Tall Ships' Races Baltic 2009 comes to St.Petersburg

Ships taking part in the Tall Ships' Races Baltic 2009 are starting to arrive to their berths in Neva river. The official part of festivities and events program will start ashore tomorrow, July 11th, and will consist of various entertainment, award ceremonies, crew parades, opening of boats for visitors and other activities. Most of the formal procedure is expected Sunday, July 12th, with the race patron, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in attendance. Regatta leaves St.Petersburg on July 14th for the Finnish city of Turku.

The international regatta of training tall ships has been held regularly, with Soviet and Russian tall ships taking part since 1978. Races are held by an international non-profit Sails Training International, a Nobel prize nominee, and this year's regatta is supported by the city of Antwerp. St.Petersburg has already hosted The Tall Ships’ Races in 1996 and is honoured to host it again in 2009.

Two of the big Russian tall ships, Mir and Sedov, are already berthed, and dozens of smaller craft from Russia, Germany, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Poland and other countries as well.

In total, around a hundred tall ships and over two thousand young sailors are taking part in this leg of the race.