HOW THE YACHT “MAESTRO” OF THE PORT OF ODESA TRIUMPHED UNDER THE UKRAINIAN FLAG IN THE “REGATTA OF THE MILLENNIUM”
The “Columbus” Regatta, held in 1992 (officially Columbus’92), became the most grandiose project in the history of world sailing. To organize the transatlantic race, dedicated to the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of America, an International Honorary Committee was established. Its members included crowned heads and the presidents of Spain, the United Kingdom, the USA, Italy, and Portugal.
The race route: Genoa (Italy) - Cádiz (Spain) - Las Palmas (Canary Islands) - San Juan (Puerto Rico) - New York (USA) - Boston (USA) - Liverpool (UK), covering a total of 9,000 nautical miles.
More than a thousand (!) sailing vessels took part in the regatta - from small 12-meter one-design yachts to large barques and brigantines. Among other things, the grand Columbus’92 Regatta introduced the world to the existence of the independent state of Ukraine, which the international maritime community recognized for the first time by the yellow-and-blue pennants on the masts.
In the one-design yacht class, the “Race of the Millennium” was won by athletes from the Port of Odesa aboard the yacht Maestro. Enthusiasts from Odesa outscored more than two hundred crews from around the world in the largest group of yachts measuring 12 to 16 meters. This remarkable achievement rewarded the port workers for their endurance and skill in a critical situation that had nearly turned into a catastrophe.
“We met with misfortune in the Bermuda Triangle,” recalled the captain of Maestro, Oleh Stashkevych, later. “A squall tore the rigging to pieces, and the broken mainsail mast was dragging along the port side. The yacht began to lose buoyancy… Removing the engine seals and starting it would have meant abandoning the race. But we could not do that—Maestro was in the lead. We rigged storm sails on the broken mast and continued the race. We finished with a significant delay, but did not lose the advantages gained in the previous four legs. When the points were recalculated, the judging panel awarded us first place. Repairing the yacht cost $35,000. We cut all expenses to the minimum, foregoing hotels. The Ukrainian diaspora in the USA helped greatly—they raised $10,000…”
Sailors say that every sailing race is like a short story. In this case, Maestro’s journey along the Europe–America–Europe route could easily become an entire adventure novel. The main characters of this story: O. Stashkevych, D. Baranov, S. Cherviakov, V. Volodymyrskyi, A. Lishchynskyi, A. Ozerniak, and Yu. Andryzhievskyi. Equally important in this tale was the port director at the time, M.P. Pavliuk, who provided comprehensive support to the team in preparing the yacht for the race.
The main prize of the Columbus’92 Regatta was presented to the winners by the head of the Honorary Committee—King Juan Carlos I of Spain. When it came time to hand over the silver replica of a caravel to the Ukrainian crew, the monarch expressed admiration for the courage of the port sailors: “I would never have dared to cross the Atlantic on a one-design yacht,” said the king. “If I were the King of Spain, I would also never attempt to cross the ocean on such a yacht,” O. Stashkevych replied respectfully on behalf of the entire crew
This remark by a true Odesan made headlines in numerous print publications around the world.
