Yacht Ride

Yacht ride is one of the most interesting ways to spend leisure time in Nizhny Novgorod during the warm season. Contrary to the stereotypes that reached us from countries of "classical capitalism," this kind of recreation is quite affordable here — no more expensive than a trip to a restaurant, and even cheaper if you go as a group. Meanwhile, a single outing on a yacht will be remembered by you and your loved ones far more than an evening at a restaurant or café.

The nature of the activity

In Nizhny Novgorod, yacht rides are given mostly by river-tourism enthusiasts. Keeping a boat, given the half-year winter idle period, costs its owner a considerable sum, which over the summer they can fully or partly recoup by taking people out on the river. As a rule, Nizhny Novgorod yachts are not fashionable vessels but tourist ones, fairly simply fitted out inside.

Dress code

It is often cool on the river, so even if you are going out on a hot day, bring clothing somewhat warmer and heavier than you would take for an ordinary walk. The dress code is casual/outdoor (windbreakers, sneakers, comfortable jeans, a hat against sun or strong wind).

Assembling the group

Call the boat's captain and find out when it is free and how many people fit on board (usually 5 to 9 people, depending on the yacht's design). Agree that you will assemble the whole group if you want the trip to cost less. Gather the people. It is better to collect the money in advance, since that makes it much more likely that no one will back out at the last moment "because the weather looks bad today" or "I missed the bus and decided not to go" or "I got called in to work to finish yesterday's inventory spreadsheet."

Food

Meals on board are arranged by agreement. It is usually cheaper to bring food and drink with you, following the scheme of an intercity train trip: everyone brings something they would like themselves, and on the spot people swap things by choice. If your group includes fans of relaxing with a bit of alcohol, bring plenty of "firewater." Drinking goes down easily on the river, but it gets you drunk less than sitting indoors or at a picnic.

Restroom

Girls planning a many-hour river yacht ride are, for understandable reasons, sometimes concerned about the availability of a toilet. Large river sailing vessels and sailing catamarans of the "floating dacha" type usually have a closet fitted out much like a standard airplane or train lavatory. Smaller yachts carry a compact chemical toilet on board, and to use it you will have to ask the other crew members to step out of the cabin onto the deck. This can be clarified with the boat's captain when making initial arrangements.

Should you be afraid of bad weather during a yacht ride?

In fact, it is precisely "bad" weather that lets you sail properly under canvas and feel that remarkable sensation of high speed on the water without a single sound of a motor. If heavy rain is likely, be sure to bring a waterproof coat or jacket, headwear, and sturdy footwear, so you can move freely around the vessel.

History of private shipping in Nizhny Novgorod

Shipping on the Volga has ancient roots. According to modern historians, in the pre-state era, which coincided with an interglacial period, sea level was substantially higher, and the world ocean's basins were connected to the Caspian and the Aral Sea. The Argonauts probably sailed for the Golden Fleece not to the lands of present-day Georgia, but through a chain of salt lakes of the Northern Caucasus that formed a full-fledged sea strait, into the Caspian — which then had a much higher water level and was connected to the Aral Sea — and up to the headwaters of the Amu Darya, where gold is still panned on woven frames in the river to this day. The Volga at that time was a river connecting the East European Plain with the world ocean.

Interestingly, Nizhny Novgorod archaeology confirms that living standards in large pre-state settlements on the Volga were fairly high (widespread use of leather footwear, expensive imported tableware) — higher than in other parts of the East European Plain.

The first "shipbuilding state" (or more precisely, a state that arose around trade using ships) was probably the Khazar Khaganate, and the initiative later passed to Kazan, located in the middle of the Volga basin (the main transshipment point). Only after world trade routes shifted to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans as a result of European colonialism (the Age of Discovery) did the Muscovite Rurikids manage to capture Kazan, and moved the center of Volga trade to the point technologically closest, from a shipping standpoint, to Moscow — Makaryev near Nizhny Novgorod.

In tsarist times, shipping in our city was mostly private, and it embodied freedom, private initiative, and prosperity. The creation of trading flotillas and various merchant ventures was financed by merchant credit associations, similar to modern banks. Volga shipping in general, and the Nizhny Novgorod merchant class in particular, formed a curious enclave of mentality that in many respects resembled "Atlanticist values" and the "spirit of Protestantism" within an autocratic empire. Interestingly, the Nizhny Novgorod merchant infrastructure brought the largest inflow of funds into the tsarist treasury after the central customs house, through which all export of raw materials and furs abroad passed.

With the development of railway transport, Volga shipping began to decline rapidly. During the First World War, the Nizhny Novgorod Fair was closed because the cost of maintaining it exceeded the profit from trading operations. Interestingly, in the USSR in the 1930s there was an attempt to revive the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, but few merchants turned up who wanted to trade there.

In the Soviet period, the Nizhny Novgorod population maintained a living standard somewhat higher than the average across Russian regions, thanks to work at numerous defense-industry plants that paid higher wages, but also polluted the environment.

Today, active private shipping is a feature of the southern Volga cities, above all Saratov. In Nizhny Novgorod, surprisingly for a city partly surrounded by huge rivers, there are few private vessels. Municipal river route transport has essentially ceased to exist, and piers in the cities and towns of the region have been removed. Against this backdrop, laws are even being passed that make things harder for anyone wanting to make good use of the river space — for instance, the regional government recently banned the use of floating jetties (debarkaders) within the regional capital, which had served as a substantial and economically sound competitor to the many office centers being built at the lobbying of the "Regional Investment Council" organization.