Replica of X century fishermen sailing vessel set afloat to Lake Sevan

PanARMENIAN.Net - Today at noon a ceremony launching a new fishermen sailboat, created by the members of Ayas, navigational marine research club, took place at Lake Sevan. The ship named Ani, has been created for the last six months by the club members, is a replica of a traditional fisherman's sailboat, used by Sevan's fishermen in the X century.



As Karen Balayan, chairman of the Armenian navigational marine research club Ayas (Ayas is the name of Legendary Ayas Fortress in Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia), told a PanARMENIAN.Net to recreate the Sevan's vessel, club members had to explore all possible references and illustrations of the boats in the ancient manuscripts.



"We are planning to construct up to 10 and similar boats for organizing in the future annual regattas of traditional swimming vessels," Karen Balayan said.



According to him, 26 different ships and boats, created at different times by the Armenians, were projected to build by the club. Two of them - a copy of Cilicia merchant ship - the famous "Cilicia", as well as the traditional fishing sailboat "Ani" have already been created.



The boat was created with financial support of the National Instruments' Armenian branch. The first copy of the old boat - a sailboat Nairi - was created last year with HSBC funding.