Sailing yacht Linda is named after the legendary mother of the Estonian national hero Kalevipoeg. Linda gave birth to the Estonian historic national hero – a giant who made wonders on land and at sea. S/y Linda is privately owned and is registered at the Pärnu Yacht Club located in South Estonia. Linda is a legendary sailing yacht with a long and famous history sailing under the Estonian flag.
The vessel was built by Conrad Shipyard in Gdansk in 1978. The following 14 years Linda served as a training vessel at the Tallinn Marine School for the training of sailors of different ranks. Many well known Estonian sailors and current captains have been serving and sailing on board of Linda in the 80’s. Since these times Linda has been the flagship of the Estonian sailing fleet. In 1980 during the Moscow Olympic regatta in Tallinn, Linda was part of the VIP fleet hosting the representatives of the International Olympic Committee.
Linda has been privately owned since 1992 and the last change in her ownership took place in 2017. For the last 30 years Linda has been actively participating in different races in the Baltic Sea. The yacht was fully renovated in 2002 and under the latest ownership, Linda has gotten new sails, upgraded navigation and safety systems, a new look and almost a new crew. Linda has a partnership with the Saul Sailing (www.puri24.ee) training team. Executive trainer Elmo Saul will be the skipper of Linda duringthe Tall Ships Race 2021. Lindas training programs are prepared by captain Saul and captain Helaniemi. Lauri Helaniemi is a famous sailtraining and defence safety expert from Finland, who will join the Linda crew for the 2021 Tall Ships Race. With his long international sailing and safety experience, Lauri will be contributing to make sure that Lindas training programs are rewarding and in line with international standards. As an earlier skipper and winner of class in the Tall Ships Race himself, Lauri will bring additional experience of off-shore racing to the team, racing himself as part of the Linda crew during the last leg from Mariehamn to Szczecin.
Lindas permanent crew is a mix of experienced and young sailors, inspiring for the trainees. During the 2021 race, part of the crew will be sailors having sailed around the globe together with some of the famous Estonian rock artists. Tanel Padar, the Eurovision Song Contest winner in 2001, is planning to be part of the crew when sailing from Turku to Tallinn and Hendrik Sal-Saller, the key figure of The Smilers band for more than 20 years, from Tallinn to Mariehamn.
The trainees are from Pärnu, Pirita (Tallinn), Nõuni and Kuressaare (Saaremaa) sailingclubs. Some trainees have already been sailing on oceans and taken part in off-shore races, but formost of them it will be the first real open sea experience. The Nõuni Yacht Club fresh-water sailors will be participating in an off-shore event for the first time and will be making history for their club.
Lindas crew is proud to be part of the Tall Ships Race fleet in 2021 and is looking forward to it. For us safety is first priority and we hope that the crews and trainees will have safe and enjoyble races.