The Tall Ships’ Races fleet finally crossed the start line after a two hour delay because of the lack of wind. As the hour approached for the scheduled race start of 1900 local time, the race committee on the start vessel decided there was insufficient wind to get the fleet across the start line and announced a one hour delay. A second hour’s delay was also deemed necessary but then the wind picked up allowing the fleet to cross the line at 2100 local time with around 10 knots of wind and a setting sun providing a beautiful setting.

First across the line for the Class As was Sørlandet (Norway), close behind was Lord Nelson (UK) and third Cuauhtemoc (Mexico). In Class B Jolie Brise (UK) made an excellent start and was soon catching up some of the Class A vessels. Behind her was De Gallant (Netherland) with Etoile (France) looking good in third place.
First across the line for Class C was Spaniel (Latvia) with Ocean Scout (UK) in second and Antwerp Flyer (Belgium) in third. In Class D Zryw (Poland) lived up to her name and made a speedy dash across the line. Behind her came Svanen (Netherlands) with her sister ship Thyra (Netherlands) in third, both clearly eager to head for home.

As the sun dipped behind the horizon at around 2145, the ships disappeared into the gloom on their way to the first waypoint in the race, which will take them across the North Sea to a point around ten miles east of Aberdeen. From there the fleet will turn and head directly down towards Den Helder in the Netherlands, where they are due next Wednesday 20 August.

Race updates will be reported each morning and evening with the vessel positions shown on the fleet tracking and their positions in the race shown in the results page of this website. The fleet’s positions are gathered at 0600 and 1700 GMT and the results posted on the website around two hours afterwards.

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