BAP Unión wins prestigious award in the midst of its journey around the world

For the first time in its history, Peru won the prestigious trophy Boston Teapot (Boston Teapot, in Spanish), a prize that rewards the fastest sailboats in the world and which in this edition was awarded to the emblematic ones BAP Union.

TO LOOK: The Peruvian training ship Unión arrives in Shanghai on its celebratory round the world trip

The school ship belonging to the Peruvian Navy He was recognized for sailing 1,261 nautical miles at an average speed of 10.71 knots.

This was recorded during the stretch from Callao to Tahiti, carried out between 9 pm on July 5th and 1 am on July 11th, being the first part of the historic circumnavigation currently carried out by the ship.

“There is no doubt that the BAP Unión, at 115 meters long and with four masts, is one of the fastest sailing ships sailing today.”, highlighted the executive director of the Sail Training International organization, Paul Bishop.

Upon learning of the recognition, the ship’s commander, Jorge Luis Malaver, assured that they would celebrate “splicing the main mast”, in reference to an ancient maritime tradition of celebrating a toast while sailing to celebrate a significant achievement or commemorate special events.

The news reached the crew of the BAP Union in the middle of their trip between Singapore and India. After visiting the most populous country in the world, the Peruvian ship will visit Egypt, Greece, France, Spain, Morocco, the United States, Jamaica, Curaçao and Panama before returning to Peru in April 2024.

To win the Boston Teapot, ships must have at least 50% of their crew in training. (ANDEAN /)

The Boston Teapot trophy was created in 1964 by a group of sailing ships participating in the Transatlantic Tall Ship Race to America. The name refers to the Boston Tea Party, a historic event that took place in that city in 1773, when American colonists threw liters of tea into the sea in protest against taxes levied by the British crown.

Originally, the intention of the competition was to attract investors who would finance the sailboats’ return journey to Europe. Over time, however, it became an international sailing competition held annually and run by the International Training Ship Association. This competition is open to all training sailboats with a minimum length of 9 meters.

The trophy is awarded to the ship that travels the greatest distance in 124 uninterrupted hours, with at least 50% of the crew in training. The trips evaluated are those recorded between October 1st of one year and September 30th of the next.

The first ship to win this award was the German sailing ship Gorch Fock, which covered 1,050 nautical miles in the established time. Important sailboats such as the Juan Sebastián Elcano, from Spain; Gorch Fock, from Germany; or the Eagle, from the United States, were also recognized with this award.

Source: Elcomercio