Video: The "Five Sisters" Join for Historic Race off the Coast of Cape Cod

Gorch Fock (left) with Romanian sister ship Mircea (right) (USCG)

On Friday, four out of the well-known "Five Sisters" training ships carried out a race around Cape Cod, Massachusetts en route to a festival of sail in Boston. It was the first time in 50 years that the ships have all been together for a race - and for a second time in all those years, the German "sister" won the day.

The event was a rare, cinematic sight for the modern era: four full-size tall ships - the USCGC Eagle, the Portuguese Navy's NRP Sagres, the Romanian Navy's NS Mircea and the Deutsche Marine's Gorch Fock - all identical, sailing in formation in fine weather off the coast of Massachusetts. The vessels departed New York, having finished the Sail250 celebration marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. The course covered 60 nautical miles along the coast of Cape Cod.

Under full sail, the competitors started out neck and neck, but Gorch Fock soon pulled ahead. As winds strengthened to more than 25 knots, she was able to keep all sails flying. She made an average of about eight knots to finish in 7 hours 27 minutes, 38 minutes faster than USCGC Eagle; bringing up the rear were Sagres (third) and Mircea (fourth). CO Frigate Captain Elmar Bornkessel said in a statement that the ship prepared for the race with extensive training, reduced unnecessary weight, and shifted ballast to induce a slight leeward heel.

Gorch Fock is the second vessel of this design to bear the name; the original Gorch Fock - the first of the Five Sisters - was taken by the Soviet Union for war reparations after the Second World War, and the second was constructed as a replacement. The vessel was eventually returned to Germany but is no longer in service today. Gorch Fock (II) was commissioned in 1958, and the topmost levels of her rigging were designed to be lowered in order to transit under the bridges along the Kiel Canal.