As the Tall Ship STS Lord Nelson nears Carnsore Point off Wexford this evening the barque will be one of the many vessels participating in the Waterford Talls Ships Races Festival, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Joining Lord Nelson are three other UK entrants, they are the Jean de la Lune, Pelican of London and Royalist now celebrating her 40th anniversary. Together these tallships belong to the 'A' class vessels, the largest of the tallships. The impressive array of A class vessels includes four ships alone from The Netherlands with the Astrid, Eendracht, Europa and Wylde Swan, a schooner built in 1920.

From Norway is the fully rigged tallship Christian Radich and Sorlandet. The Poles are coming with their Pogoria. Neighbouring Russia are sending their impressive 108m long Mir which has 26 sails and has a 200-strong crew though the 1987 built vessel can be sailed with just 30. The final A class entrant is from outside Europe, the Columbian 1,300 tonnes Gloria, a three-master of over 60 metres long.

In addition to this exciting line-up are the 'B' and 'C' class which in total brings 45 tallships of all shapes and sizes to the quays of the River Suir. The crystal city will be host to over 1,000 trainess and over 400 professional crew who will take part in the colourful 'Crew Parade' held on Friday. For a full list of tallships and accompanying photos go to www.waterfordtallshipsrace.ie/the-race/the-tall-ships/

The spectacle of the festival will culminate in the early hours of Sunday when the fleet departs the city and heads downriver with a 'Parade of Sail' in the estuary of Waterford Harbour. As the tallships pass offshore of Dunmore East, this will mark the start of the first race-leg to Greenock.

The famous race is organised by Sail Training International (STI) a charity established to harness sail training to develop and educate young people, regardless of nationality, culture, religion, gender or social background.

The STI can trace its roots with the creation of the Sail Training International Race Committee which organised the first race of sail training tall ships in 1956. Their website is www.sailtraininginternational.org/

On the naval front, LE Emer was built in Cork's Verolme Dockyard in 1978. She represents the oldest of the eight-strong fleet and is designed from the Naval Service's first purpose built patrol vessel OPV LE Deirdre (P20) but was modified to improve her stability and speed. This vessel was decommissioned several years ago and was converted into a private yacht.

The original BOFORS 40mm L60 gun of the LE Emer was recently upgraded to a BOFORS 40mm L70 to improve range and accuracy of her main armament. She alongside her 65m sisters LE Aoife (P22) and LE Aisling (P23) where all built primarily to patrol the Irish section of the European Economic Zone (EEZ).

During their careers the 'Emer' class vessels have also completed numerous re-supply missions to Irish troops serving overseas with the United Nations and in particular in the Lebanon. A crew compliment of 46 (5 officers) operate the vessels which are all now in their fourth decade of service.

OPV HMS Severn is the third of four 'River' class offshore patrol vessels and like her Irish counterpart is deployed on fishery duties. The 1,677 displacement tonnes vessel was built in 2001 in the UK'S south coast port of Southampton at Woolston Docks. Her home port for the 30 crew is at HM Naval Base in neighbouring Portsmouth.

She becomes the fifth ship to bear the name and with sisters HMS Mersey (P 282) and HMS Tyne (P 281) they are assigned to the Fishery Protection Squadron. Click the ship's diary to follow the ship news. The final member of the River class HMS Clyde (P 257) serves as a Falklands Islands Patrol Vessel (FIPV).