SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta 2016 concludes (photo release)

The overall winner of the Regatta is the sailing ship Mir (St. Petersburg). Second place was taken by Nadezhda (Vladivostok), which won the SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta 2014. Third place went to the Bulgarian sail training vessel Kaliakra. The Russian training yacht Akela, which scored 11 wins in the total of 16 tall ships races, once again became the absolute champion in classes B, C and D, followed by the Romanian ship Adornate. The Polish sailing ship Pogoria was awarded a special prize for her contribution to the development of good-neighbourly relations and international friendship. Her team also earned the title of the youngest team to take part in the Regatta – many of the team were just 15 years old. The awards ceremony, which took place in Varna on 2 October, was attended by the City Mayor Ivan Portnykh.  

The SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta 2016, a unique maritime event, was held from 8 September to 4 October 2016. The patron of the Regatta was the Russian President Vladimir Putin. The main objectives of SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta are traditionally to raise the prestige of maritime occupations amongst young people, provide comprehensive training for future sailors to work in open sea conditions, and to strengthen international humanitarian contacts. 

The SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta 2016 opened with the Constanta-Novorossiysk race. The second, Russian stage of the SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta 2016 - the race between Novorossiysk and Sochi - was a competitive event and not a cruise for the first time. On 24 September, the Regatta participants were welcomed in Sochi by the Russian President Vladimir Putin, who awarded Andrei Orlov, captain of the Mir sailing ship, for his victory amongst Class A ships in the second stage of the race. The President also handed an award to Alexandra Nikiforova, winner of the creative contest entitled “Russian Travellers and Explorers: Contribution of the RGS to the Exploration of the World’s Oceans”, organised by the Russian Geographical Society (RGS). The third race (from Sochi to Varna) was the longest, at about 520 nautical miles, which is equal to the sum of the distances covered by the ships during the first two races.  

It is worth remembering that this year the struggle for victory in the Regatta took place in challenging weather conditions. During the passage to Varna, for example, Regatta participants had almost no tailwinds yet strong gusts of wind and waves up to five metres high. During the Novorossiysk-Sochi race, a storm of force 7 broke out, resulting in damage to many ships which nevertheless remained afloat.  

Despite the difficulties unavoidable in any real maritime competition, the call of the SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta 2016 at each city becomes a remarkable marine festival. The ships were also open to the public to visit. During the stopovers, parades of cadets, concerts, sports events, and receptions were held. The departure from each port was accompanied by a parade of sails.

The SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta 2016 in numbers:  
27 sailing ships from five countries participated in the competition;
During the Regatta, the ships covered over 1,000 nautical miles;
Around 1,500 participants took part;
Nearly 260,000 people attended the Regatta events in Sochi, while events in Varna saw some 300,000 people gather.

About SCF Group
PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group) is one of the world's leading shipping companies, specialising in the transportation of crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied gas, as well as servicing offshore upstream oil and gas installations and equipment. The Group’s fleet comprises 152 vessels with a total deadweight of approximately 13 million tonnes. The company is registered in St. Petersburg with offices in Moscow, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, London, Limassol, and Dubai.

The Group offers a wide range of vessels in the market segments most demanded by major Russian oil and gas companies. With its own technical development and unique approach to advanced technologies, Sovcomflot has the ability to meet the most demanding customer requirements, providing effective transportation for oil & gas companies.

About SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta
The SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta follows in the footsteps of Cutty Sark Tall Ships Races, the legendary international regatta, which was first held in 1956 under the patronage of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, from Torbay, England, to Lisbon, Portugal. It is thanks to this event that the Sail Training International (STI) association was created, which has since then become a permanent organiser of training tall ships regattas. Soviet sailing ships and yachts began to take part in the competition in 1978.

Russia first hosted the Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta in 2014. The SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta 2016 was organised by Sail Training International (STI) and Sochi Marine Club. The title sponsor was PAO Sovcomflot. General partners of the regatta are FSUE Rosmorport, PAO Transneft and PAO Gazprom Neft. The Regatta is conducted with the active support of the Russian Ministry of Transport and the Russian Geographical Society and with assistance from OAO Novatek, the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency and OAO Surgutneftegaz.