Yacht "Apostol Andrew": amazing Arctic adventures

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

Slender masts, snow-white sails, s alty spray… Which of the boys did not dream of going around the world on a sailboat as a child?! 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 sailing ships that circumnavigate the world still exist. One of them is the yacht Apostol Andrew.

Birth of a sailboat

Nikolai Andreevich Litau organized and participated in a considerable number of trips in his life. From childhood, he dreamed of the seas, oceans and sailboats. The idea of traveling around the world across four oceans became a major craze. For its implementation, the most enduring ocean yacht was required. She had to successfully overcome the Northern Sea Route through ice jams and bad weather. The price of a yacht of this kind is very high, but it was worth it.

Under the guidance and order of Litau, a sailboat project was developed, whichhad to satisfy all the required conditions. It was decided to build it in Tver, and the foundation was laid in 1993. Construction dragged on for three whole years, technical and financial problems interfered.

Getting a name

The construction was already completed, but the sailboat never got a name. Everyone remembers the words of Captain Vrungel from the cartoon of the same name:

“You don’t give your name in vain, I’ll tell you in advance:

What do you call a yacht, So it will float.

How do you call a yacht call it, So it will float!”

(The author of the text fragment is Chepovetsky E.)

The boat set off on its first voyage still nameless. He safely sailed to Moscow for blessing and illumination to Patriarch Alexy II. It was from him that he got his name. The yacht "Apostol Andrew" is named after the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, who is considered the patron saint of sailors.

Specifications and equipment

This is an ocean yacht, so it was built with all the requirements for reliability and endurance. Its body is welded, and the contours are faceted. Steel sheets are 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-meter high, capable of carrying 130 square meters. m of sails. The yacht not only can sail, but also has an engine for emergencies. This is an Iveco machine with a capacity of 85 horses. The draft of the sailboat is 2.7 m, and the displacement is 25 tons.

Maximum speed at which a yachtcan fly under full sail - 12 knots. It's a little over 22 km/h. The cruising speed of the sailboat is about 7 knots, or about 13 km/h.

The crew of 5-7 people can serve the yacht "Apostol Andrey" during the voyage. Everything you need is on board - modern navigation systems and communications, berths and a galley.

Now the price of a yacht, even a very small pleasure one, 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 quite recently. During its existence, it has set more than one record and crossed waterways previously inaccessible to vessels of this class.

Circumnavigations

The Apostol Andrey yacht set off for its first round-the-world trip in 1996. She was able to successfully bypass the Eastern Hemisphere, while achieving three record highs:

• first circumnavigation in the meridional direction;
• first circumnavigation of all oceans, the Arctic is no exception;
• first passage of the Northern Sea Route.

The ship returned to its launch site in 1999, and in 2001 set off on a journey again. Now around the Western Hemisphere. The third circumnavigation took place in 2004. The yacht had to go around Antarctica within the 60th parallel.

Each voyage revealed imperfections in the design, so the rest time between circumnavigations was devoted to the modernization and improvement of the ship. On thetoday she is a hardy, agile and fast yacht, ready to challenge any extreme conditions with her crew.

Travel today

Don't think that everything is over at the round the world. Almost every year "Apostol Andrew" goes on a new expedition.

• 2007 - Solovetsky Islands.
• 2010 year. The plans were to circumnavigate Novaya Zemlya. The exit was made from Tver. After visiting the Solovetsky archipelago, we reached Vaygach Island, where we disembarked a group of environmentalists. Further, the course was taken to the destination of the trip, the yacht managed to go around the entire archipelago.
• 2011 year. The yacht reached the northernmost island of the Franz Josef Land archipelago.
• 2012 year. The yacht set off in the footsteps of Rusanov's expedition and the Hercules schooner.
• 2013 year. The team repeated the path of the Hydrographic Expedition of 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.
• 2014 year. Journey in the footsteps of G. Brusilov and the schooner "Saint Anna".
• 2015 is a year full of anniversaries. The captain of the yacht is 60, the ship itself is 19 on the same day. A month later, the ship set off for Dikson on 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. Eleventh trip to the Arctic, again dedicated to Rusanov and Hercules.

The yacht's wanderings don't end there. Her captain has many plans forfuture.