Tall Ships Race 2014

In 2012, it was announced that the 2014 Tall Ships Regatta will be visiting Falmouth, Cornwall.

Location: Queen's Wharf, Falmouth

Dates: Thursday 28 August to Sunday 31 August 2014

When the Tall Ships Races were in Falmouth it was a wonderful sight to see - all those fabulous old-fashioned sailing boats, just like how boats used to be - and they were all out at sea, where you could see them, as well as being berthed in Falmouth Docks, where you could even go aboard and look around.

The Tall Ships Races have been running for a number of years and don't always stop at Falmouth - it depends on their route. Also, the building of Discovery Quay in Falmouth has made it trickier for a lot of the large tall ships to pull up alongside and berth.

Over 100,000 people watched the start of the last tall ships race from Falmouth, the Funchal 500 Tall Ships Regatta, in September 2008.

The Tall Ships Races were started in 1956 and have grown to become the biggest international ocean races for sail training ships in the world. Most years there are over 100 vessels, with over 3000 crew members, with as many as 20 countries around the world participating.

The tall ships races routes are fixed up to four years in advance, giving people plenty of opportunity, if they wish to see tall ships, to organise a trip to be in the right place at the right time. I don't know yet when the tall ships race will be in Falmouth next.

Update: An unexpected tall ship visited Falmouth on 2-3 October 2010.  The Salomon called into Falmouth Docks for an emergency 48 hour stopover due to bad weather conditions.  Since then, further bad weather on their planned trip means The Saloman tall ship will be in Falmouth until 19 October 2010.

If you're not lucky this time to be in Falmouth when the Tall Ships Races are visiting, then why not take some time to look around Falmouth Maritime Museum, take a look round Castle Dennis, enjoy the beaches to the west of the docks, or take a short river trip to explore some of the local creeks - watch out for the boat trip to Smugglers at Tolverne (my favourite).

The tall ships regatta has included Falmouth on its route in:

• 1982
• 1996
• 1998
• 2008
• 2014

For something completely different, why not grab your chance to sail a tall ship.

When the tall ships are in Falmouth, Tall Ships Falmouth Ltd organise trips so you can go out for half a day's sailing. If you want to do this, then keep an eye on their calendar for when the next opportunity to sail on a tall ship is available: http://www.tallshipsfalmouth.co.uk/category/events - there's usually just one small time slot per year at present, so it really is something unusual to do in Falmouth.

The route for the tall ships race, 2014, is yet to be announced.

The tall ships will be in Falmouth in September 2014.

Below are the race dates for the Tall Ships Races route of 2011. They represent the sailing dates from one place to another - tall ships can be seen arriving and leaving. While they all leave on the same date from the same harbour, their arrival at the next one is unpredictable.

After all - anything can happen at sea!

• 2 July: Waterford, Ireland
• 8-23 July: Greenock, Scotland
• 23-30 July: Lerwick, Shetland Isles
• 30 July - 7 Augus: Stavanger, Norway
• 7 August: Halmstad, Sweden.

Here is some route for past tall ships races.

Tall ships races Route 2010:

• Antwerp, Belgium
• Aalborg, Denmark
• Kristiansand, Norway
• Hartlepool, England

Tall ships races route 2008:

• Falmouth, England
• Ilhavo
• Funchal
  

Hartlepool are having to sell lots of memorabilia, on ebay, to try to recoup a loss of £720,000 made by the Council on their park and ride scheme for the 2010 tall ships race.

It's all rather embarrassing for them - but at least they're trying to balance the books!

See what unexpected finds and goodies you can grab. The Hartlepool Tall Ships 2010 memorabilia is all being sold through one seller, you can get these goodies direct from him only through the eBay UK site, the seller's name is bigintheuk.

Falmouth is on the southern coast of Cornwall, England - that's over 300 miles west of London.

The nearest airport to Falmouth is 25 miles away at Newquay Airport.

To get to Falmouth by train, you'd need the London to Paddington -> Penzance train, getting off close to the end of that route and transferring onto a branch line that takes you right into Falmouth close to the docks - once you're there it's pretty level all around.

There's quite a lot of good parking at Falmouth, but if you're in a large group and the weather's nice, then keep an eye out as you're coming into Falmouth for a "Park and Float" service.  If there's a lot of you it can work out to be a pleasant way to arrive in the town.  If there's only 1-2 of you then it can seem a bit pricey.  With the Park and Float, your ticket covers the car park and a ride on a boat down to the town and back (returning at regular intervals).