RBCC go Norwegian
Ian Mitchell
The Russo-British Chamber of Commerce hosted a networking evening in early June jointly with the Norwegian-Russian Chamber of Commerce at the Katerina-City Hotel, near Paveletskaya Station. The highlight of the evening was a talk by Vladimir Bagreev, the head of the Norwegian-Russian chamber’s office in Moscow, about the yacht Britannia. It is a little known fact that a replica of the famous and beautiful boat has been built, under contract to a Norwegian owner, in a Russian shipyard at Arkhangelsk. The original Britannia was designed and built in Scotland, in 1893, for the then-Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. It was so fast that, although it never competed in the America’s Cup, it beat the American holder of the cup when racing in Scottish waters. Its most devoted skipper was Edward’s son, George V. He willed that the boat be sunk after his death, so that it would never suffer the indignity of decay. Now in a joint, British-Norwegian-Russian effort, the great memory is to be revived.
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