Getting to know Aleksey Kulakov

Aleksey Kulakov, bowman on Gazprom Team Russia, is a man of two lives. On one side, Kulakov is one of Russia’s top sailors who travels. On the other he is a surgeon with two little girls living in the very far east of Russia.

Thursday 20th August 2015

Aleksey Kulakov, bowman on Gazprom Team Russia, is a man of two lives. On one side, Kulakov is one of Russia’s top 49er sailors who travels the world competing on various international sailing circuits, including the RC44 events and the Extreme Sailing Series™. On the other he is a surgeon with two little girls living in the very far east of Russia. He tells us more.

I’m from Vladivostok, in the far east of Russia between China, North Korea and Japan. The city is governed by the sea with lots of water sports and I grew up sailing. Back then there was a big sailing community and three or four really strong clubs, but now it’s a weak situation for sailing in Russia. Vladivostok still has a lot of strong Olympic classes and they really develop people but it’s not common anymore.

My earliest sailing memory was when I was six and I found it pretty scary. It was windy, it seemed like there was lots of water around and I was only small. I started like most kids in a optimist, then a laser, before a 420 and then a 49er. My father and sister sail a lot, she was campaigning for the Olympics in the Laser Radial but unfortunately wasn’t successful, it’s such a competitive fleet.

My home town sometimes gets to -25 degrees in the winter and the northerly winds that come are extremely cold but in the summer can get up to 35 degrees. During the winter all the lakes freeze over, so we use the ice boats to go sailing which is pretty cool. I’ve built a couple of boats myself; it’s pretty funny and very fast.

I had a medical education and I then choose surgery as my discipline which I have been practicing since I qualified. I have been quite busy this year sailing so I have not needed to practice but when it’s quieter I will start again.

I gave up racing on other professional teams to focus on the Extreme Sailing Series. It is very important to sail as one team, to keep the same crew; it makes communication easier. A lot of problems last year stemmed from crew changes, so this year we have all committed to staying together as a crew and to focus on our jobs and communication.

We win together we lose together. If we are struggling it’s much easier to work together as the same group to find a solution. We try to always have fun, if your not having fun everyone struggles.

My father is very proud of me, he wants to come and watch me but as he lives so far away it makes it difficult, he always watches online though. He is a sportsman and understands how it can be if you have had a bad day. Normally I will try to forget about it as soon as we are back on land but I know he is always the person I can talk to.

I don’t think I will go out of my way to teach my kids to sail, they are both girls and sailing is very tough, but of course if this is what they want then I will teach them. I think I will encourage my daughters to windsurf, something for fun, but nothing professional, unless they really want to.