‘Nadezhda’ at the start of the Tall Ships Race 2003 off Latvia

‘Nadezhda’ is rarely seen in Europe as she is normally based in the far eastern Russian Pacific. She sailed all the way to the Baltic to celebrate the bi-centenary of St Petersburg and then on to enter the 2003 Tall Ships Race starting off Latvia. ‘Nadezhda’ means ‘Good Hope’ in Russian. She was built in 1991 to train people for a career at sea. It is surprising that the Russians could find the money to build and sail a fine ship like this during the period of such change in their country. Like the other boats in the race more than fifty per cent of her crew are under twenty five.

About a hundred boats started that evening. The brown sailed gaff rigged ketch in the distance to the right is the German ‘ Seute Deern II’ waiting to start with the smaller ‘B Class’ boats. The best translation of ‘Seute Deern’ from North German seamans slang is ‘Sweet Girl’ (never mind political correctness and not ‘Sooty Tern’ as I guessed).

You can also see my matching picture of ‘Tall Ships Race off Latvia, Baltic 2003’ which pairs with this one being photographed on the same day.