Baltic Sail – a rally of the most beautiful sailing ships on the Motława River in Gdańsk

Every year the beginning of July is the time when the good old Sołdek, moored at Narodowe Muzeum Morskie, becomes of secondary importance and gives priority to nimble, often foreign colleagues of smaller dimensions.

While the first ship, built after World War II at the Gdańsk Shipyard and today serving as a museum, is calmly being launched into water, there is a real marine parade along Długie Pobrzeże. The beginning of July is the time when Motława in Gdańsk becomes a veritable catwalk for spectacular international sailing ships. It’s the time of Baltic Sail, which is a great festival for sailors, inhabitants and all the guest who are then visiting Gdańsk. This rally of sailing ships makes the area along Długie Pobrzeże and around Targ Rybny turn into a lively, cheerful and vibrant port.

In 2015, Baltic Sail – a sailing rally and a marine festival was held for the 19th time. On Motława moored 13 sailing ships, including such gems as the largest in the rally nearly 50-meter three-master Minerva, launched in 1935 in Germany, and Baltic Beauty whose white sails look splendid in the sea. Also a Gdańsk yacht and the flagship vessel of the city, Generał Zaruski, took part in Baltic Sail. It was built in 1939 in Sweden and in recent years thoroughly repaired. On Sunday on board of Generał Zaruski sailed a famous rower – the Olympic champion from Beijing Adam Korol, and a world-famous boxer Dariusz Michalczewski.

The sailing ship which commanded a lot of attention was Libava, flying the Latvian flag and modeled on vessels from over 400 years ago – its extremely friendly crew, dressed in costumes from the 17th century, ensured all the interested an extraordinary sea adventure. During the staging on the ship there were, among others, spectacular musket shots.

Baltic Sail is not only about admiring impressive vessels from the mainland, but also an opportunity for turning into a real sea dog. During the four days of the event anyone interested, after booking a place on the vessel and buying a ticket (45 PLN full fare, 30 PLN reduced), may set out on a three-hour cruise around the Bay of Gdańsk on their selected sailing ship. Since this year the weather conditions were exceptionally favorable and at the beginning of July in Pomorskie we had a wonderful summer weather, the interest in cruises was surprisingly high.

In Rycerska Street there was built a historical marketplace where you could buy goods produced according to old, traditional recipes. Also numerous historical reconstructions showing how people lived in Gdańsk hundreds of years ago were held there. Anyone interested learned what unloading of a ship or a naval battle looked like. On Saturday, the third day of Baltic Sail, on Motława there was a (controlled) clash of crews. That’s why you could experience incredibly spectacular, not only musket, but also cannon shots.

The feast of sailors can’t take place without the traditional maritime songs. Baltic Sail was therefore accompanied by the shanty festival ‘Szanty pod Żurawiem’. On Sunday there was held an unusually spectacular naval parade of all the sailing ships participating in the event.