Fedor Konyukhov met with the management of the shipyard «Vympel» and discussed the possibility of building a racing sailing ship on which he intends to circumnavigate the globe.
After the circumnavigation the boat, which is going to be named «Admiral Fyodor Ushakov», will become a training sailing vessel of the Navy.
Will the Russian «Vympel» be able to implement these plans? The company has never produced sailing yachts. It specializes in construction of military and rescue motor boats. The company builds only small fiberglass launches.
«We have an opportunity to build a fast yacht for extreme sailing, - Oleg Belkov, Vympel CEO assured the traveler and his team. - At the first stage we plan the external architecture of the ship, send it to Fyodor Konyukhov, then we prepare an engineering note for the Ministry of Defense».
The length of the largest ship produced by «Vympel» is 59 meters. The ship-assembly workshop of the shipyard allows us to build ships of up to 1500 tons launching weight and the dockyard quay is 100 meters long. It is technically possible to cut the metal for the hull of a 75-metre sailboat and weld it «Vympel».
But who will design such a vessel? Who will build its rigging and equip it? These questions are still unanswered. It is known only that for rigging with 37-meter masts and equipment sailboat is going to be transported to the Black Sea. The construction of «Vympel» is ready to begin in 2017.
For a long time Fyodor Konyukhov has been cherishing plans to build a large sport sailing vessel for circumnavigation. The konyukhov.ru website describes the project of such a sailboat. OwenClarkDesign Ltd is mentioned there as designer. The British suggested building a 60-meter sailboat with three 37-meter masts, two centreboards and a fixed keel. The vessel was to be built at Pendennis Shipyard.
