Voskhod (hydrofoil)

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A Voskhod type hydrofoil on Volga river near Balakhna (2002).

Voskhod (Russian: Восход) (Design 352 and Design 03521) is a type of passenger hydrofoil boats built in the Soviet Union and later in independent Ukraine. They were intended for use in rivers and lakes. Good seaworthiness allows Voskhod boats to enter coastal sea areas as well.

[edit] History

Voskhod was designed to replace older passenger hydrofoil boats: Raketas and Meteors. The first boat of this type was built at the Morye shipbuilding plant in Theodosia in Crimea. By the early 1990s, around 150 Voskhod boats had been built. However, the production almost ceased later on, due to the problems the manufacturer experienced adapting to the new economic situation in the country.

[edit] Worldwide use

Besides the Soviet Union, Voskhods were exported to 18 other countries, including Canada, Vietnam, China, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Thailand, Turkey. Recently some Voskhod-type boats (model Voskhod-2M FFF, also knows as Eurofoil), were built for the Dutch public transport operator Connexxion.

In the Netherlands, Voskhod Eurofoil boats operate along the North Sea Canal between Amsterdam Centraal Station and Velsen near the North Sea coast. A trip takes half an hour.

When the line first opened in 1998, it used four Voskhods that had been previously used in Ukraine. In 2002, three new boats were built for Connexxion in Theodosia (Nos. 604, 605, 606; in the Netherlands, however, each one received a "personal" name). Connexxion then sold three of the old Voskhods, but the fourth, named "Annemarie", is kept by the operator as a spare boat.

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