Team · captain
Andrey Klochkov
Captain and specialist in family cruising and high-latitude sailing
He has twice sailed around the world aboard Lady Mary with his family crew — his wife and two daughters.
Key achievements
Expeditions and ocean
- Leader of the first and only post-Soviet sailing expedition to Antarctica by a family crew with children. The crew spent three and a half weeks in Antarctica and landed on the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic mainland.
- Rounded Cape Horn — the “Everest of sailing” — more than ten times, including four times during the family circumnavigation.
- Leader of a family circumnavigation through southern latitudes around Cape Horn, the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin.
- Since 2013 he has lived and travelled around the world and undertaken demanding expeditions aboard his own sailing yacht Lady Mary.
- In 2023–2024 he took part in scientific Antarctic expeditions aboard the 37-metre schooner Elsi as captain of the professional crew.
- He has held meetings, workshops and talks in Russia, Chile, Argentina, South Africa and Australia.
Seamanship
Sailing experience
- Three Atlantic crossings, three Pacific crossings, plus the Indian and Southern Oceans.
- Reached some of the world’s most remote inhabited islands aboard his own yacht — Easter Island in 2018 and Tristan da Cunha in 2019.
- On 31 December 2018 sailed through Point Nemo, the oceanic pole of inaccessibility.
- As part of the Lady Mary family crew, crossed the Drake Passage north to south, south to north and twice west to east.
- Rounded Cape Horn more than ten times and landed there repeatedly.
- Led rescue operations in the Caribbean in 2016 and in the Pacific near Easter Island in 2018; also took part in rescue operations in the San Blas archipelago and near Cape Horn.
- Experienced in repairing masts, engines and hulls and rigging emergency sailing systems in the open ocean, from the tropics to polar latitudes.
- Competitor and prizewinner in international sailing races including Fastnet Race 2013, Rolex Middle Sea Race 2012, 2013 and 2014, and the Monaco Cup 2014.
- Leader of an expedition along the 37th parallel in the South Pacific, investigating the phantom islands Maria Theresa, Ernest Legouve, Wachusett, Jupiter and 1957.
- Highest latitude reached — 65°14′ south.
High latitudes · ocean
Storm experience
Strongest storm at sea — Beaufort Force 12, South Pacific, 2023.
Strongest storm in port — Almerimar, Spain, 2015.
Longest continuous storm — South Atlantic, from the Strait of Magellan to Tristan da Cunha.
Wintered aboard the yacht near Cape Horn at 55° south.
Self-sufficient passages: 53 days South Africa–Australia, 55 days Chile–South Africa, 62 days Bora Bora–Tierra del Fuego, 57 days Moorea–Vladivostok and 85 days Tasmania–Tahiti.
Recognition
Awards
- Winner of Russia’s national Yachtsman of the Year award — 2021.
- Nominee for the national Yachtsman of the Year award — 2018 and 2019.
- Nominee and finalist for the Russian Geographical Society’s Crystal Compass award — 2020.
- Nominee and finalist for the Crystal Peak award — 2019.
- Nominee and finalist for the Star Under the Backpack award in the Record of the Year category.
- Winner of the Man and the Sea documentary film festival — 2020, with a film about the sailing expedition to Antarctica.
Professional work
Expeditions as a profession
Organises expeditions to Antarctica and other remote regions of the world.
Delivers sailing vessels between regions of the world and advises new and experienced sailors on long-distance voyaging.