By Neil Rogers, President Global Government, BT Global Services
I find that sailing competitions — or regattas as they are more commonly referred to — always get the pulses racing. The Falmouth to Royal Greenwich Tall Ships Regatta is no exception.
Next year’s competition sets sail from Falmouth in August 2014. Up to 30 training vessels and tall ships from around the world will gather for four days of festivities, before taking part in four days of competitive racing as they head to the finish port, Royal Greenwich.
BT Cornwall, a ten-year partnership between Cornwall Council, Peninsula Community Health, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and BT, is the most recent organisation to support the Tall Ships race.
The race will herald a landmark moment in history when two English ports will together host one of the biggest international sailing events in solely English waters for the first time ever. During the celebrations people will be able to go on-board and experience the sights, sounds and smells of life on-board these majestic ships where fortunes, careers and lives have been won and lost.
Falmouth last hosted the ships during the Funchal 500 Tall Ships Regatta in 2008 when it attracted over 100,000 visitors and generated £12million of direct expenditure for the local economy. In 2014, more than 100,000 are expected to visit the large square-rigged tall ships that will be open to the public from Thursday 28 to Saturday 30 August, and a further 100,000 will view the parade of sail and race start on Sunday 31 August.
BT Cornwall is already helping to improve public services, create savings and jobs, and enable local people to better monitor their own health and care through new telehealth and telecare services. BT is also one of the county’s largest private sector employers and is investing up to £78.5 million in the Superfast Cornwall partnership with the EU and Cornwall Council, which is setting the standard for rural areas across Europe. The partnership is showing what can be achieved when public and private sectors work together. In that spirit, I hope you’ll join us in eagerly awaiting the results of both types of teamwork and partnership — finely-honed racing teams and truly cooperative business pairings as we move towards 2014.
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