Flying start for The Tall Ships Races 2015
The sounds of the Tall Ships’ horns as
they left Belfast were almost drowned out by the tens of thousands who gathered
to shout their farewells as the fleet sailed down the Lagan yesterday
(Sunday 5 July 2015) as part of the Tall Ships Parade.
Belfast has seen over half a million visitors over the last four days and it has been an unprecedented success for the city. Building on the impact of the two previous visits of the Races in 1991 and Transatlantic Regatta in 2009 it has brought a major boost to the tourism industry.
After the Tall Ships Parade vessels
made their way to the race start area over night, in order to be in position for
the race start from Northern Ireland’s north coast this afternoon (Monday 6 July
2015) for the first race leg of The Tall Ships Races 2015, to their next stop –
Aalesund, Norway.
The start line was west of Loch
Foyle, Northern Ireland and formed by two published way points just over two
miles apart. Each class had a defined
start window for vessels to cross the start line in and the time they cross
this line was recorded by the vessel itself – this is known as a self-declared
start.
Weather
Over the coming days the 39 strong
fleet competing in this leg will need
