Spirit of Friendship alive and well in The Tall Ships’ Races
While the battle for the race continues apace with a number of vessels pulling out all the stops to win, the spirit of The Tall Ships’ Races is also alive and well. International Friendship and Understanding are the key words when it comes to the ethos of the event and this was very apparent today when one of the vessels reported a problem.
This morning, Toby Marris, the captain of Jolie Brise (UK), one of the leading vessels in the fleet on corrected time, realised that he had electrical charging problems on board and would soon not be able to provide his twice daily position reports to the Communications Team, who are escorting the fleet aboard HMS Mersey.
Photo: RFA Lyme Bay and HMS Grimsby at the race start.
Close at hand was Stavros S Niarchos (UK) who advised the Communications Team that they had a spare battery charger. The Royal Navy then stepped into the breach to help out, going along side Stavros S Niarchos to take the charger while allowing the vessel to continue on her course under sail. A Shetland Coastguard helicopter was then deployed to pick up the charger from HMS Mersey and then take it and drop it via a hi-line to Jolie Brise.
This wonderful joint effort between competing vessels and the Royal Navy has meant that Jolie Brise can now continue to report her position and carry on racing.
The race organisers, Sail Training International, are extremely grateful to the Royal Navy for their unflinching support for The Tall Ships’ Races. Commodore John Madgwick OBE, the Naval Regional Commander for Northern England, has been particularly instrumental in ensuring that RFA Lyme Bay, HMS Grimbsy and HMS Mersey were available for the spectacular start off Northern Island on Wednesday and for HMS Mersey to continue to escort the fleet to Norway.
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