Russia’s biggest shipping company, Sovcomflot Group, has contracted with Sail Training International to become a Presenting Partner for The Tall Ships Races 2009. Based in St Petersburg, one of the host ports for the race series and home port for the Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy’s sail training Tall Ship MIR, Sovcomflot Group will also help to fund the City’s involvement in The Tall Ships Races. Sovcomflot Group will have a strong presence in the other host ports as well: Gdynia (Poland), Turku (Finland) and Klaipeda (Lithuania).
“We are delighted to have Sovcomflot Group as a Presenting Partner for next summer's Races. The company has a strong link and empathy with sail training through its placement over many years of all its cadets on the MIR,” said a spokesman for Sail Training International.
Tall Ships’ Races (Europe) Ltd. is a part of a charity organization named Sail Training International, which has been arranging international regattas for sail training ships since 1956. The national sail training associations include those of Australia, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States. The basic aim of the regattas is to develop young people’s spirit and physical education, to promote healthy living, to attract young people to the maritime professions, to establish friendly contacts between the young of various countries, and to strengthen relations between nations.
Sovcomflot Group is Russia’s largest shipping company. Its fleet is amongst the five leading tanker companies in the world and comprises 132 vessels with a total deadweight (dwt) of 9.4 million tonnes. The company’s existing order portfolio includes 28 ships of 2.8 million dwt in total. The average age of vessel in the tanker fleet is about six years (the world average age is 12 years).
Sovcomflot holds the top position in the product carrier and Aframax tanker market segments, which are the most important for Russia’s foreign trade and its oil and gas companies.