Tall Ships to bring €35m boost to Waterford

Half a million people are expected in Waterford for the return of the Tall Ships Race giving the city a €35m boost next year, it emerged today.

The four-day spectacle will see 70 vessels dock in the city, which last hosted the international event in 2005.

With 500 days to go organisers began the official countdown to the festival, launching a website giving details of the ships, programme and special offers.

Des Whelan, Tall Ships Race Waterford chairman, said after the success of 2005 the ambition is to attract more than 500,000 visitors to the south east.

“To coincide with the tall ships being in port, there will be a comprehensive, family-friendly festival programme featuring the very best of Irish music, food and street theatre,” he added.

Waterford Mayor John Halligan said the event, which runs from June 30 to July 3 2011, will help form part of the regeneration of the city.

When the Tall Ships leave Waterford after the Parade of Sail, competitors will race around Ireland’s south, west and north coasts to Greenock, Scotland.

There will be a cruise-in-company from Greenock to Lerwick in the Shetland Isles.

The second race in the series will then go from Lerwick to Stavanger, Norway, from where the third and final race will take the fleet to Halmstad, Sweden.

Christian Radich is the first tall ship to have been confirmed to return next year.

The Norwegian vessel featured in the 1970s television series 'The Onedin Line' as well as being the subject of the 1958 film 'Windjammer'.