Tall Ships Races 2025

National World

2 days ago

Alison Campsie at Tall Ships Races 2025

Transcript

00:00I'm Alison Campsey, I'm from The Scotsman. I'm reporting from the Tall Ships races in Aberdeen.

00:06The whole harbour here is absolutely heaving with people.

00:11This is really a place where you wouldn't normally have any sort of access to

00:15unless you were catching a ferry to Orkney in Shetland or if you worked here.

00:21But there's probably, they're expecting about 100,000 people around the harbour complex this afternoon

00:27and it really is shaping up to be really such a special event.

00:31We followed one of the tall ships into the harbour this morning and all the foghorns went off to welcome them.

00:37It was just such a lovely moment coming into the city, seeing that well-known kind of landscape ahead of you

00:45but seeing it from sea and coming in on the water to join the Tall Ships races, it really was a lovely moment.

00:52As I say, there's about 100,000 people here today and they expect that over the rest of the festival until Tuesday.

01:00There's about 50 vessels here and about 2,000 sailors of all ages.

01:05Now, people always say, well, what is the Tall Ships?

01:08Well, it's a race but it's also specifically designed to help young people train in the art of sailing.

01:16And these are skills that are maybe going to the sidelines a little.

01:21And I've spoken to some really lovely young people today about what sailing means to them

01:26and they described it so beautifully.

01:28The skills that it gives them working and out at sea, total peace and quiet, sometimes facing risks,

01:36working together, getting out your own headspace and being part of a bigger picture

01:42and really above and beyond just enjoying that environment of the ocean.

01:47There's people here from all over the world.

01:49The ships are just spectacular.

01:53There's the boat of the Royal Navy of Oman, which is really something special.

01:59I've just been on there.

02:01What a delightful crew.

02:02I think there's about 90 crew members on there.

02:05The queues for that to get on and have a look are absolutely massive.

02:08But there's also the ships from the Peruvian Navy.

02:11There's old restored herring boats.

02:13There's training vessels for kids from Scotland.

02:17And really what the ships have in common is that everyone on board really loves to sail

02:24and they love that society that is created at sea by those who want to venture over her waters.

02:32So really special, unique event for Aberdeen.

02:35I've spoken to folk who were here in 91 and 97 and they said,

02:38well, yeah, that was great.

02:39But this has really taken it to a different level.

02:42So all credit to Aberdeen for staging such a great unique event in the heart of a city that has such an incredible maritime heritage itself.

02:54And I was really interested to learn in the week that there was more than 3000 ships built in Aberdeen.

03:01Something you don't often hear about, but 3000 ships between the early 1800s and the 1990s, I believe, was when the last shipyard closed.

03:11And there was also a great tradition of building these big clippers here as well.

03:17I think there was 300 clippers built in Aberdeen as well.

03:20And the designs of old that were made in Aberdeen can be seen in some of the ships here today.

03:26So how great that they're coming back and kind of anchoring into that legacy of the city's shipbuilding past.

03:32So if you haven't been down, I would thoroughly recommend it because you're not going to see something like this anytime soon.

03:37Bye for now.

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