Tall Ships begin Race Four of the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge

by ASTA’s Erin Short/Event media on 1 Jul 2009
The Tall Ships Race fleet has left Charleston and ASTA’s Erin Short provided the following report to the event website.

'The Parade of Sail out of Charleston was lovely with crowds lined up all along the harbor and surrounding islands, bidding a fond farewell to the tall ships. All of the sailors were the recipients of that famous Southern Hospitality that Charleston is best known for and many were sad to leave. Starting at four this afternoon, the ships made thier way out of the harbor behind the Coast Guard Barque Eagle and ultimately followed by the Spirit of South Carolina. There were hundreds of spectator boats, many more than I was expecting considering it was a sultry Monday afternoon. The crew of Mircea looked like little ants as they climbed up and lined the rigging, and I spied several of them blowing kisses to the crowds.

As the ships made thier way past Fort Sumter and out to sea, the spectator boats stayed behind in the harbor, forming a forlorn line of goodbyes. I was on the race committee boat, one end of the start line and as we motored our way out to the start line, several miles out to sea, we could see some dark clouds forming to the side of us. Regardless, we set up the line and waited for the ships to muster. We didn’t have long to wait because 20 minutes before the Class A start at 7pm, the rain drops started falling and we couldn’t see the vessels through the rain. Every so often the weather would clear up and Kruzenshtern could be seen setting her sails and then she would disappear into the mist. Luckily, having all done these starts a few times, we had a back up plan and the vessels took thier own latitudes instead of crossing the start line. We turned around and got out of there as lightning flashed on the horizon. Wouldn’t you know, by the time we got back to Charleston, it was clear and cool….

The fleet will once again be tracked, and their progress shown on the fleet tracking. This will start later today after the 1400 GMT position report update.

Latest report - Day 1:

The fleet is now getting well into the fourth Race of this epic event; on the water Rona II is out in front with 727 miles to go to Boston. Fazizi lies 28 miles behind her followed by Urania who is another 32 miles behind.

On corrected time, Tecla is lying first overall, with Rona II and Mircea lying in second and third place respectively.

Jolie Brise lies second in Class B to Tecla, followed by Spirit of Bermuda in third place. In class A, Mircea leads, followed by Eagle and then Europa. In Class D, the current order is Rona II, Urania, then Fazizi.

Spirit of Bermuda has decided to take the most westerly course, along with Jolie Brise who is almost - but not quite - as far west.

The wind at the present time is SW 8-12 knots. The above positions were taken at 1200 EDT (Eastern Daylight Time), 1600 UTC/GMT. The Dutch Naval yacht Urania is acting as Race Control, which involves collecting the other ships’ positions.

- Event media

The Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge is organised by Sail Training International with the American Sail Training Association.

http://www.tallshipsraces.org