Harlingen hosts the 2013 Tall Ships Class A Forum
The historic port and old town of Harlingen, northern Netherlands, is hosting the ninth Sail Training International (STI) Tall Ships Class A Forum, 16-18 April 2013.
Harlingen has signed up to be host port at the Tall Ships Races 2014, along with Fredrikstad and Bergen in Norway and Esbjerg in Denmark. To promote its involvement in this exciting event, over forty Tall Ship vessel operators from around the world will visit the city, along with other 2014 host port representatives.
About the Class A Tall Ships Forum
Class A vessels are the largest Tall Ships – defined by Sail Training International as ‘all square rigged vessels and all other vessels over 40 metres, engaged in sail training for young people.’
The Sail Training International Class A Tall Ships Forum was created in 2004. It gives the operators of Class A vessels, engaged in sail training, a single voice at an international level.
Seventy-four Class A vessel operators around the world are currently signed up the forum, with three-quarters of these actively engaged in sail training.
They run several working groups on issues of common interest such as rig maintenance, marketing and sail endorsement, and offer each other assistance and services.
The Forum is managed by an Executive Committee under the chairmanship of Uwe Delfs Jespersen.
The Secretary, Paul Bishop, Head of Race Directorate, STI said, äóìOver forty Class A Tall Ship representatives are expected to attend this international meeting. We are very grateful to Harlingen for their generous support.
äóìIn addition to working on a number of sessions of common interest, members will have the opportunity to explore the ancient city of Harlingen and its harbour, in advance of The Tall Ships Races 2014.äó
The programme
Tuesday 16 April
19.00: Harlingen welcomes participants with a reception
19.30: Walking dinner at the municipality
Wednesday 17 April
08.30: Vessel transports captains/ participants from the harbor to location for morning session
09.00: Morning session (JR Shipping)
12.00: Sailing lunch
14.00: Afternoon session (Maritime Academy)
17.00: Good bye reception
About Harlingen
Harlingen is an historic port and old town in the northern Netherlands that serves as the ferry terminus for the islands of Terschelling and Vlieland. It has a long history of fishing and shipping and is a centre for traditional Dutch sailing barges, a number of which are usually moored in the harbour.
A naval base from the seventeenth century, the town straddles the Vliestroom channel. The old town spreads east, sandwiched between the pretty Noorderhaven and more functional Zuiderhaven canals, a mass of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century houses that reflect the prosperity and importance of earlier times.
Harlingen has a fishing fleet, a small container depot, a shipbuilding yard and a resurgent ceramics industry. The heart of town is the Voorstraat, a long, tree-lined avenue that’s home to an elegant eighteenth-century Stadhuis and the Hannemahuis Museum.
Photo: Thalassa, Netherlands – Class A vessel which will be moored in Harlingen for the duration of the Forum.
