A slightly overcast start to the morning did little to dampen the first day of celebrations in A Coruna. With ships finishing their arrivals throughout the morning, excitement grew amongst visitors eager to see the fleet up close…
To officially kick off the celebrations, an Opening Ceremony was held which saw speeches from the Mayor of A Coruna, Ines Rey Garcia, and Race Chair, Vanessa Mori, who highlighted the long-standing support A Coruna has shown the event and sail training.
“I feel very honoured to stand here on behalf of Raul Mimbacas, who as the Race Chair for the Tall Ships Races Magellan-Elcano sadly cannot be with us this year due to some health issues.
As we all know, this event was planned to take place in 2020, so we are especially delighted to finally be here and to celebrate being in A Coruna together with you all. This is the 10th time that A Coruna hosts the Tall Ships Races, which is the most times any port has hosted the fleet and therefore even more special.
The fleet faced some challenging and varying weather conditions during their race here, and I would like to congratulate all the captains and all the crews for all their efforts, the teamwork and for everything that they have achieved as teams and as individuals during this race.
Every single one of the crews should be extremely proud of all the effort they put in to make it such an exhilarating race and you certainly deserve to now have some well-earned fun here in A Coruna.
Sail Training International is an International Charity, a not-for-profit organisation, whose mission is to encourage Youth Development through the sail training experience. Sail training is not only learning about life at sea, but also about enabling young people to experience working as a team, facing challenges, discovering hidden strength and talents, and having an amazing adventure whilst making friends from all over the world.
Our other important mission is the fostering of International Friendship and Understanding and we are so grateful to have amongst our fleet vessels that have travelled from as far as Uruguay, Mexico, Poland, Denmark, England, Wales, Italy Portugal and Spain – with crews on board from many more nationalities – and of course for the warm welcome they have received from the people of A Coruna.
Now more than ever, we feel that the world needs friendship between different nations and understanding between different cultures.
Finally, I would like to say a big thank you to the Municipality of A Coruna, the A Coruna Port Authority, all of the local organisers, the sponsors and of course all of the many volunteers and the liaison officers
I wish you all a fantastic time in A Coruna and we look forward to seeing you all take part in the exciting programme of activities organised over the next four days.”
With over 27,000 visitors coming to see the ships on Day One, there is sure to be a warm Spanish welcome and an exciting three days ahead for the crews and trainees. Having found their land legs, they’ll be treated to a full cultural programme and a range of activities including sports events, the Crew Parade and Prize Giving, and the chance to exchange stories with their fellow competitors.
ABOUT THE TALL SHIPS RACES MAGELLAN-ELCANO
The Tall Ships Races Magellan-Elcano will see an international fleet of Tall Ships and Small Ships take in the Channel and Iberian Penninsula, visiting Falmouth (15-18 August), A Coruna (24-27 August), Lisbon (31 August -3 September), finishing in Cadiz (7-10 September)
The Tall Ships Races Magellan-Elcano series celebrates the first circumnavigation of the world by Ferdinand Magellan and Sebastian Elcano over 500 years ago.
As with every edition of The Tall Ships Races, the series will offer a range of sailing experiences for trainees and crews.