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20 January 2019


For a ninth consecutive year, Sailonline is again delighted to be associated with Promote Shetland for the running of it’s 2019 virtual race to the annual Up Helly Aa fire festival in Lerwick.

Shetland is a group of about 100 islands off the NE coast of the British mainland, as close to Norway as they are to Aberdeen in Scotland. The islands have been inhabited for about 5000 years and have to this day retained many of the traditions and customs of those who lived there over the centuries. Little is known about the original Pictish people as they appear to have been displaced when the Vikings arrived in the 700s. Over many years there was a strong Viking and Scandinavian influence until the islands were given to Scotland by Norway in the 15th century as part of a royal dowry.

The first firey celebrations are thought to have taken place when tar-barrel fires were lit to celebrate victory in the Napoleonic wars, and as these caught people’s imagination, by the 19th century the tar barrels were replaced with Viking ships and so the festivals now serve a dual purpose of raising spirits in the long dark winter and of reminding folk of historic Viking influences. These days Up Helly Aa in Lerwick has become an inclusive, entertaining and colourful fire festival involving almost the entire community, when the streets fill with "guizers" - groups of people in themed disguises of all kinds - and the Jarl Squad (the Vikings) while a livestream of the event is broadcast over the internet enabling everyone around the globe to join in!

Sailonline’s Race:
Sailonline will be racing Elan 410s from Aberdeen to Lerwick, starting on Sunday, 27 January @1100utc. Our route is unchanged from previous years and takes us past Inverness, a mark in the Moray Firth, past Fair Isle and then around several of the islands of Shetland to the finish in Lerwick Harbour. The Lerwick Up Helly Aa festival this year is on Tuesday, 29 January. The race will open for practice on Wednesday, 23 January at 1100utc.

What the Helly Aa?
Up Helly Aa Beginners Guide
Shetland Webcams


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