Pete Bevington

28 March, 2007

SHETLAND will join Greenock as a host for the Tall Ships race in 2011, it was announced yesterday (Tuesday).

The annual event usually sees up to 100 vessels, ranging from small sailing boats to three masted square-riggers, sailing between four European ports, though in 2011 an extra port is being added.

The event will start in Waterford, Ireland, from where the fleet will race to Greenock. Then they will "cruise in company" to Lerwick, before racing across the North Sea to Stavanger, Norway. The final race takes them to Cuxhaven, Germany.

It will be the first time the Tall Ships Race has sailed around the west coast of Ireland. Firm dates have yet to be agreed, but it is likely the start from Waterford will be in late June, with the finish in Cuxhaven in early August.

Jostein Haukali, chairman of Tall Ships Races (Europe) Limited, a wholly owned company of Sail Training International, said: "There were many excellent ports bidding to host the Race Series in 2011 which provided us with quite a selection challenge and one of the reasons we decided to include five in this race series.

"The ports we finally selected offer a good combination and all have shown keen interest in furthering sail training in their regions and countries - and sail training for young people is what these races are all about."

Shetland yesterday welcomed the news with great enthusiasm, seeing it as a vote of confidence in the way it hosted the Tall Ships Race for the first time in 1999.

Shetland Islands Council convener Sandy Cluness said: "We are delighted to receive this wonderful news. The Tall Ships were such a success in 1999 and we are looking forward to another spectacular occasion in 2011. I would like to congratulate everyone involved in making the bid a success."

Sandra Laurenson, deputy chief executive of Lerwick Port Authority, added: "I think the tremendous success of 1999 has made everyone here a bit hungry to see it again, and we're all really looking forward to it coming back, even those of us who were working a little bit more intensely with it than we had hoped for."

The 1999 event cost Shetland £701,000 to host, most of the cash coming from private sponsors. Douglas Irvine, the SIC's head of business development, said the 2011 race would probably come in at around £1.3 million, almost twice the cost.

"We have a lot of work to do, there is no doubt about that, but first of all we have to find out what the scope is for corporate sponsorship," Mr Irvine said. "I guess in the next six months we will be building up our relationships with Sail Training International and meeting with the other ports."

Two years before the race a full time co-ordinator would be appointed, he added. In 1999 a private company was set up to organise the event, with a dummy run of public entertainment being staged in 1998.

Each year the Tall Ships Race moves between the North Sea, the Baltic, the Bay of Biscay and round Britain and Ireland.

The SIC and the port authority had last year failed in their bid to be part of the North Sea race in 2010, and were surprised to be given a second chance at the 2011 round Ireland and Britain event.

Up to 6,000 young people from more than 30 countries worldwide crew between 70 and 100 vessels from 15 to 20 countries in this unique event. As well as gaining sailing experience, the youngsters enjoy four days of entertainment in each host port.

Entry is open to any single hulled sailing vessel measuring more than 9.14 metres in the water, the only requirement being that at least half the crew are aged between 15 and 25.

In 1999 a company called Sail Shetland Ltd was formed to organise the event. It raised £321,000 from private sponsors, with the rest of the cash coming from the SIC (£160,000), Europe (£130,000), Shetland Enterprise (£50,000) and Lerwick Port Authority (£40,000).

The authority also provided free harbour services including ships dues and pilotage.

The event will require a great deal of voluntary input into a main committee with various sub committees to look after the harbour, social events, transport, communications, liaison, finance and publicity.