The «PROyachting awards ceremony was held in Moscow on November 27. Person of the year». The winner of the main prize - a crystal sailing boat - was Oleg Valinsky, Deputy Director of Russian Railways.
«I am very grateful to Oleg Valinsky for involving the whole state corporation in yachting», - said the founder of PROyachting Ekaterina Skudina at the ceremony of awards.
In 2011 Oleg Valinsky for the first time assembled a sailing team consisting of railway workers for the Ust-Ladoga Cup in the Baltic Sea. He was one of the originators of creation of St. Petersburg Railwaymen's Sailing Amateurs Club. Today the club has over 90 members and the number of the club is steadily growing.
«At one moment I was in Moscow, - Oleg Valinsky says, - and I decided that it was a fall for me, because I did not understand what yachting in Moscow was all about. One beautiful sunny day in 2016 I happened to visit the Pirogovskoye water reservoir and saw that everything there was white and white with sails and I was amazed. The next year the idea came to me that since it's all happening here, why should railroaders stand by».
Now, thanks to his support, a large-scale industry-wide sailing regatta «1520» has been held in Moscow for two years in a row .
Interestingly, Oleg Valinsky was the drummer of the first band «Kino» (which was then called «Garin and the Hyperboloids»).
«Team of the Year» was the Scorpios crew of Dmitry Rybolovlev. Nine of the thirteen crew members of Scorpios are Russian sailors. Despite the relative youth of the team (it was created in 2017), already this year it managed to take the most prestigious trophy: becoming the world champion in Club Swan 50 class.
In the category «Breakthrough of the year» won the team Chechen «Akhmat», which this year won all major Russian competitions in the J70 class - both the Championship of Russia and the National Sailing League. The team was represented at the awards by its captain Khasan Khadzhiev:
«The main task for our team is to draw attention to sailing in our republic, far from being a sailing republic, although we have the water area. I think many people know about the Kezenoi-Am Cup, the highest regatta in Europe which we have. That way, with our victories, we hope to develop sailing in the republic. We also have a children's team «Akhmat» which sailed for the first time this year, but it has already achieved victories, and our main hope is of course for them».
«sailing event of the year» was the Youth World Championship in class RS:X, which brought together over 100 athletes from 19 countries. Elena Sokolova, project manager of St. Petersburg Yacht Club, which hosted the competition, received the award.
The duo of coaches Tatiana Zhuravleva and Boris Minaev received an award in the nomination «Children's Coach». This year Tatyana and Boris' athlete Yana Reznikova won gold at World Championship in RS:X class in St. Petersburg and silver at World Sailing Championship.
The award for «Sailing coverage» went to «Kommersant», one of the oldest publishing houses and one of the most authoritative and influential media structures in the country.
In the humorous nomination «Kettle of the Year» PROyachting celebrates famous people who have discovered sailing and started popularising it among the wide audience. This year the prize was awarded to the producer, journalist and owner of the PR boutique DM agency Daria Mikhalkova. She attended the PROyachting Cup business regatta as a guest and was so enthusiastic about the idea of mastering sailing that she started training on J70 yachts.
«Since then I have never taken my striped shirt off»," admitted Daria Mikhalkova, who did attend the ceremony in a striped T-shirt.
Also according to the tradition PROyachting awarded prizes and gifts to the winners of the weekly series of regattas Wednesday Night Race, Tuesday Warm Up Race and newly created this year series PROyachting Fun Race. Despite the fact that this series is new, in its first season it managed to put together 55 crews and held 17 regattas.
The TREM Sailing crew won the evening series of the Wednesday Night Race. Irina Sorokina's crew got the main trophy of the season - a Diver Chronometer 42 mm watch by the Swiss watch manufacturer Ulysse Nardin.
The victory in the evening series of the Tuesday Warm-Up Race was won for the third time in a row by «Moscow 24». Team Bars became the champion of the new PROyachting Fun Race series.
The PROyachting Award is held each year at the end of November. Last year, Alexander Yekimov, Chairman of the Board of the Snezhinsk Sailing Federation and coach of the team «Tavatuy», won the main trophy of the award.
