On the revival of the sailing of the Petrine era – a linear 54-gun ship of tier 4 “Poltava” – first raised 10 sails with a total area of 1000 square meters.
“This event was planned for another date, but occurred early, as today was perfect weather conditions and we were a bit ahead of your schedule. I was very pleased, returning from a business trip, to see not only the mast of the ship on the background of the construction of Lakhta Center, but also filled with sails,” – said the chief Builder of the ship “Poltava” Mikhail Plekhanov.
Sails raised on a moored ship in light winds to test the operation of running rigging – the ropes which control the sails and mast. Another aim of the trial setting – team training. As the captain of the ship “Poltava” Maxim Korshunov, the performance was in the normal mode. Only took about an hour of work a team of 10 people. This exercise allowed the builders to ensure that the rigging on the ship is working properly and to identify where improvement was needed.
“Setting sail today does not differ from the formulation in the eighteenth century. Work with the sails is carried out exclusively in manual mode without the use of any auxiliary mechanical devices. Work only sailors, blocks and rope”, – said Maxim Korshunov.
All the sails for the ship were made manually in workshop, sailing the historic shipyard “Poltava” Yacht club of Saint-Petersburg. Three hundred years ago, sails were made of flax or hemp of the highest quality, to Poltava, chose a modern synthetic material which looks almost like genuine canvas – with he more strong and durable.
Recall that the reconstructed linear 54-gun ship of tier 4 “Poltava” was launched on the city Day on 27 may 2018. Replica of linear ship “Poltava” was started in 2013 in the historic shipbuilding shipyard “Poltava”, founded the Yacht club of Saint-Petersburg. After completion of all construction works, the ship will become the center of a large, modern interactive Museum complex dedicated to the Maritime history of Russia. Now, excursions in Poltava is temporarily out of use due to construction works on the ship and reconstruction of the harbour.
Olga Dorovskaya,
the head of the press service of the Yacht club of Saint-Petersburg
