Tall Ships Race off Latvia, Baltic 2003

This is a Mexican, a Dutchman and Russian racing together. Square riggers that is. They are at the start of the Tall Ships Race in 2003 in the Baltic off Latvia racing south to Travemunde in North East Germany.

They are (from the left) the Mexican barque ‘Cuauhtemoc’ (built 1981), the Dutch clipper ‘Stad Amsterdam’ (built 2000) and the Russian full rigged ship ‘Nadezhda’ (built 1991~ her name means ‘good hope’) in the distance. At least 50% of the crew of every boat has to be under 25 to qualify for the race which aims to foster international understanding. The Mexicans, Dutch and Russians meet and swap sea stories in the Race Ports with trainees and sailors of all countries. Navy recruits rub shoulders with under privilaged youth from the back streets of the world with every demographic and economic type in between.

The nominal departure port for this race was Riga in Latvia. For large ships to have good ‘sea room’ for the race they had to start about 100 miles to the west in the Baltic near a port called Ventspils, in Latvia. The result was that as a marine photographer in my own boat, I was the only one close at hand to witness these three starting that evening as they then set off into a gale towards Germany. Many of the 100 or so boats in the race retired, some damaged. None of the crews were injured. These three boats finished.

It is not unusual for Tall Ships Races to start miles out to sea. I am fortunate to be among the few to witness these magnificent events and bring you photographs. Do see my pictures of ‘Dar Mlodzery’ at the start of the 2001 Tall Ships Race off Bergen Norway and ‘Europa’ in start of the 2005 Tall Ships Race in the Irish Sea which would make an interesting set for your display.

In 2006 the nominal port of departure for the Tall Ships is St. Malo. They plan to start the race about 150 sea miles to the North, off Torbay, Devon. This is to commemorate the first modern Tall Ships Race held in 1956, which started off Torbay. Look out for my pictures on this site.