Photos: L Sergey Bogdanov/Team Russia 2008 R Team Russia

Printable version  News feed

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:00:00 UTC

Team Russia has announced five key crew members for their 2008-09 race campaign.

The crew is shaping up as a blend of Whitbread/Volvo veterans and Olympic and leading international sailors. Besides team founder Oleg Zherebtsov, the search continues for additional Russian crew members.

Two former Volvo veterans Guillermo Altadill and Stig Westergaard have been named as watch captains. Altadill sailed on Assa Abloy in 2001-02 and Ericsson in the last race.

He skippered Estrella Damm in the recent Barcelona World Race and has over 300,000 miles of round the world racing under his belt.

Westergaard combines the role of watch captain with performance manager. He is a triple world champion in the Finn and Soling class and is a leading match racing coach, having worked with America’s Cup and Olympic sailors.

Olympic silver medallist Rodion Luka takes the job of helmsman. Rodion is currently preparing to sail in the Olympic 49er class in Qingdao in August.

Wouter Verbraak is the team navigator. Verbraak has competed in the Volvo Ocean Race onboard djuice dragons in 2001-02. He sailed in the America's Cup, Tour de France á la Voile, Admiral's Cup, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Baltic Race and advised sailors on strategy and weather in the Volvo Ocean Race, the Vendee Globe, Route du Rhum and the Olympics.

Finally, Vladimir 'Kuli' Kulinichenko who sailed on the first Soviet Whitbread boat Fasizi in 1989-90 and later Odessa and Hetman Sahaidachny, joins the team as sail maker.

Kulinichenko has an engineering background and world-class sailing and sail making experience. He has been involved in projects ranging from Whitbread campaigns to schooners, tall ships and IMS racing projects, over 30 years and over 100,000 ocean miles.

Commenting on the announcements, at the Moscow International Boat Show, Team Russia skipper, Andreas Hanakamp, said: “We have assembled a great team of people here with both experience and a true sense of adventure.

“There are still a few more slots to fill and we are thankful to the Russian Sailing Federation for recommending a list of sailors they believe have the potential to participate in the team.

“An additional 50 sailors from Russia also applied to sail on the boat. All sailors suggested from the Federation were invited plus ones selected from their applications to take part in trials on our V 60 yacht Venom.

“Five Russian sailors joined us last week sailing from Cadiz to Mallorca and Yuri Firsov, an experienced Olympic class and offshore sailor, made it through to the next round of trials, taking place on the new V 70 once it has been commissioned.

“We are in touch with a few other experienced Russian sailors who we plan to meet with once the new boat is in the water and sailing.”

Two Russian media team members were also announced, Leonid Dubeykovskiy and Sergey Bogdanov, who will fill the media berth on some of the legs.

Zherebtsov also took the opportunity to unveil Team Russia’s dynamic graphics ahead of the boat leaving Green Marine’s yard in Lymington next month. The distinctive boat identity, using influences from Russian architecture, will provide a very important vehicle to illustrate to its supporters that Team Russia really intends to put its name on the world map.

Did you know that you can watch hours of race video at www.VolvoOceanRace.tv, the official Race TV channel for free!

 Back to news      News Archive