The second largest sail training Tall Ship in the world, Kruzenshtern, has signed up to take part in this year’s Tall Ships Races, making a total of 76 to date. The Russian Class A Tall Ship is a regular participant in The Tall Ships Races and will be taking part in the event from the start in Antwerp, Belgium, to Kristiansand in Norway.

photo: Cisne Branco and Kruzenshtern

With several more months to go before the event starts, it is expected that more Tall Ships will enter this year’s race to once again make an impressive fleet of sail training Tall Ships. The event will start in Antwerp, Belgium from 10-13 July from where the fleet will race to Aalborg, Denmark, 21-24 July. A cruise in company will then take the fleet to Kristiansand, Norway, 29 July-1Aug, from where they will race once again across the North Sea to the port of Hartlepool, UK, where the event will finish with a four day festival from 7-10 August.

The Tall Ships Races are an annual event that bring together a large number of the world’s sail training Tall Ships so that young people can experience the fun and excitement of sailing together in friendly competition. A key rule of the event is that 50 percent of each vessel’s crew must be aged between 15 and 25 years. The sail training experience allows young people to understand the need for teamwork and find strengths they didn’t know they had when faced with the challenge of sailing a Tall Ship. The combination of in-port activities, cultural exchanges, sailing with like-minded young people and friendly competition makes The Tall Ships Races a favourite adventure activity.

Three Other Events
This year the organisers of The Tall Ships Races, Sail Training International, are also holding three other events that start in April and end in August, providing a full summer of sail training activities.

The first race of the year is the Garibaldi Tall Ships Regatta, an event that is being arranged to mark the 150th anniversary of of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s successful expedition from Genoa on the north-west coast of Italy to Trapani on the north-west corner of Sicily in the south. The event will take place between 8-19 April and is sure to offer the participating Tall Ships an interesting and warm welcome to the Mediterranean.

The second event is the Historical Seas Tall Ships Regatta, which will take place between 9 May and 7 June and involve four ports new to hosting Tall Ships events. Each of the ports has its own charm and character that will ensure a new experience for ships and crews alike. The route will take the fleet through the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosphorus into the Black Sea and back through the Cyclades, visiting ports in Greece and Bulgaria as well as the exotic city of Istanbul.

After The Tall Ships Races in July and early August, the fleet are invited to take part in a final race of the season, the North Sea Tall Ships Regatta. This event will link The Tall Ships Races with Sail Amsterdam. The race will differ from other races run by Sail Training International in that the ships will be offered a number of waypoints around which they can navigate instead of going straight from the start to the finish. The race will be over six days – 11-17 August – and the ship that has covered the greatest distance in the six days, taking into account their time correction factor, will be declared the winner.

All four events will offer anyone with a sense of adventure a fantastic experience and many ships still have places available on each of the events.

Source: Sail Training International