Tall ship Mir returns to Saint-Petersburg from her training voyage

On September 28, 2015, tall ship Mir with the cadets of Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping returned to Saint-Petersburg from her annual training voyage, the University told IAA PortNews.

The ship’s latest voyage commenced on April 28, 2015. The sailing practice was arranged for 143 cadeets (including 16 girls) of Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping, 23 cadets of Moscow State Academy of Water Transport, 10 apprentices of Saint-Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity and 7 foreign cadets of UABBoskalis Baltic under the international project on intercultural awareness and international tolerance.

The voyage of 2015 was a uniqie one. The ship took part in events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. On May 7 the tall ship called to Hamburg, twin-city of Saint-Petersburg, to celebrate the Victory Day.

One of the key activities was the Murmansk-Arkhangelsk-Murmansk voyage when the tall ship followed the route of the first Polar convoy to honour Polar convoys veterans.

On June 11, Mir arrived in Arkhangelsk to participate in the 7^th maritime festival for young people – MORFEST-2015 and to celebrate the 5-year anniversary of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after М.V. Lomonosov.

A special event was the visit of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia who presented the icon of St Nicholas the Wonderworker to the tall ship and blessed the ship’s sacred voyage to the Solovetsky Islands, the statement says.

Having called at the Solovetsky Islands and participated in special events there the ship left for the port of Alesund, Norway, where she arrived on July 15 to participate in The Tall Ships Races 2015. The Tall Ships Races 2015 organized by Sail Training International has been held since 1956. STS "Mir" stayed in Ålesund for three days and then sailed to Kristiansand joining other participants on the so-called Cruise-in-Company leg. The ship then took part in Race 2 from Kristiansand to Aalborg in Denmark.

Upon completion of the regatta, the ship took part in three largest maritime festivals of Europe: Hanse Sail 2015 (Warnemünde, Germany), Sail Bremerhaven 2015 (Bremerhaven, Germany) and Sail Amsterdam 2015 (Amsterdam, Netherlands).

STS Mir is a three-masted, full rigged training ship, based in St. Petersburg, Russia. The ship was built in 1987 in Gdańsk, Poland. The training ship of Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping is under operation of FSUE Rosmorport on the basis of economic control rights. On September 17, 2014, the ship was included into the asset list of its North West Basin Branch. The ship underwent big repair in winter 2014-2015.