Against All Odds – a Tale of an Impossible Journey with Vlad Murnikov

 35 Years ago Vlad, then an ordinary engineer in Moscow with a big dream of sailing the oceans, had launched a great adventure that changed his life. Inspired by the early signs of Gorbachev’s perestroika he had initiated and led the first ever entry from the Soviet Union into the Whitbread Round the World Race, the world’s top sailing competition. The story of Team FAZISI is a riveting drama so fraught with adventure, action, humor and drama that, in retrospect, it is almost hard to believe it has ever happened. Yet it did. For Vlad this incredible Odyssey became his personal journey to a new life in America.

On September 2, 1989 yacht FAZISI sailed off into the Whitbread Round the World Race and into history. She became the first and only boat from the former Soviet Union to enter the most challenging and prestigious endurance boat race on the planet. Built in the Soviet Union, equipped with the Western sails, rig and electronics, sponsored by Pepsi Cola International and co-skippered by American Skip Novak, she was indeed an intriguing mix.

FAZISI journey became an endless roller-coaster ride, with incredible ups and downs. It often seemed like the project reached the dead end and there was no way forward… Rivalry and conflict within the design team, tensions among the crew, brutal race against time just to make it to the start line, Civil War outbreak in Republic of Georgia, where the boat was built, loss of sponsorship and the death of the Soviet co-skipper… The pitfalls were enormous and countless.

But there always was a ray of hope, that led us through…

FAZISI with her international crew, bravely challenging the most treacherous waters on the planet and tumultuous times ashore, became a bold experiment in survival against all odds.

This presentation is based on Vlad’s book Race to Freedom, which is also a basis for a documentary, currently in production in New York with release scheduled for early 2026.