Tenzor International Cup - J/70 Open Winter Series 2025/26 - Leg 6 Day 1
by Burak Zengin 11 Apr 09:42 BST
10-12 April 2026
The final and sixth Leg of Tenzor International Cup - J/70 Open Winter Series 2025/2026 kicked off on Friday at the Tenzor Sailing Club Türkiye in Bodrum. The regatta is also counted as the first stage of Turkiye Tour 2026. This dual status means teams are earning points for both competitions, which is bringing more sporting ambitions from the start.
The event has drawn a strong J/70 fleet of 19 boats, featuring top sailors from Turkiye, Russia, Spain, Italy, and Belarus.
The first race day on Friday, April 10, was contested in shifty winds ranging from 8 to 15 knots. After the opening ceremony and Skipper's Briefing sailors had to wait a bit on shore while wind comes. Then three intense races were successfully held and Turkish teams have surged to the front of the leaderboard.
Cheese Sailing, skippered by Güney Kaptan, demonstrated exceptional consistency to top the standings. With 11 points, they hold a slender one-point lead.
"It was an excellent day," said Levent Peynirci of Cheese Sailing. He noted that the crew has worked together brilliantly with Italian Trimmer Massimo Bortoletto, "and that has yielded results. First place and 11 points is great start!"
Just one point behind in second place is Onur Erardag's Nautique Yachting (12 points). Tactician Doga Aribas explained that their strategy focused on stability in big fleet, which paid off handsomely. Their scorecard for the day reads 7-4-1.
"It was a good day for us. Our goal was to have consistent results throughout the day in a 19-boat fleet," Aribas said. "Our winter training in the Tenzor Cup Winter series paid off, and we finished the day in 2nd place. With a compact and crowded fleet like this, any mistake gets penalized, so for tomorrow our goal is to maintain consistent results."
The crew of Pavel Kuznetsov under a team AtomTavatuy closed the day in third place with 15 points.
"Today was a good day for our team, though we had a long break and spent three days training on the water before this event to coordinate our actions," Alexander Ekimov said. "In the first two races, we had great upwind speed and rounded the first mark in the top three, finishing third and first. The right side was clearly working. In the third race, we also started well and fought for the right side, rounding the first mark in third or fourth. But then the wind became unstable. We made a small mistake, dropped to seventh, and then on the next upwind we failed to switch to the left side in time, finishing 11th. That was our worst race. But we know where we went wrong. We have speed, so we will fight hard for the next two days."
Fourth place after three races belongs to Inna Balashova's Dolce Vita. Ilya Strakh highlighted the exceptional level of competition from start to finish.
"Today was a great day. After waiting a bit for wind, it came in good and the races were dynamic," Strakh said. "This is probably one of the strongest fleets in all the stages of Series. The rivals do not forgive any mistakes. Everyone sails tight, fighting from the start to the finish line. Our result was quite good. We will keep going."
The overall Series leaders, Andrey Pushkin's Tenzor Team, finished the first day in fifth place.
"The first two races went well with good starts and good fighting," - said team's tactician Daniil Odintsov. "In the third race, unfortunately, we overthought our strategy and started in the crowd of boats. Then we got caught in other boats' dirty air, and on a run we ran into a boat that had set its gennaker poorly and couldn't tack. That really slowed us down. But it's only the start. We have six more races ahead. We're not hanging our heads. The boat is fast, the team works great, and the fleet is so close that it's very interesting to race", - commented Odintsov.
Mid-fleet battles were very intensive as well. The next five teams in the top-10 are separated by a razor-thin margin. Trem Sailing Team and Ptichki Sailing Team are just three points apart, while Hubex, Orient Express, and Bars Sailing Team are tied on points.
In the Corinthian division, Haluk Babacan's Orient Express leads confidently, followed by Batu Ozonur's MAYK, with Nevra Eker's Eker Efsane Yogurt rounding out the top-3.
"This race is really a prestigious race, so we're really hoping to do our best, to learn a lot and to win," said Duru Ozcan from MAYK team. "Our helmsman is really experienced, but this is our first time racing as a team in such a race. So we're really hoping to win and do our best."
With many teams already carrying the burden of mistakes from day one, the second race day promises to be even more dramatic. The contenders for the podium know that any further errors could be fatal to their hopes.
Racing continues today with more wind expected. Six more races are scheduled before the final champions are crowned.
Results after Day 1: (top ten, 3 races)
1. Cheese Sailing 11pts
2. Nautique Yachting 12pts
3. AtomTavatuy 15pts
4. Dolce Vita 16pts
5. Tenzor Team 19pts
6. Trem Sailing Team 23pts
7. Ptichki Sailing Team 26pts
8. Hubex 27pts
9. Orient Express 27pts
10. Bars Sailing Team 27pts