Maritime Hanseatic Traditions

The Baltic Sea will be the seaof the traditional ships in 2007! The twin cities of Rostock - Aarhus and Szczecin - are starting and finish ports of the "Tall Ship's Races in the Baltic", organised by Sail Training International. Other ports on the route are Kotka and Stockholm. The amazing wind fleet is the reason the new brig TRE KRONOR will be prepared for its maiden voyage in the capital of Sweden.

In July it is celebrated the 700th anniversary of the establishment of Halmstad, a city on the Swedish west coast. The traditional ships are the honoured guests. This is a prelude to the meetings of the Baltic Sail in Gdansk, Klaipeda, Karlskrona, Rostock, Helsingoer, and Travemuende. As a passenger on traditional sailing boat, under guidance of an experienced crew, people can enjoy a trip in the eleven ports of the Baltic Sea area.

The Hanseatic City of Rostock, meanwhile, became the centre point of attraction of the traditional sailing boats travelling in the Baltic Sea for many skippers and crews. At the second weekend of August, 300 schooners, barques, brigs, galleasses or museum ships, like the legendary steam ice-breaker STETTIN, will attract more than one million visitors, again into the city at the river Warnow.

The trumps of Rostock are the attractive participating trips and the pictures on the sea in front of seaside resort of Warnemuende, which - like in a maritime kaleidoscope from the cog up to the ultramodern ferry boat - present more than a half millennium navigation history. So the city becomes annually the largest and most lively maritime free air museum of the world on those four days of August.

Again a fleet of medieval cogs will meet the liners in the sea canal of Rostock. The squadron of the replications have been travelling since the Hanseatic League had their premiere in 2006. There again is also the Asiatic junk KUBLAI'S KAHN II, which sailed after the spectacular sea voyage of China, over Venice to Rostock, in the Baltic Sea. Their crew prepares themselves and the ship for the return journey into the realm of the centre to the EXPO 2010 via Rio de Janeiro. Welcome to the 17th Hanse Sail from 9 to 12 August 2007!

What is missing today is a permanent joint marketing platform for the Baltic Sea as a first class sailing area. Many maritime cooperative suppliers conduct their own marketing activities, but this ? leaves valuable potential untapped.

The MariTour Initiative has been launched to exploit this potential to it's fullest. Headed by Hanse Sail Rostock, it enables marina operators, event organisers, and operators or traditional vessels to pool their marketing activities under the sail-BALTIC label and thus improve the market conditions for all those who f are involved in maritime tourism. j sailBALTIC will be transformed E into a lean but strong organisation, responsible for Baltic-wide maritime marketing in 2007.

You're welcome becoming a member of the crew!