Tall Ships Races

A Triumph for the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge

Posted on 19. Aug, 2009 by admin in Latest News

An estimated 800,000 people visited the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge when they visited Belfast last week. That was double the city’s estimate of 400,000 people and equated to half the population of Northern Ireland. Some 250,000 people thronged along the quaysides and lined the lough on Sunday to witness the parade of sail.

As the ships make their way on to their next port of call or home, the organisers of the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge would like to thank everyone involved in making the event such a huge success. All the seven ports of Vigo (Spain), Santa Cruz (Tenerife), Hamilton (Bermuda), Charleston, Boston (USA), Halifax (Canada) and Belfast (Northern Ireland) made the fleet extremely welcome and put on a variety of tours and events for the crews.

The vessels taking part in the race varied from the smallest at 12.9m, Xsaar from Belgium, to one of the biggest in the world, the 114.5m Kruzenshtern from Russia, with all the crews blending as one big family and helping each other out in so many ways as they made their way around the Atlantic.

Future Events

If anyone has been inspired by the stories that have appeared on this website, then there are plenty of events taking place next year with many of these ships and more looking for trainee crew members.

For further information, please visit www.sailtraininginternational.org.

Tags: adventure, Belfast, Bermuda, Boston, Charleston, halifax, sail training, Sailing, Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge, Tenerife, vigo