ARKHANGELSK, October 30. /TASS/. The Pomors' koch, a legendary vessel of the Northern Sea Route explorers, was laid using ancient technologies at the shipyard of the Pomor Shipbuilding Association in Arkhangelsk, the association's leader Yevgeny Shkaruba told TASS adding vessel would be built within the winter, and sailing along the route would begin in 2026.

"We will build a large ship on which the Pomors have conquered Siberia and the Arctic - it is a koch (Pomors' small one-or two-mast wooden sailing ship). We will have it built within this winter so that next year we could sail along the Northern Sea Route, towards Cape Dezhnev and into the Pacific Ocean," he said. The vessel will be 15 meters long, almost 6 meters wide and 2.8 meters high.

The last koch vessels were built observing the classical methods, that is, only from wood, back in the 17th century, when explorers were finishing discovering Siberia. Further on, shipbuilders were not too accurate with the traditional technology. "Compliance with the technology is important for a koch. <...> It is a movable structure, not rigid, which reacts to weather changes, it can expand when wet and contract without breaking," he explained.

The designers have used 3D technologies, he added.

Route to the Pacific Ocean

The builders will observe all traditions, even the requirement that these ships were built literally in the open air, as there were no shipyards back then. They will build a cover over the construction site only to protect shipbuilders from rain and snow.

The project to build a koch continues the Mangazeya Seaway project. In 2023, in Moscow, "without a single nail", the participants sewed up the traditional Pomors karbas - the Matera (karbas is a sailing and rowing fishing and transport wooden vessels, common at least since the 15th century till now on the White and Barents Seas). In the summer of 2024, the expedition on the karbas sailed from Arkhangelsk across the Arctic Ocean to Mangazeya, the first Russian city in Siberia on the Taz River, having covered more than 3,000 km. They were rowing and sailing, dragged the karbas manually through the Kanin and Yamal portages, and pulled the vessel with a string against the current on the Taz River.

The travelers plan to sail on the koch along the Northern Sea Route, like the first explorers have travelled to the Far East. The expedition will take more than one year, the association's leader said. "We will stop at key points, will be telling people about the Pomors shipbuilding and the history of Arctic and Siberian exploration. Those will be Mangazeya, Yakutsk, from where Semyon Dezhnev has travelled, and other iconic places," he added.

The vessel's building is being implemented at the shipyard of the Pomor Shipbuilding Association together with the Mangazeya Group of Companies, with the support from the Northern Arctic Federal University, and the Northern Archeology - 1 Scientific and Production Association.