1st Yachts & Small Boat Building Forum was held in Tolyatti, 27-28 November 2013. Major objectives: exchange of information and novel knowledge and establishing the contacts necessary for successful implementation of own designs in yacht-building and discussions of ideas and proposals for progress in this industry. Participants: small boats designers and builders, manufacturers of onboard equipment, research and educational institutes, investors, individual persons, authorities et al. (forum.volga2013.ru). Mr. Peter V. Ezhov – general director of Sea Tech Ltd. – presented the Company.

The Forum agenda included a play-off for the open Boatbuilding Project Contest in three categories: projects of Sailing Yachts, projects of Motor Yachts and projects of Yachts' Equipment. Over 90 proposals were submitted for the Contest. The Award Panel included heads and representatives of foreign yacht-building yards: Frederic Sarfati of "Oxygene Yachts" (France), Marc de Antonio of "De Antonio Yachts" (Spain), Yan Visser of "Visser Yacht Design" (Netherlands), Alan B. Warwick of "Warwick Yacht Design" (New Zealand), Mark Bakker of "Aquanaut Yachting Holland" (Netherlands), Albert Nazarov of "Albatross Marine Design Co" (Thailand (in absentia)) as well as well-known Russian experts: Maxim Godovyh (Forum Principal), Alexey Danyayev of "Boats & Yachts" Magazine, Viktor Lider of "Real Ships" yard, Vyacheslav Chupailo of "WellBoat", Lev Zaburdayev of "Яхта/Yacht", Mihail Klopouh of "Velvette Marine", Sergey Kislyakov of Spray Ltd., Yuri Sitnikov of DG Ricochet Ltd. (in absentia), Yakov Nikitin of Skif Yard and Peter Ezhov of Sea Tech Ltd.

As a result of discussions on the designs presented in 'Designs of Motor Yachts & Boats' category, the majority of votes was won by the ST24M2 Project River-Going Motor Yacht designed by Sea Tech Ltd. and constructed at Yaroslavl Shipyard. Since the yacht length is larger than that for the 'small boat' domain, it was decided not to award the top place in the motor yachts category but to highlight the SeaTech's design as the best one in the dedicatedly introduced category: 'Designs of Motor Yachts of Over 20 Metres in Length'.

We congratulate all prizewinners of the Contest and are looking for forthcoming meetings and collaborations. We believe that such forums will become a regular fixture of Russia's yacht/boat-building to hold particular promise for further progress.