Tall Ships' Races in Bergen - preliminary report

According to the homepage of Sail Training international,

The Tall Ships' Races are held every summer in European waters. Each year between 70 and 100 vessels from 15-20 countries, crewed by some 5-6,000 young people from over 30 countries worldwide, take part in this unique event that combines four days of activities in each port with racing or cruising-in-company between ports. During the race series the young crews get the chance to gain experience by sailing with their contemporaries from other countries while facing the physical and emotional challenges that only the ocean can provide.

This year's race started in Liverpool and the first leg was to Måløy in Norway. The ship s are now in Bergen. preparing for the second leg from Bergen to Den Helder, Netherlands.

In this post I'll just show some hastily collected pictures from the first couple of days's stay-over. I promise that I'll be back with more.

The first one shown is "The Pelican of London" approaching Bergen.

A couple of others are passing beneath the Askøy bridge.

Now we are entering the central part of the Bergen Harbour "Vågen", together with the Norwegian Ketch (Hardagerjagt) "Loyal." My favourite, for personal reasons. We will probably see more of her later.


The ships have moored. The large barque is the largest Norwegian sailing vessel, "Statsraad Lehmkuhl", of Bergen. The second one, seen from the aft, is the Swedish Naval Schooner "Falken".



As you can see - these ships are TALL!!


Do you want do join them up there? These two last photos are from the Bulgarian ship "Kalikara"


And of course - there was entertainment.



More to follow - watch this space!