Last year, a new magazine for Lithuanian sailors has been started to be published, called Vejo!3. The inhabitants of Klaipeda and the crew of yacht Lithuania organized the best yachtsmen election.
Winter and summer ports
The following categories were chosen: windsurfer of the year, youth windsurfer of the year, senior windsurfer of the year, year sportsman of kiting, also elected best crew, regatta and event.
“Although Lithuania is a small country, we have a lot of great sailors, windsurfers, and kiting lovers,” – said Lithuanian Yachting magazine’s Vejo!3 editor Egle Kasperaviciute. Yachtsmen awards were presented on January 6 in Vilnius at the club Studio 9. This club pretends to be a winter port for aspiring sailors.
“Throughout the season, sailors meet in regattas, but in winter time, such meetings are almost absent. We hope to create new tradition for sailors to meet on Wednesdays at our club,” – said the owner of Studio 9 Gintaras Puskorius.
In Lithuanian sailing movement, Vilnius has been somewhat excluded. The country’s yachting centers are located in Kaunas, Klaipeda and Nida. The smaller “centers” are in Siauliai, Silute County’s Minija village, Plateliai and Dreverna (which plans to build a bay for youth members of sailing club Suominio to train). A lot of hopes are put into a new Sventoji port. The port was opened as the centre for sailors last July. However, the waves piled entrance. Sailors expect that the port will be prepared for the upcoming season.
Astonishing achievements
The season of 2011 was successful for Lithuanian sailors. Both a yachtswoman Gintare Scheidt and a windsurfer Juozas Bernotas will represent Lithuania in the London Olympic Games. Sarunas Sodeika won the first place in a prestigious international regatta AF Offshore Race around Gotland Island. The crews of yachts RS-280 class of Kastytis Kunickas and Raimondas Siugzdinis showed great results. Both Viktorija Andriulyte and Ausra Mileviciute had great results in the World Championships of surfing. Dominykas Kneizys, a member of Suominis sailing school, showed good results in World and European championships. Most of the young athletes are developed at Kaunas Sailing School Bangputys. Four of its students were pretenders for the best young sailor award. These were: Viktorija Andriulyte, Martis Pajarskas, and Martynas Juodeska. Along with these athletes is Emile Mazeikaite, who in the European Chamipionship Optimist class sailed first for one of the sails and this is considered to be one of the first such achievements for Lithuania in this class. As the main contenders for the yacht crew of the year was Rondo, which has won Lithuanian Regatta Cup and Lithuanian Sea Yachts Competition Kirke, also the winner of Croatian regattas such as Ambersail, and the first from Lithuanian yachts to participate in a prestigious Atlantic Ocean Racing Series. Also, the crew of Lietuva, which was the winner of The Tall Ship Races, youth team Tojana Vici and Arabela team, the winners of RS-280 Yacht Championship. Also, the senior sailors were remembered. For this nomination, a judge Maryte Mudeniene, sailors Jurgis Kovas, Rimantas Dedonis, Algimantas Blinstrubas, Rimantas Dovydaitis and the first Lithuanian captain to sail around the world in yacht Steponas Kazakevicius from Klaipeda were listed.
Most events were held at the seaside
The year 2011 was important for Lithuanian sailors because two new regattas were established. These are Sventoji Port Regatta and PAPA Regatta Series in Klaipeda. In addition to this year’s regatta event award other previous regattas were listed, such as Autumn Wind Regatta in Kaunas’s Reservoir; traditional regatta at the Curonian Spit; Kintai amateur yacht club regatta and Nemunas River Regatta Lagoon’s Sails. Throughout the year, sailors held about 45 events, starting with ice yacht race in January and February and finishing with the Baltic Regatta called Piggy in the Curonian Spit in autumn. Throughout the year about 10 sailing events are held in Kaunas and 20 in the Western part of Lithuania, meaning Curonian Spit and Baltic Sea.
The Baltic Sea is becoming a gathering place for surfers and kiting lovers. Apart from the now Olympic representative Juozas Bernotas, there are other well-known sportsmen such as Martynas Juodeska, Gytis Celencevicius, Romas Pecevicius, Dalia Zykute, Karolis Sipavicius, Mantas and Gediminas Gresevicius, Arvydas Moliusis, Robertas Berkelis, and Rytis Jasiunas. Lithuania also sees an increasing number of kiting lovers such as Darius Mikelionis, Arturas Gudauskas, Arturas Morauskas, Modesta Morauskaite, Agne Simanskyte, Kristina Kekyte, Vita Sereikaite, Povilas Vasiauskas, Lukas Paskauskas, and Viktoras Seputa.
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