"...We get on board the ship, and there is a meeting of the
Immensity of Dreams with the extremity of the seas".
Charles Baudelaire.
Ruben Khokhryakov, the organizer and ideological inspirer of the whole project".88 Parsec"...is nervous when he talks about "Running on the Waves" - like a father bringing out an older beloved daughter. The elegant three-masted barquentine is his brainchild, dreamed up and suffered in spite of many factors. The author who has been on board is even ready to put aside the traditional horsemanship and gladly admit that a man has realized a great and beautiful dream for the joy of so many. Through his efforts, a ship was born, unique in concept, execution, and external data, finally.
It all started quite traditionally. In due time young Ruben Khokhryakov was engaged in sailing, went on "Optimists" and bigger boats, and then, as usual, there was a big break when romanticism of sails retreated under severe pressure of big business. But it didn't give up to the end...
According to Ruben, the first "kramolnye thoughts" came to mind in 2003, when already held a businessman was on the route of Athens-Rhodes on a rented 42-foot ".Bavaria"run by a professional skipper. Not without romanticism, the entrepreneurial mind was troubled by a clearly blank chasm between small charter sailing ships and large cruise ships. The first allow you to feel the romance of sailing trips and appreciate the charms of small bays among countless islands, such as the Aegean Sea, but the convenience they have on board - the concept is very conventional. The latter surround the passenger with multistar comfort, but the romance disappears somewhere among the monumental interiors and measured bay of huge diesel engines.
So, the first message was clear - we wanted to create a hybrid of a sailing yacht and a cruise liner, with full, working sailing weapons and excellent navigability, even in harsh conditions. And - the dream of the project's inspirer - with a folding aft ramp for full beam diving. And also with a number of conditions from which the hair of experienced designers stood up and "squeeze" which could only a man who has no idea that it is impossible.
As a result, after the refusals of the famous Dutch and German Design Bureau, there was a shipyard in Polish Gdansk, ready "to get into battle and see what happens" ...
Anyway, you can write a few odysseys about the adventures of a yacht not yet built. On the site "88 parsec" there is a beautiful, with a light written text on the history of the creation of "Running on the waves" - read, will not regret.
...and it really turned out to be "possible." The TOR was formulated in 2005, and in May 2010 in Gdansk there was a presentation of the completed ship for the media and partners of the company. And so by August 2011 the "Running..." came from Gdansk through Bremerhaven to the shores of Cyprus to start a career as a cruise ship.
For the first time I saw a yacht standing on a raid near the Cypriot Protaras. At length of 64 meters "Running ..." does not seem large - elegant, but firmly knocked down and even look reliable ship with a very interesting silhouette of superstructures. With the same 64 meters of length... Felicita West as of Perini Navifor example, next to "Running..." would look like a dude dance slipper next to my mother's hiking shoe. And there is no denigration - those who think that hiking shoes are not elegant, just have not seen a good shoe.
Technically "Running on the waves" is a three-masted Bermuda barquentine 64 meters long, with a steel case and aluminum superstructure and masts. The steel casing (sheet thickness 8 mm) was chosen for strength and seaworthiness reasons - "Running on the waves" is GL certified for the high class +100 A5, i.e. as suitable for walking in all waters except ice latitude in winter. The vessel meets all SOLAS requirements and is capable of accommodating 45 passengers and 22 crew members on board. With a displacement of 700 tons, the yacht has a draft of only 3.2 meters, which allows her to enter secluded coves and explore small islands.
From the boat to the boat, we got on board through the famous aft ramp.
The full-beam ramp that Reuben dreamed of seeing on the boat from the very beginning, and for which he stood to die, despite the protests of venerable ships who do not want to voluntarily cut a hole in the entire transom of the ocean passenger ship. But the wrong one was attacked - now a huge steel panel with copper letters RUNNING ON WAVES tilts down on two powerful hydraulic cylinders, turning into a teak-lined bathing platform. A few meters behind it is a watertight bulkhead that cuts off the "diving center" from the rest of the body.
In the resulting room there is a compressor station, racks with dozens of cylinders and other equipment for the most serious diving activities. In addition to cruise talents, the "Running ..." has great potential as a research vessel, which is already planned to use in a number of very childish expeditions. Much has been told about these plans too, but this is already a topic for separate material.
From the diving center, a staircase leads to the main deck aft cockpit, with tables and soft sofas. From the aft and wide side aisles you can access the crew cabin (very beautiful!), first class cabins and living areas on the lower deck. The quality and accuracy of the teak finish on all surfaces are simply stunning.
Guests on the yacht are accommodated in 18 cabins, five of which are elegant "suites" with separate exits on deck. The other cabins are smaller but very cozy and equipped with everything you need, as in a good hotel. Particularly impressive are the details such as the echo sounder and underwater camera readings on the TV screen, the real barometer with the "bear" on it, the copper assemblies on the portholes and the mosaic inserts in the floor in the Mediterranean blue and blue.
Everyone who in childhood at least a little dreamed to captain and pirate, from the living interiors of "Running on the waves" will come to a raving delight - we guarantee.
Only one element forced to go to eat - a centralized air conditioning system. The air-conditioner loupes so that even at adjustment "+30" (!) after the Cyprus sun you fly into the cabin like in an ice-hole after a bath. However, this can hardly be attributed to the disadvantages - sleeps well in the cabins, for example.
On the bow, along with the market of ambiguous forms, attention immediately attracts another iconic element of the appearance of "Running on the waves" - a wide shovel-shaped bowsprit. Initially, according to the design of designer Nadezhda Stepchenko, it was supposed to be solid, but then it would not have withstood the ocean wave. Nevertheless, no one was going to give up, and the bowsprit remained in the same form, but became a frame, and the platform at its base took the sparkling rods in the manner of whale mustache. The author owes this wonderful construction to the red face and eventually peeled nose.
On no other boat in the world it is impossible to lie down on a bowsprit and look through a grid as in five meters below you a stem measures the water on the move.
Occupation is absolutely Zen and you can devote to it for hours - checked. The main thing is not to forget about sunscreen.
The upper deck features a large spandeck with whirlpool bath, the main navigation deckhouse and - closer to the stern - another shaded cockpit with rattan furniture. Between the deckhouse and cockpit there is an elevated platform around the bizan mast, where a small flybridge with a set of navigation equipment and controls is located. As it turned out, it is very convenient to take pictures in the style of "sea wolf behind a real wooden wheel", without disturbing the captain to control the ship from the main deckhouse.
Well, the main thing, what the whole project was about. It's about the sails. In the program we had a demonstration trip with all the sails on the Protaras traverse, and the next day a four-hour crossing from Protaras to the port of Larnaca, around Capo Greco. Ruben Khokhryakov was right - such an impression "common mortal" can not get on other cruise ships. Everything that has been dreaming about since childhood - howling winches, the rustling of huge canvases above his head, the hissing of water on the move, the captain's spells on the speakerphone like "Deck crew prepare for brasopka on the right tack! - it all comes down in a way you want to, right, dribble with happiness. Which, to be honest, is what I've been doing from time to time, while everybody's heads are turned up and looking at the sails.
It is necessary to tell that faultless sail-yacht atmosphere onboard was slightly spoilt by continuous rumble of the main diesel generator. Its designers for some reason installed it as on cargo ships - almost without a silencer, which is quite acceptable on a huge dry cargo ship, but sounds too loud on a yacht 64 meters long, where you are quite close to it. However, the organizers have assured that this moment has already been taken into account and that the boat will soon get up for a small rework, where this shortcoming will be completely eliminated. Taking into account how quickly and efficiently the boat was resolved earlier and much more complicated issues, the editorial staff sees no reason not to believe the owners.
Talk about "Running on the waves" and its creators can still be very long, and the author has already greatly abused even the endless area of our site. In general - we are very happy to see that there are such people that in spite of everything such a dream came true, and that there was a unique in its kind ship, which can proudly be called Russian.
The "Runner..." walks under the Cypriot flag, but everyone who managed to talk to her on shore calls her "that beautiful Russian ship" - "and that explains a lot".
The author sincerely wishes seven feet under the keel of "Running on the waves", good luck to its creators and, paraphrasing the classics, "only a little jealous of those others who still have cruises ahead.
Photos of the author, Oleg Vorobiev and Tatiana Tikhonravova.
