Tall Ship delegates visit Netherlands
The countdown to Tall Ships Races 2023 continues to gather pace as Shetland delegates travelled to Harlingen in the Netherlands to get a first hand look at this year’s event.
As well as getting to experience the event itself, the trip allowed for meetings with English, Norwegian and Dutch delegates representing communities which – along with Lerwick – will each be hosting a leg of next year’s race.
Shetland Tall Ships Ltd project manager Emma Miller said the trip had given an incredibly beneficial insight into how such large events can be hosted in a post-pandemic community, particularly in regard to crowd control during peak times.
Ms Miller added that although “Harlingen is a completely different port to Lerwick, and we have a different site set-up, there were things we noticed that worked well”.
She said: “Now we’ve returned home, we can think about how we can implement these examples of best practice into Lerwick next summer.”
The team was also fortunate enough to experience a little home away from home, witnessing the historic Shetland fishing boat Swan take part in the Parade of Sail as the Tall Ships left the port of Harlingen.
“It was a delight to see Swan, particularly with her 10 new trainees on board building their sailing confidence and abilities. Hopefully it will be the first of many more voyages for them,” said Ms Miller.
