Launched 31 October 1981 / Built Kiev Cruising Yacht Club / Build time 3 years 3 months / Still sailing Yes
Yacht “Gonta”
Three years and three months to build — and that included not just the hull and deck, but every single piece of hardware on her.
On 31 October 1981, at the Kiev Cruising Yacht Club in Ukraine, the yacht Gonta was launched.
Ballast keel, rudder, mast, blocks, winches — you name it — all were made by us. Since that day she has been a familiar sight at many competitions, domestic and international alike.
She reached Western Australia in 1991, lost her mast off Kalbarri that April, crossed the Indian Ocean to the Cocos Islands in 1992, and was still racing on the Dnieper in Kiev twenty-eight years after her first launch.
Further reading
- Гонта — Igor Mironenko's book about the yacht (Russian). In the books section →
gonta.com.ua— the crew's own site. The host still answers but refuses automated requests, so this link needs a human to confirm it before it goes live.
