In the summer of 1972 Barclay Warburton III, of Newport, Rhode Island, his two sons, and several friends, sailed his brigantine Black Pearl across the Atlantic to participate in a tall ships race from Cowes on the south coast of England to Malmo in Sweden, organized by what was then known as The Sail Training Association. He was so inspired by the enthusiasm and spirit he saw in that international gathering of tall ships and young people that he set out to create a similar organization in order to bring the same kind of spirit to the United States, and through his efforts the American Sail Training Association was founded the following year. ASTA soon became the first national association to formally affiliate with what eventually became known as the International Sail Training Association. The Tall Ships Races in which the Black Pearl took part had first been held in 1956, when a London solicitor, Bernard Morgan, had the idea of bringing what he imagined to be the last of the world’s great square-riggers together for a race as a sort of last hurrah— a farewell salute—for the Great Age of Sail. A committee was formed, and with the support and assistance of the Portuguese Ambassador to the UK, Dr. Pedro Theotonio Pereria, a race was organized from Torbay, on England’s Cornish coast, to Lisbon. The event proved to be anything but a funeral procession, however, and it has since grown into an annual series that would astonish its original organizers. Today, hundreds of tall ships from around the world come together annually for friendly competition in international and regional Tall Ships Races organized by Sail Training International in Europe and national affiliates such as ASTA. These races, along with waterfront festivals in designated start and finish ports, bring together the ships and young people of most European countries, Russia and the former Soviet states, the Americas, and the Pacific Rim. The key elements uniting these events are an emphasis on youth—from the beginning, tall ship racing rules have required that not less than half those onboard participating vessels be between 15 and 25 years of age—and a formula for rating participating vessels which allows vessels ranging in size from the largest square-riggers down to yachts of 30 or more feet in length. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Tall Ships' Races, Sail Training International is organizing a repeat of the first race from Torbay to Lisbon. The event started in July 2006 from the same start line off Torbay and the fleet once again raced to Lisbon. Some of the vessels and a number of the original crews in the first race have sailed again in the 50th anniversary race, but these days it is a very different event. The fleet taking part is closer to 70 vessels, from some 20 countries, and with the young trainees on board from around 30 different countries and numbering in the thousands. Indeed, the size of the fleet has dictated that it could no longer gather for pre-race formalities in and around the River Dart near Torbay as it did 50 years ago - but in Saint Malo, France. The event does not end in Lisbon but from there the fleet cruises in company to Cadiz and then to La Coruña, Spain, for a final race to Antwerp, Belgium. To follow the progress of the races, and for news and updates visit the Sail Training International website: http://www.sailtraininginternational.org/page.asp?partid=25
|
