Waterford’s hosting of The Tall Ships Races declared ‘an awesome success’ with largest ever numbers in city

Waterford’s hosting The Tall Ships Races 2011, presented by Szczecin and organised by Sail Training International, has been declared ‘an awesome success’ by the chairman of Fáilte Ireland, the national tourism authority.

Redmond O’Donoghue said that the four days of celebrations on water and land had “captured the imagination of the country and appealed across generations and demographics” as Waterford hosted the largest number of people ever assembled in the almost 1,100-year history of Ireland’s oldest city.

“What we saw in Waterford while the visiting Tall Ships were in port and along the Suir Estuary for Sunday’s Parade of Sail was a reminder of all that is best about Ireland and our special relationship with the seas that surround our small island. All of those who worked so hard to deliver a very diverse programme of activity to tie in with the Tall Ships returning to Waterford should be very proud of the role they have played in delivering this awesome success.

“From a tourism and hospitality perspective, it was a tremendous success – not only in immediate terms of bed nights and visitor spending in the city and surrounding areas but also in how it helped raise awareness of what Waterford now has to offer Irish and foreign tourists.

“The media coverage was terrifically positive and sustained across several days with front page coverage and great inside spreads in key national newspapers as well as special broadcasts from the city by RTÉ and other broadcasters. Fáilte Ireland is delighted to have supported this as one of the country’s top tier festivals and also to host a group of key foreign journalists in the city to coincide with the Tall Ships visiting. To have media outlets from countries as diverse as Sweden and India shining a spotlight on Waterford at its brilliant best is a tremendous opportunity that the city will continue to benefit from.”

Des Whelan, Chairman, The Tall Ships Races 2011 – Waterford, said: “A wide range of people – drawn from right across the public and private sectors – combined to do Trojan work across all of the different elements that go in to delivering a first-class international event safely and successfully. As well as the massive numbers who visited from across Ireland and overseas, it was also great to see Park & Ride and all of the other logistics work so well and a tremendous atmosphere prevail. It’s a lot of details that come together for something like this and one of the things that continually struck me was the great work being done by litter-pickers to keep the streets as clean as possible in the context of so many visitors being here.

“To all of those involved, I say a big ‘thank you’ and I similarly want to again record our appreciation of all those who partnered with and sponsored our hosting of The Tall Ships Races. It’s been a tremendous piece of work to lead with the dynamic and hard-working project manager, Olivia O’Reilly, over the last two years. The feedback from visitors and from the media who came here to cover the festival was overwhelmingly positive while Sail Training International who organise the races annually were also very upbeat in their appraisal of Waterford as a host port.”

Lar Power, Event Controller, The Tall Ships Races 2011 – Waterford, added: “What we saw coming together over the four days was a great example of teamwork with countless people working as a united group to bring all the aspects together. It takes a lot of planning to deliver this scale of event and it can only be done if people combine their strengths and work closely. Everyone involved lined out for the Waterford team on this event and that’s what made the difference when it came to hosting the influx of visitors that the Tall Ships and festival attracted.”

For his part, Sgt Gavin Hegarty, An Garda Síochána, said: “From a policing perspective, we couldn’t have been happier with how the four days ran. On my own behalf and that of the entire Garda team of up to 300 led by Supt Chris Delaney who worked on this event, I want to say a sincere thanks to the public for their cooperation. The various systems that were put in place by ourselves and the wider event team worked extremely well but that was only because we got the patience and support of locals and visitors alike. People recognised that this event was going to have a huge impact on a city of Waterford’s size and that we needed to plan accordingly. From a crime and public order perspective, we experienced no major issues and certainly nothing that would be considered remarkable for such a huge gathering of people.”

While a full economic impact study is to be undertaken by the School of Business at Waterford Institute of Technology, it is estimated that more than €30m of economic activity was generated across the four days. It’s estimated there were 420,000 visits to the city quays across the three days (Thursday: 90,000; Friday: 130,000 and Saturday: 200,000) while upwards of 80,000 viewed the Parade of Sail along both sides of the Suir Estuary on Sunday, taking the total to 500,000. There were 57,485 visits to www.waterfordtallshipsrace.ie over the four days, bringing traffic since the site launched to 272,842 visits.

The race to Greenock, Scotland started for Class A Tall Ships from 3pm on Sunday five miles due south of Hook Head. Because of adverse weather conditions forecast for the week ahead, it was decided not to sail along the south and west coasts of Ireland as had been planned but rather the east coast of Ireland – providing a bonus for communities dotted along the south Wexford coastline as the Tall Ships passed under sail.

The initial overall race leader on Monday morning was ‘St IV’ (Estonia) while the early leader among the largest Class A Tall Ships was ‘Mir’ (Russia). 40 Tall Ships started the race with more than 150 Irish trainees on board the fleet which includes 12 Class As.

* You can track the progress the Tall Ships make on the Waterford-Greenock race online at http://www.sailtraininginternational.org