The first official day of The Tall Ships’ Races in Maløy saw thousands of people crowding into the small town to visit the ships and watch the traditional Crew Parade through the streets. The small population swelled by many times its number as the visitors poured into town.

During the day, many crews had been taking part in sports events and cultural visits, but this afternoon it was their time to take centre stage and they did so in fine voice. The parade through the streets of Maløy was filled with colour and noise as the crews proudly represented their ships and celebrated their achievements in the race just finished. Visitors looked on in wonder as the crews sang, danced, chanted and generally filled the town with noise.
The crew parade went along a route from under the bridge, along Street One to the theatre, where they then turned and returned along the same route. This meant the crews were for a while going in two directions, which created an opportunity for many of them to cheer passing crews and show their respect for their fellow competitors.

Once they had all filed into the town square the offical Prize Giving began, which had an Olympic feel to it with the three winners standing on podiums to receive their beautiful blue glass trophies and bunches of flowers. The national anthem of the winning ship was played and dancers heralded in the next group.

As well as the Class prizes that were awarded, a number of other prizes were handed out, these were:

- Most spectacular entrance into Maløy, which was awarded to Cuauhtemoc (Mexico)
- Most creative crew in the Crew Parade was won by Morgenster (Netherlands)
- Most stylish crew in the crew parade, which was also won by Cuauhtemoc
- Vessel with thte most nationalities on board (with 12 different nationalities) was won by Morgenster (Netherlands)
- Vessel with the youngest crew (average age of 18 years and 11 months) was won by Moosk (UK)
- Oldest vessel in the fleet was won by Far Barcelona (Spain)
- Youngest Captain in the fleet was won by Clare Thorpe of Assairain II (Captains’ Daughters) who is 22 years, nine months and 27 days
- Oldest Captain in the fleet was won by Egil Simonsen of Westward Ho (UK)
- Vessel that had travelled the furthest to take part in The Tall Ships’ Races 2008, at 6, 121 miles, was Capitan Miranda (Uruguay)
- Sail Training International Communications Prize was awarded to Asgard II (Ireland)
- The Cook Longest at Sea was awarded to Wendy Laing on Lord Nelson (UK)
- Line honours – for the first vessel to cross the finish line – was awarded to Alba Explorer (UK)
- The first vessel overall on corrected time was won by Jolie Brise (UK)

The full list of the race results for Race One of The Tall Ships’ Races can be downloaded click here (pdf)

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