Money-Growing: Yacht City

Sergei Lyadov, a spokesman for the investment and development company Siti-XXI Vek, believes that yachting in Moscow will catch on quickly, ironically because of Russia's cool climate, as it allows people's dreams of a beautiful life on warm seas to partially materialize.

According to approximate estimates of the volume of motor-boat and yacht sales and the number of members belonging to yacht clubs, over 2,500 yachts worth over $1 million ply the rivers and reservoirs in and around Moscow.

And it makes no difference that the cruise yachts with plastic hulls were intended for sea voyages and are not really suitable for the rivers and lakes in and around Moscow. The area does not offer yachts, equipped with engines exceeding 300 horse-power, much space to pick up speed - speed along the rivers and canals themselves, as well as the proximity to ports, jetties, beaches, etc., all being restricted. There are not many sites where a deep draught vessel can moor safely, while operating such a yacht requires several years of training or means hiring a captain.

Russia's high society explores the world of water and tries on sailor's outfit. And why not take advantage of Moscow's most prestigious residential estates being located along the shores of the river flowing from the northwest and west through the city center?

This summer saw the opening of three yacht clubs in Moscow - a yacht port in Strogino, a yacht club in the Alyye Parusa residential estate and Shore House in the Crocus City retail and entertainment center.

New projects, mostly supplementing the infrastructure of riverside residential estates, as well as “life-saving-sanatorium complexes” built on the basis of existing lifeboat stations, are to be opened in the near future. The yacht port at Strogino -- the first of its kind - was built in accordance with all the modern requirements and adjoins a life-saving station.

Dmitry Turnayev, deputy head of the Moscow city inspectorate for small vessels (GIMS) says that boat stations, berths for motor boats and sailing yachts, including those situated at life-saving stations, existed on the Moskva River before, making up altogether about 60 sites.

But it was not until the Moscow waterways were invaded by modern vessels worth hundreds of thousands to over a million dollars - the price of a luxury apartment or a country house - that a demand for infrastructure enabling yacht owners to operate their floating palaces emerged. Developers involved in the construction of residential housing were the first to respond to that demand.

According to Sergei Lyadov, “seeing a snow-white beauty beneath the window of your house and sailing it anytime you please - during the navigational period, of course - is a unique level of comfort, unimaginable even a short time ago.”

Yacht Residence

Early July saw the opening of a yacht club in the Alyye Parusa (Scarlet Sail) residential estate. The interior of the club, occupying the ground floor of a functioning light-house, is strikingly elegant. For instance, the floors are covered with decking. Nearby there are 37 mooring spaces, each equipped with state-of-the-art Marinetek facilities.

The footbridges of varying lengths are made of teak. What is especially valuable is that the yacht club offers facilities for the winter storage of yachts, albeit not in a slipway but in a gallery encircling the berths.

By the time the club opened it had received over 80 applications for the 36 vacant mooring spaces - one space had been reserved in advance. As a result the spaces were sold at an auction, the price of some of them reaching $15,000, according to the press-service of Don-Stroi, the development company owner of Alyye Parusa.

The location of the Alyye Parusa yacht club requires heightened security measures, since the berths are situated under a bridge, in the immediate proximity to a sluice, Turnayev notes. The club was recommended to install surveillance cameras covering the water area so as to ensure the safety of yachts leaving the berths. The Moscow city inspectorate of small vessels (GIMS) has held training sessions for boat owners at the club. Altogether, according to the officials, the club attaches great importance to safety issues.

The Konti group of companies is carrying out the construction of a second part of the Pokrovsky Bereg residential estate in the picturesque public park of Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo on the bank of the Khimki reservoir, in the vicinity of the Pokrovskoye-Glebovo manor - another project by Konti.

The construction of the Pokrovsky Bereg estate and development of the adjacent area are two interconnected projects being financed separately. Vyacheslav Timerbulatov, Konti's director general, says that in the framework of the beach zone development the company plans to set up a yacht club. The first step towards its creation is to be made next year, when a area for 15-18 mooring spaces will be opened.

In future, the company plans to increase the size of berths and the number of mooring spaces. “The maximum length of yachts we will be able to accept is about 22 to 24 meters. We will have spaces for 30-40 yachts and the same number of spaces for motor-boats,” he says.

The Pokrovsky Bereg beach club offers various sports and water sport facilities and equipment for rent: table-tennis, badminton, beach volleyball, billiards, mini-golf and mini-football on a special pitch, tennis courts, and a playground for children.

In summer the Kapital Group holding presented its new project “City of Yachts” on the bank of the Khimki reservoir - a unique state-of-the-art residential estate with a total space of 60,000 sqm and residential space of 30,000 sqm for those who are keen on water sports.

“The yacht club will be situated in the water area of the Khimki reservoir in a quiet haven, nor far from the Northern river port. All the reservoirs of the Moscow Region, as well as the city center are accessible from here,” says Katerina Semikhatova, chief spokesperson for Kapital Group.

“A yacht club situated within a residential estate is a pleasant supplement to the entire complex, that includes residential apartments, town houses, wellness and spa centers, etc.,” says Semikhantova. The cost of setting up the club accounts for about 20 per cent of the whole volume of investment, evaluated at $110 million.

The club will occupy a total of 2.5 hectares of the water area. It will include a berth of 110-117 mooring spaces for yachts of all sizes, with most of the spaces intended for yachts of 40 to 100 feet (12-30.5 meters) and draught of up to 4 meters. Yacht owners will be offered guarded berths equipped to modern standards, with water and power supplies, Internet connection and satellite television.

Furthermore, the club will have its own cigar club, a room for card games, billiards, a bar and restaurant offering European cuisine, a quiet library facing the river, and a small cinema hall.

Membership in the club will be organized along the same lines as European yacht clubs. A daily charge for renting a mooring space for one yacht will amount to $2.5 per meter of the vessel's length. In winter yachts will be stored in a heated slipway at $3 per meter of the vessel's length per day.

“It is safe to say that most yachts on reservoirs [around Moscow] are vessels of 24 to 50 feet (7.31-15.24 meters) in length. Compared to last year and the year before last the demand for yachts of over 60 feet in length (over 18 meters) has increased. Yet, in my opinion, this is not likely to continue forever; sooner or later there won't be much space left on the water, and then, in about 4-5 years yachts will most likely move to the Mediterranean,” Semikhatova believes.

“However, this will not in anyway affect the demand for mooring, since there is no limit to perfection - as used yachts are being sold, newer and better ones are being bought, hence the demand for mooring spaces for yachts and speedboats is unlikely to drop.”

Yacht clubs today can be viewed as an investment that brings in a decent income. Building such clubs near residential estates and countryside settlements is fashionable and profitable, because the price of mooring and servicing yachts in Moscow today is even higher than the European average, claims Andrei Vasilyev, head of the rural real estate department at Paul's Yard.

More and more countryside settlements along Moscow's 'big water' are opening their own yacht clubs. According to Andrei Ufimtsev, one of the reasons for that is the development of prestigious riverside country settlements along the Dmitrovskoye, Leningradskoye, and Pyatnitskoye motorways, where “yacht clubs constitute the main distinguishing feature and advantage of the entire area, a fundamental part of the infrastructure, which is not found along other, less prestigious motorways”.

But for true yachtsmen who have conquered the Mediterranean the Moskva River and its reservoir are of no interest. “Yacht clubs in Moscow and the Moscow Region will exist as a part of a fashion, as a part of the infrastructure of top-quality country residential estates. Developers realize that it makes no sense to build yacht clubs at each settlement.

“Yachting is a seasonal sport and yacht clubs do not bring stable profits the whole year round. Of course, in summer people will go yachting, getting together for a cup of coffee in the company of yacht-lovers. In winter the main source of income is that from servicing of idle yachts. That is why, most often, a yacht club is built for several communities at once,” Ufimtsev adds.

The most attractive reservoirs are Klyazma - the closest to Moscow, with the largest number of expensive yacht clubs - and Pestovo, a popular site where major Russian and international sailing regattas are held. New yacht clubs are to be built soon on the shores of Pestovo in the communities of Lazurny Bereg (Azure Shore) of Inkom-Nedvizhimost realty and Zelyonyi Mys (Green Cape) of KomStrin.

Construction of the yacht club in Zelyonyi Mys has already begun with shore protection carried out along a 1.2km shoreline. Both clubs will be built in line with the latest technology of Finnish company Marinetek - floating, reinforced concrete pontoons with mooring fingers, and water and electricity supplied directly to the moorings - represented on the Russian market by Marina Development. The same technology was used when equipping the berths at the Alyye Parusa yacht club, in Strogino and Crocus City.

Pavel Novosyolov, head of Marina Development, says that once those two yacht clubs and one more project including a yacht club and a golf resort are built, a single 'yacht complex' will have been formed in Pestovo, which will considerably contribute to the development of Moscow Region's infrastructure.

For instance, the Zelyonyi Mys yacht club will be absolutely unique in terms of the service and quality of the maintenance offered. The first ever heated slipway in the Moscow Region - currently under construction - is to be opened for yacht storage by next winter.

The cost of mooring is yet to be set, according to Novosyolov. It will be either equal to or slightly above the average market price in Moscow and the Moscow Region. The Zelyonyi Mys harbor will offer 50-60 mooring spaces, mostly for vessels of 7-18 meters in length. Novosyolov believes that building yacht clubs meeting modern environmental and technological standards in the Moscow Region is easier than in the capital, where 'everything is cramped' and it is difficult to reach an understanding with owners of the land plots along the shoreline.

Yachts & Retail

Strictly speaking, the Myakinino floodplains of the Moscow River, where the 43,900-sqm Crocus City retail and entertainment center is situated, belong to the Moscow Region, but lie in the immediate proximity to the capital. Crocus City, a huge retail center comprising four shopping pavilions, is situated at the 66th kilometer of the Moscow Ring Road, at the intersection with the Volokolamskoye motorway. Shore House Yacht Club, Hotel & Restaurant, opened in Crocus this summer.

Shore House's moorings and embankment occupy some 1,000 sqm, and the depth of the navigation channel is 5 meters. The club offers 48 mooring spaces, and storage facilities are available all the year round. In winter the boats are winched ashore.

In compliance with European marine requirements, berths at Shore House are equipped with service stations providing ship-to-shore power and water supplies. The club also offers services to speed boats. The rental charge is $2 for every meter of the boat's length, per day. Currently, ten vessels are registered at the club, with yachts and speed-boats also on sale.

Shore House is conveniently located with respect to the city centre and the open water. The club is also equipped with a helipad and club members and their guests can be transported directly on to their vessels. On weekends a yacht owner can instruct his captain to sail to any of the nearby reservoirs or to the Great Volga.

The club offers speed boats for rent and water sports facilities. In the near future water skiing competitions are due to be held there regularly. Onshore football and volleyball facilities, as well as a beach and a children's playground are all available.

Just a Step Away

“A yacht club within a residential estate is a significant advantage,” says Sergei Lyadov. “Yet, it certainly tells on residential operating costs. Not every yacht lover is ready to assume the constant burden of additional expenses. The navigation period in Russia is rather brief and leaving a yacht lying idle in the capital all that time is not exactly justified.

“People want to travel towards warm southern lands and to see for themselves that Moscow is, indeed, a port of five seas. Most yachtsmen have a place to live, anyway. That is why the best option for them is renting a space at a guarded berth. Therefore, yacht clubs will develop not only as a part of the infrastructure of residential estates, but also as independent businesses.

“Moscow's first-ever yacht port, which opened in July on the shore of the Strogino floodplains, is proof of that. Moreover, its proximity to the newly built residential complex of the Yantarny Gorod (Amber Town) company makes this estate especially attractive for yacht lovers. It takes no more than 5 minutes to walk to the port.”

The 0.4-hectare Strogino yacht port and life-saving station are equipped to European standards. A guarded berth offers mooring space for 50 boats from 5 to 15 meters in length, with piers equipped with service stations for direct water and power supplies to the boats.

Actually, boats can even be refueled at the berth, but the port has not received official permission to provide such services, which is why yachts are refueled by pouring fuel from jerry cans into the tanks. What is less hazardous for the environment remains undecided.

The club's boatswains assist yacht owners (in cases of minor accidents and damage requiring major repairs) by helping to purchase and maintain vessels, the passage through sluices as well as arranging for winter storage of vessels, for instance, at Shore House.

Strogino is the first yacht port on the Moskva River to be commissioned within the framework of the Moscow government's target-oriented program envisaging the creation of life-saving and sanitary water complexes for the period up to 2010.

The program is partially financed by the city's main directorate for civil defense and emergency situations. Emergency officials are in charge of creating the rescue service, whereas private investors finance the construction of the main units of the life-saving and sanitary water complex. The total amount of financing for the program is 1177.8 million rubles, of which 620.6 million rubles came from private investors.

The state-owned firm Berega Moskvy is in charge of transforming Moscow's life-saving stations into life-saving and entertainment centers and their further exploitation. According to Dmitry Solovyov, deputy director general of Berega Moskvy, the main goal of the program is to equip water leisure facilities with life-saving stations, as well as to contribute to the rapid development of the Moscow water area.

Another remarkable feature of Strogino is a 'floating beach' with a pool, built by the Eko-Servis company - the proximity to the yacht port makes nearby beaches unsafe for swimmers. The floating beach, with a swimming pool in the middle, is built of plastic blocks, with a slipway for jet skis. Such floating beaches can be installed anywhere and if need be, they can be equipped with sewage disposal facilities, although in Strogino this is not necessary.

The pilot project for construction of the Strogino yacht port was financed by the company Stolichnyye Prichaly. No budget funds were allocated for building the port, says Viktor Kozlov, head of the North-West administrative district of Moscow. Investors have spent $300,000 on the project; another $200,000 was spent on developing the waterside area. “The building of the port was financed by enthusiasts interested in developing the business,” Kozlov noted.

The cost price of a mooring space is $5,000 to $7,000. Building pontoons is much easier and cheaper than concrete piers on piles, says Mikhail Kranchev, director general of the Novyi Dom construction holding.

However, pontoons are only good for small yacht clubs, whereas in certain cases the construction of more solid structures is required. Pontoons allow design errors to be easily eliminated, and to change the layout of the berth if necessary. Moreover, pontoons are more environmentally-friendly and less expensive than permanent monolithic structures, says Pavel Novosyolov.

Interestingly, by the time the port opened, its service rates had still not been fixed because it remained unclear how the pontoons - the most expensive part of the port - were to be registered, as they were anchored and not a single pile had been driven into the river bottom.

Until the end of the year the monthly charge at the port will be $250 per mooring space for a jet ski to $450 for a small speedboat, says Dmitry Solovyov. What the rates will be next year depends on the market situation.

“Unfortunately, our optimistic forecasts regarding the payback for construction of the port have proved unjustified. Perhaps the reasons for that were the cold summer and the late opening, in July,” says Solovyov. Admittedly, Alyye Parusa and Crocus, together with Strogino, which constitute the first units of the future Moscow river club, also fell behind schedule initially.

Solovyov believes that the payback period may take 3 to 4 years, provided the necessary leisure facilities are created. “A berth itself, as a commercial project, is of no interest. It must become one of the elements of the entertainment center which is to be built at Strogino, a project prepared by the Institute for the City Environment.”

A Voyage to the Kremlin

To become a real yacht city Moscow needs an extensive network of berths and piers of various sizes. The numerous restaurants occupying landing-stages along the city's embankment have nothing against their guests coming to them by boat, says Novosyolov. All that is needed is to establish a single system, for instance, under the aegis of the Moscow river club so that each club member is able to use all the water leisure facilities that the system offers.

To ensure a normal regime for the technical maintenance of yachts the city needs not only light summer piers but also service centers where vessels can be raised, repaired or refueled. Setting up small service centers at each pier is unfeasible and is fraught with environmental dangers.

Svetlana Sigalova, advertising manager at Crocus City, believes that building yacht clubs today is popular rather than profitable. The market in Moscow is experiencing a real boom as owning a yacht is considered to be both fashionable and necessary.

“From a commercial standpoint, yacht clubs are only profitable as long as they are large and have a lot of mooring space to offer on a permanent basis. Other clubs survive mostly on the restaurants and events held on their premises. For instance, Shore House in Crocus City is a fashionable site for weddings and anniversaries. A contest for the best water story was held here, and a charity event for orphaned children,” Sigalova says.

Aleksei Shepel, key shareholder in S-Holding and head of Stroimontazh-M, has lately come into possession of a Silverton motor yacht. So far he has encountered no problems with the vessel, but it remains unclear what will happen in winter when the yacht will be lifted ashore, covered by an awning, underneath which several electric heaters will maintain the temperature at the required level, under the captain's supervision.

Traveling around Moscow on board a yacht is convenient and the capital seems like a different city when seen from a boat, says Oksana Basova, a spokesperson for S-Holding. In her opinion, it would be nice if the city center had several yacht clubs and more areas where vessels could moor. Yacht owners could then sail their yachts to a restaurant in the city, instead of having to waste more than an hour to get to Burevestnik at the Klyazma reservoir.

Experts do not rule out that a yacht club and a harbor will eventually be built in the capital as part of the Zolotoi Ostrov (Golden Island) project implemented in central Moscow by a group of investors, including the KRT group of companies.

“Of course, Moscow is no Venice and our severe climate offers little incentive for developing river navigation,” says Valekh Rzayev, head of the marketing, advertising and public relations department with KRT. “However, many experts agree that 'water tourism' in Moscow has only just begun to develop and its potential is high.”

Andrei Ufimtsev, on the contrary, believes that the development of yachting in Moscow has little prospect: “All our city can offer is a chance to get acquainted with the sport, to acquire the basic skills and a desire to perfect them in more favorable conditions, like, for example, the Mediterranean.”

Sailing on small motor boats is not banned on the Moskva River, although jet skis are not allowed into central Moscow. There are certain speed restrictions and rules of conduct on the water; boats are subject to compulsory registration and regular safety inspections, while sailors must have a license.

Lately the federal government has decreed on establishing penalty areas for water transport. The Moscow city inspectorate of small-size vessels (GIMS) reports that additional laws are now being drafted and sites for penalty areas selected so that next season boats will be transported to such areas for gross violations of waterway regulations by their owners.

In the opinion of the organizers of the 1st international specialized exhibition, the Burevestnik Boat Show 2004 - to be held on the Klyazma reservoir on 24-26 September this year - the yacht market in Moscow is still in its initial stages, but the demand for yachts is so enormous that Russia outstrips European countries in terms of growth rate in that particular segment of the market.

The Burevestnik Boat Show will be followed by the Yacht and Speedboat Salon, to be held at the exhibition complex Crocus-Expo on 21-24 October.