Tall Ships Hobart Festival - Many onshore events

by Peter Campbell on 15 Sep 2013 A fleet of tall ships this evening is sailing across Bass Strait to Hobart, en route for the Tall Ships Hobart Festival. After a visit to Melbourne, they sailed out through The Rip at Port Phillip this morning.

The majestic vessels are due to sail up the River Derwent on Friday, to bee berthed in historic Sullivans Cove until the following Wednesday, September 25.

They will be the centre of an extended festival of sail with public inspections and many onshore events around the Hobart waterfront, including a display of locally built historic wooden boats.

The Dutch tall ships Tecla, Europa and Oosterschelde have already visited Fremantle, Adelaide and Melbourne and are heading for Hobart along with the Soren Larsen and Britain’s Lord Nelson, locally based sailing vessels Lady Nelson and Windeward Bound and the Royal Australian Navy’s Young Endeavour.

Europa is the largest in the fleet visiting Hobart, a fully rigged tall ship, 183 feet in length. She is an historic vessel, built in Hamburg on the eve of World War I and restored in the Netherlands in 1994.

Tecla, also from the Netherlands, is 124 foot lugger, built in 1915 as a North Sea fishing boat. Oosterschelde is a three-masted schooner, built as a cargo carrying ship in 1918.

Lord Nelson is one of only two sailing ships in the world specifically designed to make it easier for people with disabilities to enjoy the challenge of ocean sailing aboard wind-driven ships.

Soren Larsen is a 145-foot barquentine that once starred in ‘The Onedin Line' television series and is now based in Sydney.

Young Endeavour is the 144-foot training ship operated and maintained by the RAN to train young people. The ship was the handsome birthday gift from Great Britain to Australia for the Bicentennual in 1988.

Lady Nelson, based in Hobart is the 53-foot two-masted brig built as a replica of 1798 exploration vessel of the same name. Hobart is also the home port of 108-foot two-masted brigantine Windeward Bound.

The fleet will leave Hobart on September 25, bound for Sydney to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Australian Navy at the Fleet Review on Sydney Harbour from October 3rd-11th.