Team Russia unveils its whale

The boat’s godmother is Birgitta Westerberg, a co-founder of a St Petersburg charity for sick and underprivileged children with Oleg Zherebtsov, the businessman behind the Russian entry.

She broke slightly with tradition by spraying a bottle of champagne over the bow of the boat as the hundreds of guests, many of them Russian, raised a toast with shots of Nemiroff vodka.

The unveiling of Kosatka follows last month’s christening in Boston of Il Mostro (the monster), PUMA Ocean Racing’s entry for the around-the-world race which starts in Alicante, Spain, on 4 October.

Kosatka reflects the speed, power and exemplary teamwork shown by Orcas or Killer Whales and cements the partnership of Team Russia with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).

“These are the fastest, most powerful animals in the sea and are also famous for their teamwork,” the WDCS CEO Chris Butler Stroud told the guests and media at the naming ceremony

Butler Stroud also revealed that a young Orca living in the Avachinsky Gulf off the Eastern Russian coast has been named Oleg in honour of the Russian supermarket entrepreneur who will be sailing in the race under Austrian-born skipper Andreas Hanakamp. Oleg the Orca has five brothers which the WDCS has been monitoring.

Zherebetsov will be handing over day-to-day management of his supermarket chain to a new CEO as he takes on a new challenge as a crew member in the ‘Everest of Sailing’.

The climax of Kosatka’s unveiling was a firework display and the unveiling of the environmental message which the boat will take around the globe on the nine-month marathon – ‘We Sail for the Whale’.

The message heads the campaign to call for the creation of 12 new marine protected areas for whales and dolphins by 2012.

Team Russia will be moving down to Portland in Dorset over the next few weeks where it will set up its training camp during the build-up to the race start.