Piece for the South Wales Echo:
CARDIFF Bay could be in for an invasion on the same scale as the Spanish Armada if the city wins the right to host the 2012 Tall Ships Race.
The event would see around 100 impressive ships sail into the Bay attracting as many as 1.5 million visitors and a potential windfall of up to £35m for the capital.
Cardiff is bidding to become one of three or four ports hosting the ships as they race up and down the Iberian peninsular and in the Western Approaches off Wales in 2012.
More than 100 ships are expected to compete, ranging from 10 metres in length up to the 40-metres-long classic square-riggers whose masts rise a giddying 58 metres into the sky.
“It’s quite a spectacle,” said a spokesman from the competition’s organisers, Sail Training International.
“Visitors will be able to go on board and have a good look around the ships and get a feel for what life would have been like on them. The port will be transformed.”
The boats, from 15 to 20 countries, crewed by some 5,000 young people from more than 30 countries worldwide, often with little or no sailing experience, take part in four days of activities in each port with racing or cruising-in-company between host harbours.
If Cardiff is successful it could be the start, finish or mid-point of the 2012 race.
The £2.5m cost of mooring the ships would be funded by a £1.4m contribution from the Welsh Assembly Government, £400,000 from sponsorship of the event and £700,000 from Cardiff County Council and the Harbour Authority.
Around 1.5 million people visited Newcastle in 2005 when it hosted the race and it is estimated the event brings an economic boost 14 times the cost of hosting it as people travel from all over the UK to see the ships.
Milford Haven was the last Welsh port to be involved in the race back in 1991.This year’s race will call in at Liverpool from July 18 to 21.
The host ports for 2012 will be announced in May.
Picture courtesy of Sail Training Interantional and Dirk Horticolon.
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