ANNOUNCEMENT 9 DECEMBER 2004
For immediate release

The city of Santander, Spain, will celebrate its 250th anniversary next year. To create a centre-piece for the celebrations in this famous maritime community, the City Council has reached an agreement with Sail Training International to run a Tall Ships' Race to Santander and assist in the development of a Maritime and Tall Ships Festival.

The ‘Festival del Mar Santander 2005' will take place 8-11 September. The Race, to be called ‘The Santander Tall Ships Regatta 2005', will start from south west Britain or north west France about a week earlier.

“The Festival will be a major part of our 250th anniversary celebrations, and we hope this will be the first of a regular cycle of Maritime and Tall Ships Festivals, perhaps every four or five years, preceded by a Tall Ships' Race from northern Europe ,” says Gonzalo Piñeiro García - Lago , Mayor of Santander. “The City is already planning a wide range of events and festivities to attract the fleet and the general public to the Festival next September. We have also committed to find and help fund at least 200 trainee crew to sail in ‘The Santander Tall Ships' Regatta 2005'. We are very pleased to be working with Sail Training International on this to make it a great success.”

“We don't have much time to put this together;” says Nigel Rowe, Chairman of Sail Training International. “But the city and port of Santander are very supportive, and the fact that this may be the beginning of a regular series of events is an added incentive to pull out all the stops to make it a success. Negotiations with potential start ports are going well and we expect to be able to make an announcement on this fairly early in the New Year.”

Sail Training International is a registered Charity (not for profit organization). Its purpose is the education and development of young people of all nationalities, religions and social backgrounds through sail training worldwide. The Founding Members of Sail Training International are the national/representative sail training organizations of Australia, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, UK and USA.

The American Sail Training Association is a founding member of Sail Training International.

For further information

Sail Training International
Corinne Hitching
Tel: +44 (0)2392 586367
Fax: +44 (0)2392 584661
Email: corinne.hitching@sailtraininginternational.org

Santander
Nemesio Ochoa Oceja
Tel: + 349 42203048 & 42203138
Fax: +349 42200738
Email: santander250@ayto-santander.es