Ambersail 2 fulfil sporting ambitions with entry in The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint
The Lithuania team will join the VO65 fleet in Alicante next month
After racing in The Ocean Race Europe last summer, the Lithuanian-flagged Ambersail 2 team will be on the starting line of The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint in Alicante, Spain in January.
Ambersail 2 will be led on the water by skipper Rokas Milevičius, an Olympian who is assembling a team of strong local talent.
"Of course, it will be a big challenge for us, but I am very happy that I will have the chance to pass on at least part of my experience to the next generation of Lithuanian sailors. With Ambersail 2, we have a unique opportunity to develop young people in sailing into ocean racing sailors. I believe that this project will help them become the ones who will later lead Lithuanian sailing forward,” Milevičius said.
Among the confirmed team members are Saulius Pajarskas, the experienced helmsman and tactician who started The Ocean Race Europe with the team, and younger generation sailors Domantas Juškevičius, Deimantė Jarmalavičiūtė, as well as Jonas Drąsutavičius and Polish sailor Wiktor Kobryn who recently joined the team.
According to Raimundas Daubaras, the leader of the Ambersail 2 team that will be in Alicante next month, this is the fulfilment of a dream that has been nurtured for more than a decade.
"Not so long ago, we couldn't even consider something like The Ocean Race, which stands alongside the America's Cup and the Olympic Games, as it seemed like the insurmountable Everest of sailing. But today, we are starting our journey towards this historic peak, and it is a dream come true for all of Lithuania,” he said.
Regimantas Buožius, the head of the Ambersail 2 global programme, says the fact that Lithuania will be on the starting line competing for the The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint is a great moment for Lithuania on a global scale.
"We are a small maritime state. However, in the last ten years we have had the VO60-class yacht Ambersail, which has become Lithuania's business card in different ports around the world. Our skipper, Rokas Milevičius, has previously sailed in The Ocean Race around the world, and for the last year has been actively sailing our VO65 class yacht and contributing to the sustainability efforts, including the drive for recognising the inherent rights of the ocean, developed by The Ocean Race. Our efforts and enthusiasm are really visible, and our cooperation with The Ocean Race over these past years has demonstrated that Lithuania meets the highest standards of values and professionalism set by the organisers of these competitions,” Buožius said.
For The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint the Ambersail 2 team will be encouraging its fans to support a fundraising platform - UNITED24 - that has been set up by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to contribute to reconstruction efforts in the country.
We want the fulfilment of our sporting goals to contribute at least a little to the dream of Ukraine. We firmly believe that peace will return to Ukraine, that the country will prosper again, and that we can work towards this today," Daubaras said.