Racing trip for the Swan

A group of 10 youngsters set off for an adventure of sailing and racing on board the Swan this afternoon – their first destination Hirtshals in Denmark

The 15 and 16-year-olds – four boys and six girls – are in the crew skippered by Rory Johnson with Scott Sandison as mate.

The Swan will meet up with 20 other traditional boats in Hirtshals before taking part in the Nordisk Sejlads racing across the Skagerrak to Grimstad in southern Norway.

This mini Tall Ships event with vessels from Denmark, Sweden and Norway will be the first Tall Ships race the Swan has been involved with since 2011. She will again be the only UK vessel involved and her trainee crew of teenagers will have to be at their best to equal or better the boat’s success in last year’s races. The event will end with a raft-up of all participating vessels and crew barbeque.

The event will end with a raft-up of all participating vessels and crew barbeque.

After that Swan will take part in a “peerie race” to Trøe before heading to Kristiansand. That will be the last stop for the bairns who will fly home after that.

Swan Trust chairman Peter Campbell, who will also be on board for the trip, said that he expected the crossing to Denmark would take three days with the first race scheduled to take place on Friday.

More in this week’s Shetland Times.