All news

Over 40 sailing ships to take part in St Petersburg Week of Classic Yachts

The rules allow participation of single-hull wooden or steel yachts not less than six meters in length

ST. PETERSBURG, July 24 (Itar-Tass) - More than 40 sailing ships from Russia and the Baltic countries will take part in the Week of Classic Yachts that begins on Wednesday in St. Petersburg.

The Week’s programs will include two regattas in the Gulf of Finland and a festival that will continue a tradition set forth a year ago, when the event was held for the first time, the organizers told Itar-Tass. The regatta was organized by the St. Petersburg Yachting Club and the Scandinavian Classic Yacht Trust. The St. Petersburg week will be a central lap of the Baltic classic cycle, which also includes the Stockholm and Helsinki weeks.

“We expect that up to 20,000 people will come to see the events to be held within the St. Petersburg Week, first of all the Classic Yacht Festival in the Peter and Paul Fortress harbor,” the organizers said.

The rules allow participation of single-hull wooden or steel yachts not less than six meters in length built or designed as racer or pleasure yachts before December 31, 1965.

The regatta’s fleet is based in the European-level marina of the Hercules port located in St. Petersburg’s Lakhta district. After a two-day race in the Gulf of Finland, the ships will enter the Neva to be anchored near the Peter and Paul Fortress.

The Weeks’ most spectacular event will be held overnight to July 27, when classic yachts and old timer ships will sail along the Neva under raised bridges, giving a start of the festival that will feature exhibitions of photographs and seascape paintings, games for children, seminars, master classes, reenactments of sea and land battles, concerts, and demonstration of films.

When the St. Petersburg Week of Classic Yachts ends on July 31, the ships will head for Helsinki.