Scandinavia and back
Voyage report from Eleanor Kerr, who was awarded a £500 grant to sail with Excelsior Trust in The Tall Ships Race in July 2025
I am very grateful to have received support from the Norfolk Boat bursary to sail on Excelsior this summer during the Tall Ships Races 2025.
I thoroughly enjoyed sailing on Excelsior, it was a great adventure and fun to do it as part of an international race.
I sailed on Excelsior from Aberdeen in Scotland to Kristiansand in Norway in leg 3 of the race, and then from Kristiansand to Esbjerg in Denmark for leg 4. Arriving at Aberdeen there were so many boats to see, when we left for the parade of sails it was amazing to be amongst so many tall ships together. There was a very lovely group of people on board with varied sailing experience from none at all to professional seafarers.
Everyone learnt a lot from each other and were resilient throughout bouts of seasickness and rougher conditions. The race section of leg 3 ended off the coast of Southern Norway, which allowed the boats to do a cruise in company on the way to Kristiansand. For us, this meant going to Farsund with a small group of class B boats and doing crew swaps each day.
We did pilotage to a few different smaller locations, which gave us the chance to really get to know other crews and boats. A highlight of the whole trip for me was a place called Ny Hellesund, we were moored against a Norwegian boat called Boy Leslie who were the local guides on the trip, and we got to explore the small wooded island just off the mainland of Southern Norway. It was wonderful to climb up the hill on the island as a group and look down at the boats we were sailing on.
As part of the cruise in company I got to spend a day on Swan a gaff rigged boat from Shetland which was originally a Herring drifter. The day on Swan was an opportunity I would not have had if I was not at the Tall Ships races. I had a really enjoyable day with the crew and getting to know a different boat. I loved the opportunity of seeing the differences and similarities between sail training boats. It was cool to also get the perspective of seeing Excelsior at sea whilst sailing on Swan.
Kristiansand to Esbjerg was great sailing, and thankfully I experienced no seasickness, so I could really apply the knowledge I have been accumulating. A different group for this trip and again everyone worked well together. I feel by this stage my confidence was growing which meant that I took on more responsibility and could help to teach others.
On this section of the trip I felt increasingly confident on the helm, and we learnt some interesting information about navigation and passage planning whilst sailing and in port. In Kristiansand I even got to go to a Sea Survival activity session at a training centre. There we experienced wave simulators, using life rafts and storm effects. It was fun but also very valuable opportunity if I would like to go on and do a sea survival course and highly relevant for sailing.
During both of the trips I was on the 4.00 to 8.00 watch, the early start daunted me to begin with, but actually seeing the sunrise each morning and the sun setting in the evenings was very beautiful. On one of our watches sailing from Kristiansand to Esbjerg we could clearly see a bioluminescent glow in waves and washing across the deck. It was very memorable sight.
Overall being part of the Tall Ships Race community, meeting so many interesting people and seeing all the stunning boats was an experience I am very grateful to have had. There were challenging moments, but it was a fantastic learning experience. It was a great community in which to learn to sail, and a wonderful way to make memories with new people.
