LINDA

Biography

Sailing yacht Linda is named after the legendary mother of the Estonian national hero Kalevipoeg. Linda gave birth to the Estonian historic national hero – a giant who made wonders on land and at sea. S/y Linda is privately owned and is registered at the Pärnu Yacht Club located in South Estonia. Linda is a legendary sailing yacht with a long and famous history sailing under the Estonian flag.

The vessel was built by Conrad Shipyard in Gdansk in 1978. The following 14 years Linda served as a training vessel at the Tallinn Marine School for the sailtraining of sailors of different ranks. Many well known Estonian sailors and current captains have been serving and sailing on board of Linda in the 80’s and early 90’s. Since these times Linda has been the flagship of the Estonian sailing fleet and one of the main sailtraining yachts in the country. In 1980 during the Moscow Olympic regatta in Tallinn, Linda was part of the VIP fleet hosting the representatives  of the International Olympic Committee.

Linda has been privately owned since 1992 and the last change in her ownership took place in 2017. For the last 30 years Linda has been actively participating in different races in the Baltic Sea. The yacht was fully renovated in 2002 and  under the latest ownership, Linda has gotten new sails, upgraded navigation and safety systems, a new look and almost a new crew. Linda has a partnership with the Saul Sailing (www.puri24.ee) training team. Executive trainer Elmo Saul will be part  of Linda crew during the Tall Ships Race 2024. Lindas training programs are prepared by international sail trainers  leaded by captain Saul and captain Helaniemi. Lauri Helaniemi is a famous sailtraining and defence safety expert from Finland, who will join the Linda crew for the 2024 Tall Ships Race. With his long international sailing and safety experience, Lauri will be contributing to make sure that Lindas training programs are rewarding and in line with international standards. As an earlier skipper and winner of class in the Tall Ships race himself, Lauri will bring additional experience of off-shore racing to the team, racing himself as part of the Linda crew during most of the regatta from Klaipeda until Mariehamn. During 2024 Races Linda skipper will be young and talented captain Julius Tarand. Despite his young age of 25 years, he has been saling blue waters, crossing Atlantic three times, crossing Drake strait and sailing in Antarctic waters. As a sail trainer at the Saul Sailing he has been actively part of the sailing training programs in last 2-3 years.   

Lindas permanent crew is a mix of experienced and young sailors, inspiring for the trainees. During the 2024 race, part of the crew will be sailors having circumnavigated around the globe together with some of the famous Estonian rock artists. Tanel Padar, the Eurovision Song Contest winner in 2001, is planning to be part of the crew when  sailing from Helsinki  to Tallinn and Hendrik Sal-Saller, the key figure of The Smilers band for more then 20 years, from Tallinn to Turku.

The trainees are from Pirita (Tallinn), Pärnu, Nõuni and Kuressaare (Saaremaa) yacht clubs and sailing schools. Some trainees have already been sailing on oceans and taken part in off-shore races, but for most of them it will be the first real off-shore sea experience. The  Nõuni Yacht Club fresh water sailors will be participating in an off-shore event for the first time and will be making history for their club. Linda has been partnering with several sailing schools for years and has had young sailors as a part of the crew at many diferent events.

Linda has in past a record to participate in Tall Ship Races when it was still called Cutty Sark. After a long break, in 2021 we registered to be part of the Race at the Baltic Sea. Unfortunately the event was cancelled, but Linda with it’s 2021 crew actually visited all original Tall Ship Race 2021 marinas – Turku, Tallinn, Mariehamn, Klaipeda and Szczecin. We as well participated at the „All Ships“ Race organized by Gdansk – Tallinn – Klaipeda and Szczecin. During 2021 event we followed the rules and principles of original Tall Ships and had young sailors onboard for sailtraining purposes.

Lindas crew is proud to be part of the Tall Ships Race fleet in 2024 and is looking forward to it. For us safety is first priority and we hope that the crews and trainees will have safe and enjoyble races.