict the favourites.
The yachts can be observed
in real time through the GPS system at the homepage of the Regatta www.muhuvain.ee
The Moonsund Regatta is organised by ESS
Kalev Yacht Club and Pärnu Yacht Club in co-operation with the Estonian
Yachting Union. The major sponsors of the Moonsund Regatta are Helly
Hansen/Sportland, A. Le Coq, Tallinna Sadam, USS Security, Viking Line,
Dermoshop, Loodusinvest, Autoekspert, cooperation partners and supporters are North
Sails, Saarte Liinid, Jägermeister, Estonian Cultural Capital, city of Haapsalu,
Tallinn Maritieme Days, Estonian Maritime Administration, Delfi.
Homepage of the Regatta: www.muhuvain.ee
Galleries of the 2011
Regatta: http://www.muhuvain.ee/galerii/galerii-2011
Homepage of the Estonian
Offshore Cup (instructions, photos, results): http://www.puri.ee/web/index.php?lang=et&page_id=1074
The EYU Offshore Sailing
Cup consists in total of five regattas. The Kessu regatta raced near Haapsalu
on 1 July is followed by the Watergate regatta that starts and ends in Pärnu on
5-7 July. Thereafter the competitors will race at the traditional Moonsund
Regatta on 7-14 July, which is also the Estonian Championships for Offshore
Sailing. The Ruhnu Regatta will be held on 18 August and the last stage of the
series is the Tallinn Championships on 29-30 September. The participating yachts are divided into four
groups on the basis of the competition value - ORC I, ORC II, ORC III, ORC IV.
In all groups the results of four best stages are taken into account in the
summary of the series.
Additional information:
Mairold
Metsaviir – Director of the Regatta
ESS Kalev Yacht Club
E-mail: mairold@kjk.ee
Telephone: +372 501 4770
www.kjk.ee
Indrek Ilves
Pärnu Yacht Club
E-mail: indrek@jahtklubi.ee
Telephone: +372 505 2526
www.jahtklubi.ee
Ott
Kallas
Secretary
General of the Estonian Yachting Union
Tel: +372 564 3914
E-mail: ott@puri.ee
www.puri.ee
Piret Salmistu
Information manager of the Moonsund Regatta and ESS Kalev Yacht Club
E-mail: piret@koda.ee
Telephone: +372 507 7217
www.kjk.ee
06.07.2012
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