Right before 17.00, at the accompaniment of drums, the opening ceremony of The 51 st Tall Ships’ Races began. After the crews’ representatives, carrying their national flags, had walked up the steps to the terrace of Waly Chrobrego, all the ships greeted the port of Szczecin with loud sirens’ signal. A moment later Polish national anthem was played (by a wind instrument orchestra), followed by ‘I Am Sailing’ song. To finish with, 6000 blue, yellow and red balloons went to the sky.
‘I have never seen so many people full of enthusiasm though I’ve been doing TTSR for 50 years’ said
Mr Samuelsson, the representative for Sail Training International. The second part of the ceremony, being showed on huge screens, was held in the hall of the National Museum of Szczecin. After Piotr Krzystek, the president of Szczecin, and Przemyslaw Gosiewski, the Minister of Economy, gave their speeches, the captains were handed rally souvenirs: custom made models of sailing ships.
When the ceremony was finished, the hosts and their guests set out for the tour of the rally. They walked along the city streets, while the president went on a cruise.
