Three new postage stamps marking the start in Waterford on Saturday of the Tall Ships Race 2005 were unveiled by Noel Dempsey, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources aboard the replica famine ship, Dunbrody, in Co Wexford, yesterday.
The Tall Ships festivities start in Waterford on Wednesday with a parade of sail along the river Suir, in advance of the start of the race on July 9th. The Race finishes in Fredrikstad, Norway, on August 3rd.
Designed by Irish artist Vincent Killowry, a 48c stamp shows the Irish Tallship Dunbrody, a replica of a ship built in Quebec in 1845. Originally a cargo vessel, the ship was later fitted with bunks and used to transport passengers desperate to escape the famine of the late 1840s.
A 60c stamp - covering airmail postage to Britain - shows the Tallship Tenacious, the largest wooden tall ship in the world. It was built in the late 1990s to allow physically disabled people to experience sailing this type of vessel.
A 65c stamp - covering airmail postage to the rest of the world - features the Tallship Eagle. A huge 295ft, three-mast barque. To handle a sail area of this enormity there is over five miles of rigging on board the Eagle.
The ship serves as a seagoing classroom for approximately 175 cadets and instructors from the US Coast Guard Academy.
The stamps, a first-day cover and a presentation pack together with some background information about the Tall Ships Race are available from today at the Philatelic Shop, GPO, at main post offices and online at www.irishstamps.ie