Russian Olympic support fleet

[Profister]

Hello All,

Last night I had a pleasure talking to the crew of the Russian barque (tall ship) Kruzenshtern moored in North Vancouver. The pictures are not great but you get the idea. They were not sure about their schedule at the moment but they will be definitely open for visitors.
Enjoy!

Sergiy.

[delicat]

Ya, beautiful ship!

Wasn't this ship permanently "borrowed" from the German at the end of the 2nd WW?

[flyfishn]

I'll be taking the kids down for sure, when the hours are posted.

[Profister]

I was on board tonight to discuss the Satellite TV and Internet hookups and got the hours you are waiting for: 11 AM - 4 PM. They will have a bunch of attractions including a gift shop, so if you want to buy Russian sailor's underwear this is a perfect time for it!

[flyfishn]

Great, thanks.
Not sure how my wife would look in Russian sailors underwear, but heck when in Rome......................

[ShaneA]

Beautiful ship... I'll be taking my kids by there tomorrow.

[dah_hunter]

Sweeet.. are they open on sundays? i want to go down.. but working 6 days a week.

[Profister]

I will go on board tonight and will give you an update on their schedule later.

[flyfishn]

Ouch. It was $18 per adult and $8 for 2-10 years olds. To steep for us. We walked down from the Highway in the rain. Oh well the exercise was good.

[ExplosiveAbe]

The Kruzenshtern itself was pretty amazing, I must admit, but the crew & events staff? Well that's another story entirely.

My band was hired to play aboard the Kruzenshtern on Friday the 12th, so I probably spent about 8 hours aboard & it was a disaster from the get go!

I'm a tad bitter from spending approx. $600 to get there & having the plug pulled with no compensation or apology! (Maybe there's no Russian equivelant for the word "sorry"?)

Here's a blog from our site that kinda explains things;

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"Pull in the sails, we're headed for a shitstorm!"

That's what should have been shouted from the crows nest of the Kruzenshtern, upon Black Hat Villain's arrival yesterday!

A SEVERE lack of organization & miscommunication created a "domino effect" & Black Hat Villain were able to play, oh, about 7 seconds of "All My Friends Are Dead" before a crippling lack of power spelled disaster on the high seas & led to the eventual demise of BHV's dreams of piracy! Our sincere apologies to everyone who had to bear witness to the events as they unfolded around us!

Needless to say, morale was extremely low after this "clusterfuck" (a word the Russian's are now VERY familiar with & a word they will be taking with them, back to the Motherland) until some friends, Janice & Jeff, swooped in & graciously opened up their home to us. We had a killer jam around the campfire, which led to some very heartfelt & touching, acoustic rendtions of "One Way Street", "All My Friends Are Dead" & "Truth". The video was "rolling" so you never know, the footage may just rear it's ugly little head...

The ship was amazing! We approached to the spectacle of the hulking behemoth sitting magnificently against the backdrop of Vancouver's downtown skyline, with her quadruple masts stabbing at the heavens above, almost as if to taunt the gods with mock swordplay.

The Russians themselves? Colder than a penguins scrotum. Stoic, expressionless!

I think I'll go watch the Summit series over & over!

Oh & there's some AWESOME footage of Colin James being made a mockery of on the ferry trip home! Stay tuned for that vid!

Abe & BHV!"

MySpace- http://www.myspace.com/blackhatvillain

BHV Site- http://www.blackhatvillain.com/

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Anyway, that's my experience aboard the Kruzenshtern.

The sole purpose of the ship coming to Vancouver is to promote the 2014 winter games, to be held in Sochi, Russia. If this was any indication as to the level of organization that they'll show in 2014, you can surely expect sand on the ski hills & turds in the hot tub! Whoops!

Now I love Russians even less!

[tonydca]

The Kruzenshtern itself was pretty amazing, I must admit, but the crew & events staff? Well that's another story entirely.

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Anyway, that's my experience aboard the Kruzenshtern.

The sole purpose of the ship coming to Vancouver is to promote the 2014 winter games, to be held in Sochi, Russia. If this was any indication as to the level of organization that they'll show in 2014, you can surely expect sand on the ski hills & turds in the hot tub! Whoops!

Now I love Russians even less!

FWIW, my family and I visited the Russian "pavillion" (cunningly disguised as Science World downtown), and we had a similar experience. The lower level is a single large diorama of the Sochi 2014 site, and about 4 sponsor booths (Skoda, Russian power company, etc).

The upper level is still more sponsor booths (Volkswagen, Russian rail monopoly, another Russian power company...), and what blew me away was that they had turned half of the entire upper floor into a nightclub (empty when us plebes were visiting 12-5pm) presumably for the VIPs and athletes to, "mingle" with the statuesque and expressionless eye-candy that was sprinkled throughout the building(8pm-2am, invite only, no-host bar and vodka fountain, apparently)....

Oh, and they had a gift shop on both levels flogging Russian athletic team clothing. 'Natch.

As with your experience, very disappointing. Not geared towards the general public at all.