The race begins..

The anticipation and excitement on the quayside was tangible as the ships prepared to leave Falmouth.  It seemed like the whole of the South West had turned out to wave goodbye to the race fleet as they made their way out into the bay.  The sun shone on thousands of boats of all shapes and sizes as they followed the majestic precession of tall ships and sail training boats on the Parade of Sail - the traditional way of thanking the local community for their support and friendship during their days in port.

As the wind was light the nine tall ships were able to set some sails, putting on a spectacular show for the thousands of spectators on shore.  Mir (Russia) led the parade and Cuautamoc (Mexico) marked the end, the crew still dancing and enthralling the spectator boats.

As the fleet moved on to the race start line the accompanying boats dropped away and the ships took up their positions for the run to the start line in a north-westerly wind with a speed of 4-7 knots. 

Shabab Oman was first across the line, but sadly were seven seconds premature which resulted in a penalty of a 360 degree turn.  This meant that officially the first three across the line were Astrid (Netherlands) , Alexander von Humboldt (Germany) and Cuautamoc. 

First over the line in the Bs, Cs and Ds Class was Spaniel (Latvia) with Steppe (Belgium) and Challenger 1 (UK) in second and third place respectively.

Light wind and therefore slow progress meant that the fleet remained visible on the horizon of Falmouth Bay for the remainder of the evening. 

The first fleet tracking and postion report will appear on this website tomorrow morning (Sunday).