Weather ensures tall ships fleet arrives early

PROVING THAT ill winds bring fortune to some, Belfast city will not be kept waiting for its fleet of international tall ships this week.

Almost the entire fleet has already reached the northeast Irish coast – a good six to seven days earlier than anticipated for some – due to the recent low pressure systems over the Atlantic.

The fleet left Halifax, Nova Scotia, on July 20th for its stormy 2,350 nautical mile passage to Belfast. It is the last leg of a 7,000 nautical mile race from Vigo, in Spain, via the Canaries and Bermuda and up the north American east coast.

The festival is due to open in Belfast next Thursday and runs until Sunday but much of the fleet is now berthed along the northeast, in Derry, Belfast, Ballycastle and Lough Swilly.

“The winds reached over 50 knots, the waves grew to nearly seven metres, and the rain, or at least spray, was relentless throughout,” midshipman James Redbourn on the 77-year-old French naval vessel Etoile has recorded in his online log.

“We ran out of fresh water as the makers were unable to operate in the conditions, though we continued to drink our plentiful supply of bottled water,” he says of life on board the schooner in mid-Atlantic.

“We staggered around the deck whilst clipped to safety lines, places bars across our beds to stop us falling out . . . even the captain was forced to raise an eyebrow when a huge wave crashed over the side of the ship and water flooded through the gap in the door of the bridge, soaking him.”

The ship put up storm sails and “showed off its extraordinary surfing skills”, he says. One trainee was injured, requiring three stitches after a fall on deck – fortunately the onboard doctor was on watch at the time. Late last week the ship sailed into Ballycastle, Co Antrim, in relatively light airs and will set out tomorrow on the last 80km to Belfast.

First over the line early last week was the Brazilian Cisne Branco (White Swan), but the Dutch vessel Tecla, which was 200 miles behind, may have beaten it on corrected time. Final results will not be confirmed until after all vessels are in Belfast. On board the Uruguayan schooner Captain Miranda is a Northern Irish trainee crew, including Rory Hanratty, originally from Dundalk, Co Louth, and David McKeown from Belfast.

Sail Training International is running two tall ships races this summer, in the Atlantic and in the Baltic, and it is the first time for many years that Ireland is not represented by the Asgard II.

The brigantine sank last September off the northwest coast of France, and Government plans to build a replacement have been put on hold until the McCarthy report on public expenditure and staffing has been considered.

It has recommended that the Government hold off on a replacement, keep the €3.8 million insurance payment for the ship, and abandon the national sail training programme, which costs just €800,000 annually.

Belfast last hosted the tall ships race in 1991, as did Cork in the same year. It also visited Dublin port in 1998, and the first start of the race in an Irish port was at Dunmore East off Waterford in 2005. It is due to return to Waterford in 2011.

Further details on the Belfast tall ships festival are available on a special telephone helpline (prefix 028 or 048 from the Republic) 9024-6609.