Yacht Zarya with Russian team wins ARC+St.Vicent 2019

Yacht Zarya with a Russian team won the cross Atlantic race, ARC+St.Vicent 2019.  The annual international cruising rally began in Las Palmas on November 10, Zarya Captain Andrey Vasilyev, ex-head of Gazpromneft Marine Bunker, told IAA PortNews.

The fleet of 97 ships included trimarans, catamarans and sailing yachts.

Zarya was the 5^th in its division and the 12^th among all yachts participating in Leg 1 of 890 nautical miles between Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Mindelo in Cape Verde.

Leg 2 consisted of two routes with some yachts including Zarya departing for St.Vicent island and some – to Saint Lucia island.

Leg 2 of 2,125 nautical miles started on November 21.

“Zarya immediately showed its spine having clearly won the start and broken away from the first meters! When passing the nearest isles the yachts entered the wind shadow and the change of leaders began”, told Andrey Vasilyev.

In the wind zone of the ocean, Zarya initially was the fourth then proceeded to the third position and took over the leadership for the last two days having arrived to the finish the first on December 4 (04:52, local time). It left the competitors far behind: the second was Spindrift with the team of American and Spanish nationals which arrived in 6 hours.  Cuvee with Australian crew came 3 hour later with Norwegian yacht Sara having appeared only in the night.

Other yachts were arriving during the next day with the official end of the race scheduled for December 10 and ARC prize giving - for December 12.

The crew of Zarya: Andrey Vasilyev, Konstantin Umnov and Mikhail Mityurev.
 
According to Andrey Vasilyev, “the victory proved to be within scope of the team abilities being ensured by skillful and well coordinated efforts as well as technical preparedness of the yacht”.

“Correct tactical decisions let the Russian team deliver on the potential foreseen by French designers of Amel 55 and take advantage of the wind in the ocean throughout the rally.”