The Tall Ships' Races
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The Tall Ships' Races, formerly known as the "Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Races", are long-distance races for sailing ships. The races were originally sponsored by Berry Brothers and Rudd — marketers of Cutty Sark Scotch Whisky (the Cutty Sark being their trade mark as well as a preserved tea clipper lying at Greenwich in London). The races are held annually in European waters and consists of two racing legs of several hundred nautical miles, and a "cruise in company" between the legs.
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[edit] Tall ships
The phrase tall ship was coined to describe the participating ships. Participating vessels are manned by a largely cadet or trainee crew who are partaking in sail training. Trainees are non-professional sailors mostly between 16 and 25 years of age. Thus, tall ship does not describe a specific type of sailing vessel, but rather the purpose of training and sail education to which that vessel is dedicated. Participating ships range from yachts to the large square-rigged training ships run by Navy and fishery authorities of many countries.
[edit] The race
The first Cutty Sark Tall Ships' race was held in 1956. It was a race of five of the world's remaining large sailing ships organized by Bernard Morgan, a London lawyer. The race was from Torquay, Devon to Lisbon and back, and was meant to be a last farewell to the era of the great sailing ships. Public interest was so intense, however, that race organizers founded the Sail Training International association to direct the planning of future events. Since then Tall Ships' Races have occurred annually in various parts of the world, with millions of spectators. Today, the race attracts more than a hundred ships, among these some of the largest sailing ships in existence. The 50th Anniversary Tall Ships' Races took place during July and August, 2006, and was started by the patron, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who also started the first race in 1956.[1]
[edit] Sail Training International
Sail Training International (STI) is the international association of some twenty national organisations devoted to promoting "the education and development of young people of all nationalities, religions and social backgrounds, through sail training". Besides organising the Tall Ships' Races, STI and its subsidiary organisations manage trainee programmes aboard sailing ships.
[edit] Some ships that have participated
- Amerigo Vespucci - Italian Navy training ship
- Asgard II - Irish sail training ship
- Christian Radich
- Cuauhtémoc - Mexican Navy officer-training ship (winner on two occasions)
- Dar Pomorza - winner of 1972 and 1980 races
- Esmeralda (BE-43) - Training vessel for the Chilean Navy, won in 1982 and 1990.
- Gorch Fock
- Jolie Brise
- Prince William
- STS Mir - a three-masted Russian training ship.
- HMS Falken- a two- masted Swedish Naval training schooner
- Jens Krogh- a two- masted Danish gaff ketch
- Eendracht - a three-masted Dutch schooner.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Tall Ships get Royal send-off (HTML). BBC News. Retrieved on 2006-07-11.
[edit] References
- Harry Bruce, Tall Ships: an Odyssey (Toronto, 2000)
- American Sail Training Association, Sail Tall Ships (Newport, 2000)
- Rigel Crockett, Fair Wind and Plenty of It
