The Khersones sailboat celebrated its 35th anniversary
The Khersones sailing training vessel of the FSUE “Rosmorport” Crimean branch celebrated its 35th anniversary. On March 28, 1989 the three-masted sailing frigate was solemnly hoisted the USSR national flag.
Today a solemn event took place on board of the celebrating vessel. Andrey Filchakov, Director of the FSUE “Rosmorport” Crimean branch, Nikolay Khamin, Deputy Director for Safety of Navigation, and Acting Deputy Director for Fleet Sergey Komlev, as well as representatives of the Crimean branch of FAI “Russian Classification Society” congratulated the crew headed by the captain Aleksandr Onishchenko.
The Khersones sailing training vessel will open a new season of navigation practice for cadets of Russian maritime universities. Soon the frigate will pass from the seaport of Sevastopol to the seaport of Sochi, where the future sailors and their mentors will get on board.
On the threshold of this event and in connection with the anniversary the parting words and wishes for successful navigation in the new season were addressed to the crew. Sailors were awarded a letter of gratitude signed by the director of the Crimean branch for high performance in the training of cadets of maritime specialties of educational institutions of the Russian Federation and conscientious fulfillment of their duties.
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The Khersones sailing training vessel is one of five sailing training vessels built at the Gdansk Shipyard by order of the USSR. Three of them - Mir, Nadezhda and Khersones - are under the economic management of FSUE “Rosmorport”.
The vessel was designed by the Polish designer Sigmund Horen based on the prototype of sailing vessels of the early XX century. Initially Khersones sailing training vessel was going to be named after Russian writer Alexander Grin, the author of the story “Scarlet Sails”, but the completion of construction coincided with the 1000th anniversary of the christening of Rus, the vessel was named after the ancient city where Prince Vladimir was christened.
The Khersones sailing training vessel is equipped with full sailing armament of the “ship” type. The 26 sails of the three-masted vessel are manually operated and act as its main propulsion system.
The frigate became world famous for rounding Cape Horn, still considered an ominous place among sailors, under sail with engines off. In 2021, the Khersones sailing training vessel was re-equipped with scarlet sails. It is currently the only sailboat of this size with scarlet sails.
