Under the leadership of Rostock the EU project SeaSide provokes to act

The rich common maritime cultural heritage of the South Baltic area seems to be forgotten but has a great potential to bind the regions of the Baltic Sea together in order to build up one common identity. The South Baltic cities and regions internationally are highly qualified as cultural first class destinations. Shipping museums in Karlskrona, Gdańsk, Klaipėda and Rostock provide interesting exhibitions by showing unique collections of maritime heritage. The UNESCO world heritage sites of Stralsund in combination with the ocean museum OCEANEUM is something that one has to visit. Maritime festivals in this area like Hanse Sail Rostock, Sea Festival Klaipėda or SailGdańskyear by year fulfil visitor's expectations by attracting traditional ships. Those ships, very often owned by private volunteers or non profit associations, get strongly demanded support by making them visible and accessible to the public.

The 20th Hanse Sail Rostock on 5-8 August 2010 will be a major event. But the first highlight of Rostock's maritime season 2010 will be a sailBALTIC Tour: a Schooner Race from Rostock (D) to Gedser (DK) v.v. on 1-2 May between two traditional ships -GREIF and SANTA BARBARA ANNA (the picture).

SeaSide aims at emphasizing and utilizing this great potential through various activities. The SeaSide team of thirteen partners - Klaipėda, Gdańsk, Karlskrona, Rostock, Stralsund, Greifswald and Rügen is starting to combine all those advantages. This cooperation combines efforts from various fields and know-how on an international basis. The crew enables the professional realization of activities aimed at developing excellent cultural destinations in the South Baltic area. The SeaSide partners initiated special sailing products: "Maritime Heritage Tours", cruises with traditional ships sailing from city to city, port to port, festival to festival, etc. The new brand is "sailBALTIC Tours". The ships are accessible for everybody, no sailing experiences required. The passengers will be educated by a professional crew.

Such cruises do not only promote traditional ships as a trademark of the Baltic, but also they contribute to the preservation of traditional ships for future generations and train and maintain maritime hand-craft skills. The trainees do not hang around a pool or sit at a deck-bar, there is no ceremonious captain's reception in the evening, a pool or sauna doesn't belong to the standard on a historical vessel. The trainees are involved in the board-routines as deck hand. But this will make the cruise unforgettable. The maritime museums will add ashore the step into our maritime history by fantastic exhibitions and contribute to the festivals with a common travelling exhibition to attract a cross-border interest.