Tall Ships and the Kiel Regatta
December 16th, 2009
For nine days in June, Kiel, Germany hosts the Kiel Week Regatta, not only the world’s biggest sailing event, but also Northern Europe’s biggest public festival. You’ll find here sailors at the top of their class coming from all parts of the world to compete in different classes of small crafts, but also you’ll find the tall ships sailing past.
To keep things going on land, there’s a musical festival. Each year, over five thousand sailors are expected to compete both in Olympic and international dinghies, as well as two hundred and fifty off-shore yachts. Once you’ve settled into one of the Kiel hotels, take a walk over to the Rathausplatz (or Town Hall Square), where you’ll witness the tradition of the ringing of the bell. This will be followed by a long, loud blast from a ship’s horn, all signaling the beginning of the festival. The party will fill the city center with crowds as several popular bands will perform on a number of stages.
A tall ship is a modern name for sailing vessels extending back several hundred years. If you hear people talking about square rigs and gaff rigs and topmasts and topsails, you’re in the neighborhood of a tall ship, one of which may be seen in the movie, Master and Commander. The term came into popular use in the middle of the 20th Century, and may have originated with a poem titled Sea Fever by John Masefield, published in around 1900. Today, The Sail Training International uses the definition of a tall ship to mean any vessel with more than thirty feet lenghth of waterline and on which at least half the people aboard are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, a definition that was a surprise to me. It’s hard to imagine how the name for a sailing vessel can change just because of the age of the people aboard it!
If you haven’t had enough of maritime activities, you can also check out the nearby U-955, perhaps the last V11-C submarine on the planet, which the German Navy built in 1942. She’s a floating museum now, and if you’ve ever wanted to crawl around inside a World War II sub, this is your chance. But, for the most part, I imagine, you’ll want to stay with the main festivities of the regatta and all the tall ships.
Related posts: