News

The second edition of the Gazprom Swan 60 World Championship, taking place in conjunction with 33 Copa del Rey MAPFRE starts
today as elite teams are in pursuit of a World Championship title. Seven Swan 60s will commence their racing in the warm breeze and blue sea of the Mediterranean as they battle it out for the highly sought after Asprey crafted Gazprom Swan 60 Trophy, in the beautiful setting of Palma, Mallorca. The Gazprom Swan 60 Class has prompted some of the most experienced sailors to take up their race positions again. America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race veterans, as well as World Champions and Olympians will be competing.

Vladimir Liubomirov, President of the Gazprom Swan 60 Class, commented on the start of the Gazprom Swan 60 World Championship 2014, “It is fantastic to see the Swan 60s eager to get out onto the water for the start of the World Championship today in Palma, competition is high and with some fantastic crews the race is very open. It is great to see an array of youth sailors racing onboard Swan 60 Tsaar Peter as part of the Gazprom Youth Sailing Challenge, a youth initiative developed through Gazprom and the Saint Petersburg Yacht Club. We also welcome the Chinese entry, Swan 60 Windward, to their first Gazprom Swan 60 World Championship who are currently sitting second place in the overall circuit after finishing second in the Nord Stream Race 2014; and Danish entry, Swan 60 Vertical Smile who have Copa del Rey experience on their side. It is set to be a fantastic week of racing in the Mediterranean.”

Tommaso Chieffi, Tactician onboard Swan 60 Bronensoec commented ahead of the World Championship, “We have been waiting with good anticipation and have been training for four days. Yesterday we had Vladimir Liubomirov join the team for a final practise and we have been preparing very well, checking all the sails, checking the boat and the rigging. It is going to be a tough competition as the fleet is very competitive. Yesterday  in training Swan 60 SGM were ahead of us and they stayed ahead of us for quite a long time. It will be very hard to win but I still think we are the most prepared although anything can happen. It is a fairly open fleet and an open race course with lots of good sailors so it is going to be interesting.”

Peter Lerbrandt owner of Vertical Smile is looking forward to his first Swan 60 World Championship "It will be fantastic to sail alongside six Swan 60s, my crew have raced together since 2010, when I bought the boat and its good to have the experience of racing in Palma on our side.”

The Gazprom Youth Sailing Challenge have been in Palma training for the last two weeks, Marat Khairov, Trimmer onboard Swan 60 Tsaar Peter commented "It will be fantastic to see some good competiton between the Seven Swan 60s, I think our team is trained well enough to put up a good battle for the other Swan 60s racing in the World Championship.”

The Gazprom Swan 60 World Championship runs from the 4th– 9th August to keep up to date with the latest news follow us on twitter
@gazpromswan60.