A SPECTACULAR parade of 70 vessels will sail along the River Mersey next month for the start of the Tall Ships Race.

The visiting fleet will be berthed in Liverpool's Wellington and Albert docks from July 18 to July 20, before leaving for Maloy, Norway, in a parade of sail at 2pm on July 21.

The four-day spectacle, organised by Sail Training International, is expected to attract tens of thousands of people from across the country and beyond to Merseyside.

While docked a number of the ships will be open to the public, which means there will be plenty of opportunity to climb aboard and find out more about the realities of life at sea. The fully accessible ship, Lord Nelson, will berthed in Wellington Dock.

A host of sea-themed entertainment, including a theatre ship and music from the Royal Marines Band. The ships will then sail south and line up in the River Mersey. HMS Liverpool is expected to lead the parade and the official Parade Salute will be taken from the flight deck of HMS Ark Royal. Best views will be from the Wirral side of the Mersey.

On arrival in Maloy, the fleet will take part in a cruise in company to Bergen, also in Norway for the start of race two, which finishes in Den Helder in the Netherlands.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institute is the Tall Ships' nominated charity this year and official collectors will be out and about during the three-day event

Thanks for the heads up.

Camera at the ready.....

cheers jason dude for the heads up my mate as i know my parents love watchin things like this

Mersey Travel are suspending the ferry between 10am and 1pm this Saturday (5th July) for some of the vessels to come up the river. Might be worth checking out.

can not find anythink on Mersey Travel suspending the ferry on Saturday. maybe someone else can shed some light on this

Hopefully this will work - I'm not good at links
http://icwirral.icnetwork.co.uk/news/regional/tm_headline=no-mersey-ferries-during-saturday-8217-s-clipper-homecoming%26method=full%26objectid=21209921%26siteid=80898-name_page.html

Perhaps someone could change it for me??

:r:works ok for me

So down I went only to be thoroughly unimpressed. Why???
Cos I'm a dumb broad that don't know a clipper from a tall ship.

You should see them today

How sad that they decimated the Wallasey/Birkenhead dock system - the bigger tall ships that couldn't fit in Liverpool docks used to moor (almost said "park") here, now they have to stay in the mersey.

I'd forgotten that!!!!

I've got to go to Essex this afternoon for a Wedding tomorrow...

I don't want to come back and find any pictures of what I'm missing GOT IT!!!!!!

Watch the Parade of Sail via the internet...clicky...

Being relatively new to the area I need the help of you guys please?
I'm up near Upton station - what buses should I get down to watch on Monday & where do you reckon the best place will be to view???
Cheers

Would you not be better getting a train to either New brighton or Hamilton Square ? I know if you go to Hamilton Square there will be a bus taking people from there to seacombe ferry to watch them.. It was in the Wirral Globe this week

Try Merseytravels website.

There is a Merseyside Journey Planner which should help you find what bus or train to catch

Thanks for your help guys.
Took the ferry over on Sunday, then shuttle bus to Wellington Dock. Today we caught the shuttle from Hamlton Square to Seacombe.
Both days were great.
A HUGE congratulations to the organisers - with the number of people attending, they did a great job.

No pictures??

I'm not the greatest photographer but I do try!!!
Here's a few.

Heh nice pics, thanks for uploading, at least someone got some, I did'nt have any time to pop down today!

good pics bud. never had time to look meself

just one or two....:D

er, more.....

Some stunning photos there mate, nice one for posting!!

Just wondering, had a look at the EXIF data on one of the shots, and noticed you are using an S5700; do you have Chrome activated for the colour mode, as the colours on a few (and I stress only a few) seem somewhat slightly over-vibrant and bold.

I used to use it on my S6500 but found that in some shots the algorythm it uses sometimes "over-did" the colour enhancement, so I had to tone the shots down a bit in Photoshop.

there brill them mate nice one

Pictures from the Merseyside Police website:

Corky - They are bloody brill. Make mine look like shyte!!!!
Joe - the police ones are really stunning as well.

sound them joe good find

excellent x