You can see who's worth what.

The RBC Caribbean Sailing Week is coming to an end. Even before the end of the regatta the winner in Dufour class was revealed. It was, as expected, the crew of Andrey Arbuzov. The guys were so tough that they did not go even to the last race as it did not change anything for them.

itBoat took a short interview with one of the members of Andrey's victorious crew - awell-known Russian businesswoman Catherine Solntsevaand vice president of the head office of a company ABBYY - leading manufacturer of linguistic software (many of us know such ABBYY products as FineReader and Lingvo).
- Katya, how did you find out about the RBC regattas?
- I found out about them as part of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. There was the RBC business regatta, which was widely discussed on the sidelines of the forum. And I decided to take part in one of RBC's Sailing Weeks, as I have always been close to the idea of yachting.
- And where did you go?
It was a regatta in Tuscany in 2010. It was a wonderful pastime in a beautiful country, with delicious food, with lots of sights. But there was no wind there, so it wasn't a race in the full sense of the word - just a sailing tour. And that's what a race to win is all about, I only learned here in Antigua.
- What attracted you to sailing?
- Initially it was the beauty of it and having a good time with nice people. Now the sporting excitement and a desire to be first has added to it. However, it turned out that it requires an unexpectedly great physical effort.
- What kind of work did you perform during the race?
- Most of the time I worked on the jib winch and tuning of the mainsail while sailing under the gennaker.
- Are you not going to take yacht courses now to become a captain?
- I'm not going on a sailing course, that's for sure. It takes too much time. I'm more interested in sailing in a strong team with a strong captain, than in being a captain of a mediocre one. I have my own favorite job, family, I can't spare too much time to sail seriously. Otherwise there is no point, at least for me.

I believe that it is better to be the first in the team of a strong captain than to be the last, but to be at the helm on your own.

No, I have to be the winner.
- Is regatta for you a recreation or a part of business process?
- Absolutely, business communication is very important. The corporate market requires the ability to get to know and build personal contacts with the heads of partner and client companies. The regatta is a very good tool for this purpose indeed. In this case the word combination sounds a little bit harsh. The relationships we build here are closer to friendly relations than to business ones.
Although I can definitely say that there is more trust in the people I meet at the regatta than there is in the usual business partners

.