The Kintyre Forum

Campbeltown welcome the Tall Ships!

Cruise in Company guest harbour, Campbeltown welcomed their first Tall Ships on Tuesday 5th July. Two vessels, who had completed race leg one early, took advantage of Campbeltown’s offer of hospitality ahead of the Greenock event.

Several participating ships had crossed the finish line marking the end of the first race in The Tall Ships Races 2011, presented by Szczecin, organised by Sail Training International, and they are calling in at nearby ports before their arrival in Greenock on Saturday 9 July.

Argyll and Bute Councillor Neil Mackay, spokesperson for Enterprise, Energy, Culture and Tourism, said: "We are delighted to see the arrival of both the Tomidi and the Spaniel in Campbeltown today. The 18-metre sloop, Tomidi from Antwerp arrived this morning at 10.00 am. It was the first vessel to cross the finish line in race one. The class C vessel Spaniel from Latvia arrived at around 4.00 pm this afternoon. We look forward to welcoming more Tall Ships in Oban and Islay during the Cruise in Company event.

"Being close to both the finish line and the host port of Greenock, we did anticipate an early arrival of some of The Tall Ships fleet. We have organised a fantastic events programme running from Tuesday 5 July until Saturday 16 July to keep the Ships and their followers entertained. From pipe band performances to surf lessons and distillery tours to tug of war competitions, we are certainly getting the party started."

From the BBC news website this morning:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-14144610

Only managed a few

Wylde Swan



Wylde Swan



Wylde Swan



No photoshop or computer jigger pokery here, just good old fashioned counting and I managed to catch the light from the lighthouse on Davaar Island



Reflections



Here are a couple sent in by local photographer John McFadyen. The first photo showing the Wylde Swan, sailing past the lighthouse at Davaar Island on the entrance of Campbeltown Loch was picture of the day in Friday's Herald. Well done John



The second picture shows local piper Peter Ferguson welcoming the ship to Campbeltown Harbour.

Beautiful picture from John McFadyen.

This is the best I got from the Trench. Red sails disappearing around Kidalloig. I suppose it was no further away than the one down the pier where none of the local hordes were allowed past the barriers for a look over the side.

Well, the link to the bbc website says at least 22 "tall ships" visited Campbeltown, I for one never seen them, yes a couple of yachts , but only one so called "tall ship" after all the publicity/hype about this was it not just another glorious non event for the town?

howlsatthemoon wrote:Well, the link to the bbc website says at least 22 "tall ships" visited Campbeltown, I for one never seen them, yes a couple of yachts , but only one so called "tall ship" after all the publicity/hype about this was it not just another glorious non event for the town?

howlsatthemoon, perhaps you can explain exactly what a "so called tall ship" is?

According to the Sail Training International website, there are in fact 4 classes of tall ship and "a tall ship is a traditionally rigged sailing vessel. Popular, modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. Traditional rigging may include square rigs and gaff rigs, with separate topmasts and topsails."

No-one said that all tall ships looked like that sailed by Blackbeard!!!

I also believe there were in fact 40 tall ships visited Campbeltown and I'm sure the harbour masters office will be able to provide you with the names of these so that you can check for yourself that these are in fact tall ships.

Clive wrote:howlsatthemoon, perhaps you can explain exactly what a "so called tall ship" is?

Thank you Clive for your wealth of information. I think you have answered your own question, but I take it from your post that you also did not know what a "tall ship" was, and that is why you had to copy and paste the information.

Lets have a look at the vessels you mention:-


Top Sail Schooner


Brigantines




Brigs


Barques

How many of these types of vessels visited Campbeltown?

Lets look at how the Courier reportd the visits, last week we had photos of the "Wilde Swan", remember the ship was here as a part of a pre arranged publicity stunt, and also a photo of three people jumping up at a netball/basketball hoop. This week we had photos of the "wilde Swan" with relatives of the area organiser standing/sitting in front of it. Where were the photos of the over 400 people who welcomed the ships?

Clive wrote:No-one said that all tall ships looked like that sailed by Blackbeard!!!

Clive, you are the one that said that the ships looked like the ones sailed by Blackbeard, as pirates favored Brigs (and Brigantines) which, acording to your post, are tall ships.

I do not know one type of boat/ship from another but when someone mentions "tall ships" you would expect to see a tall ship not a yacht, which you can see in any marina around the country.

If you look at the website for the tall ships it shows you these images:







So when someone says that tall ships are going to visit the town are these vessels not what you would expect to see!