The Moscow restaurant Siberia in the evening of November 20 was particularly crowded. In the hall to honor the winners of the fifth anniversary award PROyachting«. The Man of the Year» gathered over 400 guests. The scale of the event is growing year by year: last year, in 2017, there were only 300 guests.
A special aperitif before the awards ceremony was the presentation of ClubSwan 36 sports sailing yacht from Finnish company Nautor's Swan. The yacht was presented by PROyachting CEO and official representative of the shipyard in Russia Mikhail Kondratyev. This was the first time the boat was shown to the Russian public.
A few curious features can now be added to the portrait of ClubSwan 36. For example, a propeller with a movable shaft will be completely hidden in the boat hull if necessary, and can be completely removed for transport.
«Everything is done on this yacht to quickly assemble it and move it to any place convenient for you, -»said Mikhail Kondratyev.
For ease of operation, all ends of the rigging will be brought to the working areas of the athletes responsible for certain tasks on the boat. A retriever system will be installed in the hatch to clean the genaker and set it up. This means that ClubSwan 36 will not need a tanker.
The shipyard is currently finalizing a matrix for the construction of the first boat hull. When it is ready in January 2019, test drives will begin in Spain. The first customers will receive ClubSwan 36 in June next year, and in September around ten boats of this type will compete in the Mallorca Cup of Nations.
After a short pause that allowed guests to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Nautor's Swan, the organizers began awarding the best yachtsmen of the season. The winners «of the PROyachting amateur regatta» series on J70 Tuesday Warm-Up Race yachts were the first to rise on stage. For the second year in a row the gold of the series went to the team «Moscow 24». Bonjorno«Tutti is 2nd and Big Fish is»3rd.
Igor Khoroshilov from Moscow sports school No. 26 became the» winner in the nomination «Children's Coach of the Year. For 30 years he has trained more than 30 masters of sports and masters of sports of the international class. His pupils performed at the Olympics, won championships and championships of the USSR and Russia, took prize-winning places at world and European championships.
A kind of break in the series of «serious» awards was the nomination Photo «of the Year. According to the results of the contest in Instagram and Facebook by the hashtag #PROyachtingPHOTO Victoria Shahrai was awarded with the audience sympathy prize, and the PROyachting jury noted the photo of Ekaterina Vashchenko.
«The VIII Moscow Architectural Regatta, which took place at the end of May at the Vodnoy Stadium, was recognized as the event of the year». The race was attended by 60 crews, which made up 290 architects and designers from all over Russia. The competition was held in two divisions: Architectural «studios on» ten mono J70 yachts and Private«architects and designers on» ten mono Beneteau Platu 25 yachts.
«The active participant of last season's regattas Oksana Aysina was» named the opening of the year, and»actress and photo model Anna Gorshkova was named the Tea«of the Year. Despite the fact that the title of the Kettle «»may seem unflattering, in fact, the prize in this category is awarded to the celebrities who discovered sailing for the first time during the last season and not only became fond of it, but also began to popularize it among their fans.
«I am not offended at all, but very pleased that you marked my first inexperienced steps towards sailing. I really hope that this is not my last achievement, - Gorshkova»laughed.
The prize for the best sailing coverage was awarded to the Sport-Express «newspaper,»one of the oldest Russian sports publications, which this year celebrates its 27th anniversary.
In the «Breakthrough of the Year» category the prize was awarded to the winner in the highest division of the National Sailing League 2018 - the Leviathan «team,»which next season will represent Russia at one of the largest regattas in the Baltic States - Nord Stream Race.
«We just wanted to be as cool as our idols - everyone who did PROyachting. It's thanks to you. You are our inspirers,"»said the team representative standing onstage.
The prize «for will to win was solemnly» awarded to the IEC team: «Sport. Former rally-riders who decided to try themselves in sailing and over the last two years managed to participate in a number of competitions. These include not only the winter series Sochi Winter Cup PROyachting, but also the Prime Division of the National Sailing League and the Russian Championship in the J70 class.
«Sergey Kuznetsov, the creator of windsurf team RS:X «Russia, who»won bronze at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, was the patron of the year». Fedor Rytov, the team director and world champion in sailing, came on stage instead of him for the well-deserved award.
The culmination of the evening was the awarding of the «Team of the Year» and the Person«of the Year. «Team of the Year was» the crew of «Tavatui», who for the second year in a row won the gold of the world championship in Melges 32 class. Interestingly, the team is now nominated for a similar award, established by Yacht Russia magazine, and the helmsman Pavel Kuznetsov and tactician Evgeny Ugodnikov also claim the title of Man of the Year according «to the All-Russian» Sailing Federation. Last year during the awarding ceremony PROyachting team became one «in three persons - Man»« of the Year.
«How do we do this? Regularly! But, actually, it's hard! The main thing is to drink the Aperol Syringe after the race!»...laughed at the Scoundrels.
«This year's man of the year» according to PROyachting is chairman of the board of Snezhinsk Sailing Federation and coach of the team Tavatui «Alexander» Ekimov. Besides active coaching activity and development of children's sailing, Yekimov as a member of the Battleship «team took the» third place at the World Championship in RC44 class and participated in the regattas of the National Sailing League.
«This is the merit of all the people with whom I worked. All the work was teamwork: whether it was organizing competitions, coaching or sports work. Thank you to everyone who was on the boat with me, who listened to me, with whom I spent the regattas together," said»Yekimov.
«The dessert» of the award was the awarding of the winners of the series of regattas on J70 Wednesday Night Race yachts. According to the results of the 21st regatta, a huge cup of the season's winners went to the crew of No Pasaran.
Silver of the series was earned by the TREM team and bronze by the Angels female crew.
The consolation prize went to the «East-West»team, which took fourth place in the series.
«Here we are fourth, almost reached, but next year... First, second places, hold on! We'll be somewhere close!» - promised the team.
One hour after the beginning of the ceremony, the horn of plenty, from which the winners and runners-up in all nominations were finally exhausted. But that hardly meant the end of the evening. The guests were treated to a spectacular music show, during which they could continue to socialize, enjoying sipping drinks and tasting snacks. Everyone who was close to No Pasaran had to beware: the team celebrating the victory shaken a bottle of champagne, which fired a splash a few meters around.
The press wave at the entrance of the hall also invariably had newcomers wishing to take pictures as a memento. It is not for nothing that the invited ladies so carefully chose outfits and decorations and made evening hairstyles! Another nice addition to this part of the evening was a lottery from the company BMW. Favourite of fortune was certified for a long-term test drive of the BMW M sports car.
