Bluenose draws crowd as Halifax gears up for SailGP

It makes sense the original “fast” sailing ship is in town to welcome the current fastest sail racing vessels in the world. The schooner Bluenose II drew a crowd on the Halifax waterfront as thousands descend on the city for SailGP this weekend.

“It’s Nova Scotia’s icon, Canada’s icon, so we couldn’t have this event without them,” says Frank Denis, the executive director of Sail Nova Scotia.

Thursday was day two of training for the 10 teams racing this weekend So far, clear skies and steady winds have allowed the boats to learn the intricacies of the harbour while treating the fans on shore to the speed of the F50 catamarans.

“We were tickled pink when we heard that it was coming to Canada and we couldn’t think of a better place than having it here in Halifax. It’s just a fantastic place to have an event like this, world-class event like this,” says Ottawa resident Harvey Barnes.

“This is going to be event number four,” adds Justin Rosenberg from Montreal, who has attended SailGP races in France, Italy and the United States. “It’s a great competition with the cutting edge, technology and sailing with the top sailors in the world really battling it out with their sailing skills.”

Early expectations pegged the five-day event to have 20,000 people watch it. That number has grown significantly based on early ticket sales.

“We had the fastest sellout in SailGP history, which is pretty amazing. Two-thousand-five-hundred tickets in about 12 minutes,” Denis says.

Those tickets are mainly for the grandstands at the start and finish lines, but there are other viewing areas on both sides of the harbour. The response to this first-time event may have secured it for the next two years.

“If all goes well, we did sign for three years, but will have to see how year one goes, but I think all indications are that people want it back next year,” says Denis.

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