The conference of sailing centers, located in the North-West of Russia, took place in Saint Petersburg Yacht Club on the 4th of July 2017

The conference of sailing centers, located in the North-West of Russia, took place in Saint Petersburg Yacht Club on the 4^th of July 2017. The representatives of sailing sport federations and sailing community of Kalinigrad, Pskov, Leningrad Region, and Murmansk came to the conference and other regions participated in a remote way. As the majority of questions were related to the promotion of sport among children and youth, this conference coincided with the end of the two largest children’s regattas: Optimist Class Association Cup and the first event of the regatta “Optimists of the Northern Capital. The Gazprom Cup”, which had been held during the whole previous week in Saint Petersburg Yacht Club.

The main objective of the conference was to discuss various issues of how to attract children to sailing sport and how to increase the number of yachts for children in the North-West of Russia. During discussions, the participants of the conference shared experience of working in the their regions and set particular steps to be taken in the future to join the efforts of the regions in the North-West of Russia.

As the organizer of the conference Vladimir Liubomirov says: “We took two decisions at the conference that will help us increase the number of children, involved in sailing, here in the North-West of Russia. First of all, we decided to make the schedule of competitions much busier. And as a first step, we will organize the Open North-Western Championship for all our sport schools and groups in the following classes: Optimist, Cadet, Rocket 270 and two windsurfing classes DNK and Techno 293 in Kaliningrad at the end of June next year. The second decision that we took is to open four Sailing Academy subsidiaries in Pskov, Kaliningrad, Vyborg and Sosnovy Bor in Leningrad Region and Kandalaksh city of Murmansk Region during this year – at beginning of the next year. With the support of the leaders of sailing community, we plan to create and support the existing sailing schools for children to increase the number of their students significantly and to implement the Academy programs, targeted at different age groups. We have vast experience and we want to share it.”

The following people participated in the discussions: Alexey Grunenyshev (Pskov), Mikhail Glavatsky (Leningrad Region), Kirill Romanov (Leningrad Region), Dmitry Zaritsky (Kalinigrad), Irina Gorbatyuk (Kalinigrad), Alina Egorenkova (Murmansk Region), Pyotr Kazansky (Head of the local representative office of National and Non-Olympic Sports Association), as well as the representatives of Saint Petersburg: Kirill Vonogov, Taisiya Borodina, and Vladimir Liubomirov – Commodore of Saint Petersburg Yacht Club.

Watch the interview with Vladimir Liubomirov summarizing the results of the conference

The guests of the Yacht Club visited the historical shipbuilding yard POLTAVA, participated in the meeting of Optimist class representatives and in the Awarding ceremony of Optimist Class Association Cup and the first event of the regatta “Optimists of the Northern Capital. The Gazprom Cup”.