Waterford standing tall with ship race

WATERFORD is on the crest of a major tourism wave as it gears up for the largest ever international event to be hosted in the city. The countdown has now officially begun to the Tall Ships’ Race 2005.

The international event will bring hundreds of thousands to Waterford’s quays in July 2005.

It’s a major boost to the Munster city after it beat off competition from 23 locations in Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe to secure host port status for Tall Ships’ Race 2005.

Dozens of eye-catching sailing vessels will gather in Waterford from July 6-9 before the first of the races in the 2005 series leaves the south east port on July 9 for Cherbourg-Octeville in France. The global gathering of large sailing ships previously visited Cork in 1991 and Dublin in 1998.

A sense of the event’s scale is evident from reviewing the statistics of the 2003 races when 102 ships from 18 different countries took part and approximately 6,000 young people from over 20 different countries participated as on-board trainees.

Over three million people visited the fleet at the 2003 host ports of Gdynia, Turku, Riga and Luebeck Travemunde.

Environment Minister, Martin Cullen, said: “This is a huge opportunity for our city and indeed the south-east region.”