The Tall Ships Races 2014 puts Harlingen on the world map
Harlingen’ spectacular Tall Ships port event builds up to an iconic Parade of Sail today, before the fleet sets sail for the official race start 70 nautical miles out at sea, 1000-1100 (UTC/GMT), Monday 7 July.
As the largest four day even in Friesland in 2014 draws to a close, Harlingen’ dream to be put on the world map had become a reality.
Final visitor numbers are still to be confirmed, but over 100,000 families enjoyed all that the port had to offer over the first few days – from visiting the spectacular vessels from around the world and enjoying live music, to sitting in the glorious sunshine enjoying the wide variety of tasty food and drink on offer.
Today (Sunday 6 July) the fleet sailed out into the Whaddon Sea for a challenging race to Fredrikstad, Norway and yesterday all the Captains in the international fleet gathered for a briefing about the race including a detailed weather report and information about their next destination port.
Robin Snouck-Hurgronje, Race Chairman, Sail Training International said, äóìThe race start will see south westerly winds of 10-15 knots, but as the race develops the wind is likely to build over the coming days, to potentially 20-30 knots by Wednesday – which will present exciting sailing conditions and challenges for some of the smaller boats. But this is what The Tall Ships Races is all about – giving young people a very unique opportunity to race against each other and push themselves in circumstances many will have never been in before.äó
Race reports will be issued twice a day for the duration of the race – up until Friday 11 July. Reports will be published on the Sail Training International website here.
Yellow Brick – a satellite tracking system used to follow the fleet – is also accessible from the Sail Training International website here.
Galleries of images from The Tall Ships Races 2014 are regularly posted onto the Sail Training International and Tall Ships Races Facebook pages here.
News from around the port: Harlingen generated record breaking trainee numbers
Harlingen was presented with the challenge of finding 100 local young people to sail in The Tall Ships Races 2014 and the enthusiasm they generated from the youngsters was so overwhelming 334 young people agreed to take part – the most number of trainees ever generated by a Tall Ships Races port.
Called the Young Dutch Crew they were encouraged to take part using social media and video and each young person had to raise äå999 through fundraising sponsorship, to pay for their experience. This was a huge undertaking, but they were supported by professional fundraising coaches who encouraged them and gave them lots of ideas.
Galleries of images from The Tall Ships Races 2014 are regularly posted onto the Sail Training International and Tall Ships Races Facebook pages here.
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