Hi, Habr! Today is Friday, which means it's time to read something light, “relax with brains”. Our offer is to watch a small photo report on how last week the Habr team and RUVDS took part in the regatta of sailing ships.
First, a couple of words to lower the degree of indignation and answer the question "What does it do on Habré?". In September, we held an unusual
contest on Habré — we launched our server in a balloon, and users had to guess where the balloon would land after a few hours of flight. That is, you just had to poke the cursor on the map, who poked closest to the point of landing, and he won the main prize - a place on a yacht in a regatta, which was held in the Saronic Gulf (Greece). And how, after all this, it will not be possible to sum up - suddenly, someone will be inspired to participate in the next competitions (not far off) or even become interested in marine topics.
The winner of our competition Vitaly maxxl
')
The competition was as transparent and fair as possible (the text translation
was here ), there was no place for the participants to cheat. The only thing we worried about a bit is that the winner will be a freshly baked ReadOnly account from somewhere in Canada. But everything worked out - the prizes went to real users, although the main winner decided to give up his prize to the second winner - Vitaly
maxxl from Kaliningrad. The remaining seats on the yacht were taken by the employees of our company and the guys from Habr (
klauss_z and
Boomburum ). Drimtim
About regatta and yachts
A regatta is a large, usually traditional, sailing or rowing competition consisting of a series of races for ships of different classes. In our case there were more than 400 participants, 45 yachts and 5 days for sailing races. The route should look something like this, but the weather made its adjustments:
Despite the fact that the regatta was for beginner skippers (one of our employees completed the necessary training before the start), the competition turned out to be more than serious, without any concessions. 5 minutes before the start, everyone should turn off the engines and move only on sails to the finish line. Did you turn on the motor or did not fit into the hard timing? Results for the day are not counted. Accidentally stranger to another boat? Disqualification. Therefore, if at the very beginning it seemed to you that we were going to drink beer and sunbathe, then no - instead, there were blisters from the sheets, soaked things under the rain, the cold wind and the captain's mat :)
Yachts (Bavaria) were divided into several size divisions: 37 (3 cabins), 40/41 (3 cabins), 45/46 (4 cabins) and 51 (5 cabins). The number indicates the length of the hull (in feet), which dictates other characteristics: the size of the sail, the number of cabins, etc. We had a 41st Cruiser with 3 cabins - a very driving division. On the very first day, joint symbolism appeared on board the yacht:
It is amazing how efficiently the space in the yacht is used: literally every centimeter has some kind of functional meaning, the forethought is amazing. All cabinets in the kitchen have “closets” (so that they do not open on the waves), around the perimeter of the tables there is a side so that things do not fall. Gas stove (on suspension), refrigerator and freezer, a huge amount of various utensils and stuff. Some products (for example, potatoes and apples) can be stored in underground cavities.
For 3 cabins there were several toilets and showers - yes, small ones, but the processes could be paralleled :) The yacht had a two-zone audio system that supported Bluetooth and allowed changing volume in different zones. This is important because there have always been those who wanted to listen to music and those who wanted to rest from it (the eternal opposition, as “hot” and “blowing”).
Most of the time was spent on the top of the yacht, next to the captain - there are two sofas around the folding table. The cap had two steering wheels at its disposal — if the yacht was tilting, he would get up on the “top” steering wheel in order to better see the situation ahead. All navigation and other equipment is also concentrated there.
Seasickness? Fortunately, there were no special effects, but in general, a long stay at sea imposes a certain imprint: when you descend on dry land, it boosts a little :)
Rake
Five days on a yacht is like a hackathon: it’s not enough to make a finished product (in the sense of learning how to operate a sailing yacht), but it’s enough to rewind the experience on an intensive mode, stuff cones and collect a rake collection.
Rocks The first day of racing was the hardest of all - the yacht was still quite young, it was not easy to control the sails even under the command of the cap. More precisely not so. They seemed to cope with the sails, but nobody understood the desired pace, so the overcoming of the route was somewhat delayed: the section that was supposed to pass in the daytime had to be overcome in total darkness (there is no floodlight or other light on the yachts). They walked by instruments, and the site was not easy - between two islands, or rather, between two rocks. And it so happened that the wind played a cruel joke and the yacht almost went into the rocks - the participants, free from winches, literally shone on her with flashlights of smartphones. And so it was two times in a row :) The track speaks for itself:
The purple thread is our trajectory. Brown - rocks. Bottom left - scale)
Gordian knot. Along the way, they learned to knit sea knots and it so happened that one of the sheets (cables) on the winch was delayed by a sail.
Had to cut Ela unleashed. In general, cables (sheets and halyards) and sails are quite traumatic things - it is easy to burn yourself, pinch or pinch something about them.
Geek Frequent injury on yachts is when a boom (a huge metal thing from the mast) hits the head when changing position, which is often accompanied by a head injury and / or throwing overboard. But even just to bang your head against it is a minimally enjoyable pleasure. The captain warned us about this more than once, but in the end, he himself once venerated in the dark :)
Network. On the second day, some net clung to the steering feather of the yacht and there was every chance that it would be wound on a screw. I had to spend some time to remove it with a hook, which was attached to the oar with screeds.
The Internet. We were told that, in general, there will be mobile Internet, which will allow to be in touch, but everything turned out to be not so cloudless. The limit is 5GB, which flew off pretty quickly (on the very first evening, when I had to update iOS on the iPad, in order to install the application for tracking). Further replenishment is a whole quest, since we usually set off before opening stores, and moored after they were closed. Deposit funds through an application or a website (in Greek) is an even bigger quest, so a collective decision was made to take a break from the Internet. By the way, in this mode, the iPhone charge lasts almost three days.
Thunderstorm. Thunderstorm and downpour is, of course, not a storm, but the sensations are rather unpleasant: the whole sky becomes gloomy at once, visibility deteriorates, the shower is splashing, the cold, glittering lightning around. I didn't want to poison and stuff, I wanted mulled wine and in the cabin)
Mooring. 45 yachts can not accommodate anywhere, so sometimes it was necessary to moor the second move. Hence all that follows: the famous Van Damme stretching between yachts, entangled anchors, and so on. Our anchors were not confused, but many have encountered this problem. How to untangle two heavy chains? It turns out not so difficult.
Podrulka Some yachts were equipped with a "podrulku" - a pair of buttons, responsible for the work of the propeller (on electric) in the bow of the yacht. Quite a handy feature, especially when moored in the dark and in very cramped conditions. She stopped working for us on the second day - rummaged through all possible places to find at least something (battery, automatic, motor) responsible for her work - alas, this is “optional equipment”, about which there is not a word about the instructions. It was necessary to moor
in a characteristic sound without cheating.
Captains Much depends on them, almost everything. We had Captain Vladimir, who had served on the submarine for many years: he constantly rushed into battle, but for some reason before each change of tack he ran into the hold :) On the yacht of our friends there was a captain opposite to ours — the assistant captain of the tanker was also not very accustomed to sail. He had a completely different "driving style" - calm, as safe as possible. Perhaps that is why they have never met the timing of the race :)
In the photo as captain, RUVDS managing partner Nikita Tsaplin
Also saw several clashes - for this, both teams are disqualified from the races. Think two yachts are hard to come across? Motor - perhaps sailing - as two bytes to send. Especially when 45 yachts in a small bay try to line up on the starting line (intersection = false start = two turns must be made 360 degrees or the whole day is not counted). But we were lucky, it cost.
Tips
It’s not that we are right now experienced sea wolves, but still some observations a few days after the regatta crystallized into tips :)
Try it. When you hear that someone is keen on yachting, it is perceived as something generally alien. “
Where to get the sea, where to get the yacht? No, this is not for me, I can not ”- a typical train of thought. In fact, everything is simpler - a place on the yacht is not so expensive. Get together with friends, try - it is terribly interesting and easy. And much cooler than just lying on a lounger in the same Greece. Perhaps it will entice you, you want to get a license from the skipper - again, this is not very difficult and not as expensive as it seems.
Since we started talking about prices, the situation is like this: renting a 46th yacht cost about 4,000 euros per week (this cost is divided into 8-9 people), most of the costs (charter, cleaning, parking, charging, merchandise and Anything else). Also, a couple of hundred euros will have to buy groceries. In the end, the week of action came out no more than 700-900 euros per person.
Somewhere somewhere around 1,500 euros costs a couple of weeks of study at the sailing school for the skipper IYT Bareboat Skipper Sail (the license obtained after passing the exam is enough to operate the yacht in almost any area of the globe).
Grass and stuff. Even if you do not study for a skipper, but to take part in the regatta as one of the passengers, knowledge of terminology will not hurt in order to understand what is happening. Fender, windlass, DP, tack, fordevind, locker, traverse, bollard, railing, grotto, boom, boom-sheet and grotto-sheet, staysail and genoa, schlag, sheet, halyard - that's all. RTFM, useful :)
Piano
Equipment. Everyone had only a vague idea of what to take with them. As a result, half of the things were not useful. In short, of the mandatory (at least in November): a set of thermal underwear, a few warm clothes, something waterproof, non-slip shoes. It is advisable to take all this in two copies - in case one set gets wet (due to splashing or bad weather; everything dries on the yacht is very bad). Also, glasses (in sunny weather, the sea surface blinds), be sure to wear gloves (suitable for cycling), so as not to wash your hands on the sheets. A first-aid kit, sunblock and so on - even if you are not used to using it on your usual rest. And of course, all sorts of wiring and paverbank. For example, the problem turned out to be to find a clip to extract a sim card - I had to use a staple bracket from a notebook.
Food. We'll have to forget about burgers and other sweets for a while - at the very beginning food supplies are purchased for the whole team and for the whole week. In order for the bill not to be transcendental, one must rather carefully approach the choice of products and their quantity. And for this it is important to understand what is planned to cook on board - it is better to discuss it in advance with the team members. By the way, the yachts had suspended gas stoves, from which, according to the idea, pots and kettles should not fly away on the waves (we took it as a
challenge ).
Music. That's really not expected. Each of us has our own musical preferences and a certain amount of music on the phone. But when there are 8-9 people on the boat, it is difficult to please everyone - someone wants the King and the Jester, someone Luba, someone drummer and dubstep, and someone give pop or just "well, something else." In the end, there remains a very limited amount of music that suits everyone. We only had about 500 tracks, of which about 100 were listened - it all got tired on the second day. All sorts of hours-long mixes helped a lot, but you should be careful with their choice. All this is better to discuss in the chat team before the trip.
In the evenings, when we moored, our admin Pavel (from RUVDS, DJ Unpushible) took the laptop, the console and the speakers brought with him - it turned out to be a completely cool deep house, which even unknown people used to pull up at a late hour. On one of the islands, we took one of the ladders altogether, put it on some kind of railing, powered off almost from a lamppost and set up our own disco.
From left to right in the photo: RUVDS managing partner Nikita Tsaplin, RUVDS admin Pavel (DJ Unpushible), our captain Vladimir
A photo. Taking a DSLR is quite safe, although most of the photos were taken on smartphones. Get ready for the fact that most of the photos will be monotonous (sea-sky-sunset-coast-other_yachts), so if you want memories, scam themed hashtags in search of inspiration.
Total
Despite the fact that the team was some newcomers, the boat Habra and RUVDS took 9th place out of 45 participants. It seems to us - a good result for debutants.
There is a turning point, when a group of almost strangers suddenly becomes a friendly and well-coordinated team - it's hard to say when this happens, but everyone feels it. From morning to evening, any themes, music, a ton of jokes, gorgeous landscapes, sunsets, intoxicating sea air, an army of cats on land are discussed - all of these are components of a good digital detox, which sometimes needs to be arranged.
Speaking of contests. Already, we started
Game Overnight , the first old-school video game tournament in Russia. In the tournament there is a qualifying part and the real battle of the best of the best, which will be held on November 30 at the Museum of Soviet Gaming Machines. We are waiting for the tournament from 20 to 3 hours, foam drinks Smart Admin, Dj Cucumber (Sergey Mezentsev), and RUVDS admin DJ Unpushible will help him, and we will also try new Sub Zero snow burgers from our admins. So, as they say, welcome!
Have a good weekend!
