Tall Ships Races Helsinki 2013

The Tall Ships Races visited Helsinki the fourth time, previous time 13 years ago. The Race brought to the city a total of 114 ships.

In 2013 ports for legs of The Tall Ships Races are:
- Aarhus, Denmark 4-7 July
- Helsinki 17-20 July
- Riga, Latvia 25-28 July
- Szczecin, Poland 3-6 August

The legs between Aarhus and Helsinki and between Riga and Szczecin are raced.

Ships left Helsinki today and tens of thousands of spectators followed Parade of Sail. We drove to Helsinki just to see these beautiful ships and went to Pihlajasaari island to watch the parade.


The Tall Ships Races was organised for the first time in 1956. During and after the industrial revolution, steam-powered ships were taking the place of wind-powered ones, and the race was on to maintain sailing skills and pass them on to younger generations.

The background to the sailing competition is Sail Training International (STI), an international non-profit organisation.Sail training is a concept that means sailing with a crew consisting mainly of young people who learn to sail and navigate and, above all, to acquire social skills.The purpose is to gather young people together in friendly competition. Sail training is an interesting way to help young people to understand different cultures and develop their own strengths and skills at the same time.It is not necessary to have sailing experience to be a part of the crew.

In recent years, The Tall Ships Races has gathered thousands of young people and hundreds of ships from all over the world together for a yearly race.Every four years, the race is held on the Baltic Sea.During the voyages, experienced sailing instructors make sure that the trainee crew members, who may not have previous experience in sailing, are able to enjoy the sea, the sailing and their watch duties.