Slender masts, snow-white sails, salt spray ... Which of the boys did not dream in childhood to go around the world on a sailing boat ?! A thirst for adventure beckoned to distant lands and unknown distances. The works of Jules Verne, Daniel Defoe, Robert Stevenson and Jonathan Swift spurred the imagination. But sailboats that make round-the-world exist today. One of them is the Apostle Andrew yacht.
The birth of a sailboat
Nikolai Andreevich Litau during his life organized and participated in a considerable number of trips. From childhood, he dreamed of the seas, oceans and sailboats. The idea of traveling around the world across four oceans has become a major hobby. Its implementation required the most hardy ocean yacht. She had to successfully overcome the Northern Sea Route through icy congestion and bad weather. The price of a yacht of this kind is very high, but it was worth it.
Under the leadership and commission of Litau, a project for a sailing ship was developed, which was to satisfy all the required conditions. They decided to build it in Tver, and the beginning was laid in 1993. The construction dragged on for three whole years, either technical or financial problems.
Name acquisition
The construction was already completed, and the sailboat never found a name. Everyone remembers the words of captain Vrungel from the cartoon of the same name:
"You are not giving a name in vain,
I will tell you in advance:
What do you call a yacht
So she will swim.
What do you call a yacht
So she will swim! ”
(The author of the text fragment is Chepovetsky E.)
On its first voyage, the boat set off anonymous. Safely, he sailed to Moscow for blessing and illumination to Patriarch Alexy II. It was from him that he got his name. The yacht "Apostle Andrew" is named after the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, who is considered the patron saint of sailors.
Technical specifications and equipment
This is an ocean yacht, so it was built taking into account all the requirements for reliability and endurance. Its body is welded, and the contours are faceted. Steel sheets were used as cladding. In the area of the bottom, its thickness reaches two centimeters.
The length of the boat is 16.2 m, the width is 4.8 m. It has two masts, 19 and 14 meters high, capable of carrying 130 square meters. m sails. The yacht can not only sail, but also has an engine for unforeseen events. This is an Iveco device with a capacity of 85 horses. Sailing draft of the sailboat is 2.7 m and displacement is 25 tons.
The maximum speed at which the yacht can fly under all sails is 12 knots. This is a little more than 22 km / h. The cruising speed of the sailboat is about 7 knots, or about 13 km / h.
A crew of 5-7 people can serve during the sailing Apostol Andrey yacht. On board there is everything you need - modern navigation systems and communications, sleeping places and a galley.
Now the price of a yacht, even a very small pleasure boat, is about one and a half million rubles. But this ship is not so easy to evaluate. It now has a certain historical value, although it was created very recently. During its existence, it set more than one record and crossed waterways previously inaccessible to ships of this class.
Circumnavigation
The yacht Apostol Andrey set sail for the first time around the world in 1996. She was able to successfully circumvent the Eastern Hemisphere, while achieving three record levels:
- first round-the-world tour in the meridional direction;
- the first circumnavigation across all oceans, the Arctic Arctic is no exception;
- first passage along the Northern Sea Route.
The ship returned to the launch site in 1999, and in 2001 went on a journey again. Now around the Western Hemisphere. The third round the world was carried out in 2004. The yacht had to go around Antarctica within the 60th parallel.
Each journey revealed structural imperfections, so the rest time between round-the-world was devoted to the modernization and improvements of the vessel. Today it is a hardy, maneuverable and fast yacht, ready, together with its crew, to challenge any extreme conditions.
Travel today
Do not think that around the world it was all over. Almost every year, "Apostle Andrew" goes on a new expedition.
- 2007 - Solovetsky Islands.
- 2010 year. The plans were to go around the New Earth. The exit was made from Tver. After visiting the Solovetsky archipelago, they reached Vaygach island, where they landed a group of passengers - environmentalists. Then the course was taken for the purpose of travel, the yacht managed to go around the entire archipelago.
- 2011. The yacht reached the northernmost island of the Franz Land archipelago - Joseph.
- year 2012. The yacht set off on the trail of the Rusanov expedition and the Hercules schooner.
- year 2013. The team repeated the path of the hydrographic expedition a century ago. In addition, the ship managed to cross the 83rd parallel, and this is another degree in the arctic achievements of the yacht.
- year 2014. Traveling in the wake of G. Brusilov and the schooner "St. Anna".
- 2015 is a year rich in anniversaries. The captain of the yacht 60, the ship itself on the same day 19. And a month later the ship sailed to Dikson for the 100th anniversary of the moment when the first icebreakers Taimyr and Vaigach arrived in Arkhangelsk, completing the passage by the Northern Sea Route.
- 2017 year. The eleventh trip to the Arctic, again dedicated to Rusanov and Hercules.
The wanderings of the yacht do not end there. Her captain has many plans for the future.