The “Russian Sailor of the Year 2010” national award winners have been announced 2nd of December, 2010, in the “Forum Hall” celebration rooms in Moscow. The award was broadcasted live by the NTV Plus Sport TV channel.

The ceremony was attended by the Russian Yachting Federation (RYF) management, the presidents of the class associations and the regional sailing federations’ representatives, members of the RYF. In all, the award gathered more than 700 persons. The award was hosted by a popular radio host Alex Dubas and the RYF PR-director Alexey Zhirov. The photo report can be found in photo gallery or here www.vfps.ru and here www.yachtrussia.ru.

The winners were awarded by the Tver Oblast governor, the RYF supervisory board chairman Dmitriy Zelenin, the Hero of the Soviet Union, the Hero of the Russian Federation, the legendary polar explorer, the RF State Duma deputy Artur Chilingarov, the State Duma deputy, the RYF supervisory board chairman Sergey Shishkarev, the RF transport deputy minister, the RYF supervisory board chairman Viktor Olersky, the general director of the group of companies SOVKOMFLOT (СОВКОМФЛОТ) Sergey Frunk, the chairman of the Council of the Federation industrial policy committee, the team “Synergy” (Синергия) captain, the RYF board of trustees member Valentin Zavadnikov, the Yacht Russia magazine publisher, the RYF board of trustees member Vasiliy Senatorov, the IBS president, the RYF board of trustees member Anatoliy Karachinsky, the Moscow Sailing Federation president, the prefect of the Northern Administrative department of Moscow Vladimir Silkin, the manager of the Volkswagen brand in Russia Frank Wittemann and other respected guests.

The Award Winners :

The Sailor of the Year title was given to Igor Zaretsky, the Jester Transatlantic Challenge 2010 winner. The sailor of the year was congratulated by the PR-director of the “Volkswagen-Motor Cars” brand Andrey Gordasevich, while the director general of the “Moscow Time” company Polina Titkova presented the winner with a Swiss watch EDOX.

Ekaterina Skudina was once again announced to be the Yachtswoman of the Year. Ekaterina got this honorary title last year as well. This year her achievements include the Europe Champion 2010 title, the first rank in the prestigious Keil Race Week and Stena Sweden Match Cup (grade 1 ISAF). Skudina’s assistants Irina Lotsmanova (Ekaterinburg) and Elena Suzeva (Krasnodar) helped her during the races. The Chiffre gallery and the “Empire” company presented the winner with an exclusive adornment, made at the “Demetra” factory.

Valentin Mankin received the Legend of Sailing title. Mankin is an acclaimed soviet yachtsman, threefold Olympic Champion, repeated world and Europe champion, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, Honored Coach of the USSR, repeated USSR champion of different yacht types’ races from 1959 to 1981. He is the only yachtsman in the world to take Olympic gold in three different classes, which are the Finn, the Star and the Tempest classes. Valentin Mankin was also invited by the nomination sponsor VELUX company to attend the closing ceremony of the round-the-world solo race VELUX 5 OCEANS 2010/11 to be held next year in France.

The “Contribution to the Development of Sailing” award was given to Artem Kuznetsov who is the Head of the RYF board of trustees and the Russian “Dragon” class champion. Artem Kuznetsov regularly gives support to the children’s, youth’ and Olympic sailing in Russia. The nomination’s sponsor M2M Private Bank presented the winner with an exclusive Antares VISA Infinite card.

The sailing team RUS-27 “Annapurna” is the “Sailing Team of the Year”. The “Dragon” class yacht crew led by the helmsman Anatoly Loginov and his crew Andrey Kiriluk and Alexander Shalagin have taken first place in all of the 2010 first grade races, which includes the Golden Cup and the Nations’ Cup (the latter with the other Russian “Dragon” sailors). The sailors dominate the world “Dragon” class rating for the second year in a row. The nomination’s partner anywayanyday.com presented the crew with promo cards for ticket and hotel reservations online.

The winner in the Best Sailing Event Coverage: The Golden Feather nomination is Lina Holina of the Sport-Express newspaper. Lina has been professionally covering all the Transpack 52 and Louis Vuitton Trophy races for over a year now. There is no other author in Russia so deeply absorbed in the sailing subject matter and with the equal amount of sailing themed material published. The special gift for the winner is the Russian guide “Poliglot”.

Leonid Dubeykovsky was announced to be the best sailing photographer (Best Sailing Events Coverage: The Golden Lens nomination). Leonid is one of the leading seascape photographers in Russia. His photos are filled with energy and force. Leonid has been taking photos of the sailing events for a several decades. The company “White-Hall”, which is a partner of the award, has prepared a special Kauffman gift for the winner.

The Best Event Organizer title went to Mikhail Otdelnov and the organizing committee of the Black Sea Cup by Men’s Health, who have successfully run windsurfing and kiteboarding races with the biggest amount of participants – 278 sportsmen from 39 cities. The medal set for the event consisted of 22 medals. The event also included the RS:X class Championship of Russia (men and women). At the stage Mikhail was joined by Alexey Pinchuk, Kirill Vonogov, Andrey Medin and Tatyana Aksenova. The winners were awarded with a certificate for free yacht parking by the manager general of D-MARIN Didim Marina Murat Yaprack.

‘The Best Long-distance Sport Voyage” award went to the yacht “Petr I” crew (captain Daniil Gavrilov, Saint-Petersburg), who were the first sailors ever to navigate both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route during one short arctic summer. The crew consists entirely of young people under the age of 25, including the captain and the senior officer. In addition, the crew has outrun the Norwegian trimaran going the same route, thus making Russian sailing world-famous. The nomination’s partner English shipyard OYSTER representative – Barry Ashmore congratulated the winners.

Andrey Latinov (Anapa) was awarded with the Umpire of the Year title. This year, as well as the years before, Latinov professionally judged different race both as a chairman of the protest committee (including on-water) and as the head umpire of different disciplines and classes ranging from windsurfing to offshore ORC races. The MUSTO Company, the official RYF partner, awarded the winner with a certificate, which allows him to receive a set of sailing equipment.

Dmitriy Murashev (Novosibirsk) is the Coach of the Year. He trained Artem Murashev, the participant of the first Youth Olympics in Singapore who took the fifth place there. The Gaastra company, the official RYF outfitter, awarded Dmitriy with a certificate, which allows him to receive professional sailing garments in the Gaastra store chain.

The Best Sailing School for Children title went to the Youth Sailing School of the Krasnodar Kray. Andrey Zagaynov, who took first place in the World Windsurfing Championship 2010, was trained in this school, as well as the bronze winners of the Europe Championship command racing and the gold winners of the Russian Open Class 420 Championship. Judging by the students’ achievements, this school is one of the strongest in our country. The school received an “Optimist” as a special gift from the POLITERMO company (Optimist builder in Russia), RYF’s official producer.

Every winner was presented with the award’s symbol – a crystal sailer. Sail as a lifestyle! – is the award’s motto.

Vasiliy Senatorov, the Yacht Russia magazine publisher: «The award’s motto is “Sail as a lifestyle”. All the winners who have ascended the stage today share this motto. The winners deserve to be publicly recognized on the national scale. I would like to thank the Volkswagen company, the general partner of the award, for supporting this significant for the Russian sailing event».

Oscar Konukhov, CEO of the RYF: «The award’s goal is to define the leaders in ten nominations among professionals and to draw the public’s attention to sailing in general. Judging by the amount of people attending, one can say the goals have been achieved. The award is a reasonable end to the RYF 2010 event schedule».

The award was organized by the Russian Sailing Association and the Yacht Russia magazine, with the support of the Managers’ Association.