Tall Ships Race

15 July 2018

The race has started! This evening at 6 PM the Tall Ships Race from Sunderland towards Esbjerg started with 15 ships in our class (A) and about 50 ships in total. The start went very well, we were in front of the field! But, because we are a 100-year old cargo-vessel we are not the fastest ship in our class (our ‘handicap’ indicates that we are the penultimate slowest). So, some other ships approached our position. In itself that is not a bad thing, because these ships are supposed to be faster than us. However, it never feels good in a race if a ship passes you… So, it was time to try something!
The wind is weak, this means that it might be that some ships have more wind a few miles further on. For this reason, we have made a (calculated) guess and we are sailing a slightly different course, away from the others. We try to sail a bit north of the field and hope to find more wind. Later in the race we will find out whether or not this was a good move!