WELCOME to our new Page dedicated to the Latin-America Sails 2018 International Tall Ships SAILS.
Historical background.
South America Sails 2010.
The bicentennial celebrations of the first independence movements in South America, led the Chilean and Argentinian Navies to organize, in a combined way, this first international Tall Ships Encounter, in order to enhance these significant events. (It is important to state that, Colombia, México and Venezuela were also in this group of countries that initiated their independence movements in the year 1810.)
Naval Inter American Conference 2012
The Commanders in Chief of the Navies gathered in the XXV Naval Inter American Conference (Cancún, México in May 2012), after analyzing the continental repercussion and the valuable experience obtained during the development of “South America Sails 2010”, agreed to repeat this activity every 4 years. This, after taking into consideration the benefits brought by 11 Training Ships sailing in different latitudes, with variable conditions of wind and sea, exchanging crews between units, challenges that turned out to be particularly valuable from professional, intellectual, cultural points of view, and the knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of the participating nations.
Latin-America Sails 2014
During the Cancún meeting in 2012, the Commanders in Chief defined that the name would be “Latin-America Sails”, that the 2014 version would be organized by the Argentinian Navy and the one in 2018, by Chile. In this 2014 version, 8 ships of 7 countries participated.
Latin-America Sails 2018
During the XXVI Inter American Naval Conference that took place at Buenos Aires, Argentina, in September 2014, the Commanders in Chief confirmed the Chilean Navy as the organizer of the following version in 2018.
Considering that the normal situation is that training trips are scheduled with several years of anticipation, the Commander in Chief of the Chilean Navy used this opportunity to present the official invitations to participate in Latin-America Sails 2018. Between March 25 and September 2, 2018, the tall ships of these countries will present an attractive sight as they sail along the coast of the various countries.
Motivation
The Republic of Chile and its Navy, will be celebrating during 2018, different events:
> The country will be commemorating the Oath of Independence that took place two hundred years before.
> The Chilean Navy, founded along with the Republic, will be celebrating her bicentennial.
> Chile will also be celebrating the Bicentennial of the creation of its Naval Academy “Arturo Prat”, the Marine
Corps, the Naval Commissary, the Supply Core and most importantly, its first organized Fleet set sail that year.
Country project
In consideration of the importance of the events that will be held, the Chilean Govern has determined that this challenge will be faced as a Country Project, committing all State agencies. Apart from the following already invited countries, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, México, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, some other countries outside the region have also been invited. In the following months, as their acceptance to participate have been received, we will post the information on this Page.
The countries that will be visited by the Fleet in 2018 and that do not have tall ships are: Panamá, Curaçao and the Dominican Republic.
Facilities & Activities
The Organizers expect that various facilities and activities will be offered to the Fleet of Tall Ships when visiting; the various countries have already been informed.
TRACK RECORD OF THE CURAÇAO SAIL FOUNDATION
(in a nutshell)
1996 Lucille Berry-Haseth & Lucky Ezechiëls decided to commemorate 500
years of our written history (in 1999). We established our Foundation “1499-1999”.
1997 Our 1st Lobby to Latin America with CPA a.o. of the maritime sector to introduce
Curaçao 500. We also invited HRH Willem-Alexander for Curaçao 500.
1998 Organized and managed 2nd Lobby to Europe.
Organized and managed 3rd follow up Lobby tour to Europe.
1999 Initiated and organized “Curaçao, 500 Years of Written History” and events throughout the year, i.a. a Show in ITC for HRH Willem-Alexander.
First tall ships festival in Curaçao (with ‘Gloria’, ‘Simón Bolívar’ and ‘Windstar’).
2000 Established the Curaçao Sail Foundation and became member of FIDALMAR
(Federación Internacional de Asociaciones y Ligas Marítimas at the Real Liga Naval Española – Madrid).
2001 FIDALMAR Asamblea Buenos Aires. Gave lectures at the following annual assemblies.
2002 Americas’ Sail 2002 (1st Caribbean Regatta from Curaçao via Jamaica to Florida (USA).
2004 During stay in Chile, started lobbying to be incorporated in the LatinAmerican Regatta.
2010 We were unfortunately left out of the 1st Bicentennial Regatta of LatinAmerican countries because “we have no proper Navy”. But we invited their sail training ships anyhow; 5 tall ships visited us after the 2010 Regatta.
2011 FIDALMAR Asamblea Cascais (Pt). Unanimous decision: next Asamblea is in Curaçao.
2013 Asamblea XXVII in Curaçao (18-25 May): a great success from every point of view.
In the meantime Argentina informed us that although their Navy is organizing the 2nd Regatta, politics and financial issues blocked our participation.
We decided to continue our lobby for 2018.
As this event will become a major recurrent one (every 4 years), we requested the Chilean Navy, – the organizers for 2018 – to include Curaçao in this next Regatta around the LatinAmerican continent.
Nov’13 Admiral Larrañaga of the Chilean Navy, informed us that “in view of our track record”, they wished to honour our participation in the 2018 Regatta ‘Encuentro de Grandes Veleros 2018 de Latinoamérica’.
AND HERE WE ARE – AFTER LOBBYING FOR 13 YEARS for CURAÇAO
WE WILL BE PART OF THIS GREAT RECURRING INTERNATIONAL NAUTICAL EVENT. This is the added value of the Curaçao Sail Foundation for our island and our region.
Biba Kòrsou!