Vänern Tour
Year 2015
Vänern tour: the largest ship on the lake
In the summer of 2015, Götheborg of Sweden became the largest sailing ship that ever sailed in Lake Vänern during the three-week tour Vänern Tour. The tour was a huge success with an amazing reception in the five cities that the ship visited. In total, 46,000 people got on board to visit the ship and the quayside was transformed into a festival.
Highlights
Götheborg started the unique tour Vänern Tour on June 30, with the passage up the Göta River. Crowds gathered among the river and in the locks to get a look at the ship's passage. To get through the locks and under bridges and power lines the ship needed to withstand a maximum height and a maximum width. The topmasts were lowered and the yards were topped before the passage through the Göta River could begin. To rig up and down the ship is usually something that would take two weeks, but during the Vänern Tour we broke the record, and the work was carried out in one and a half days.
The ship visited five cities in Lake Vänern during the tour – Vänersborg, Kristinehamn, Lidköping, Karlstad and Åmal. In Karlstad, we set the record for visitors on board during the Vänern Tour, where 5,019 visitors boarded on one day.
Vänern Tour was a success. The quays turned into a festival with exhibitions, concerts and activities for both adults and children. Kristinehamn’s Director of Tourism, Mats Öhman pronounced at the ship’s arrival that the event was the biggest thing that had happened in Kristinehamn in modern times.
After the departure from Åmal, the last stopover on the Vänern Tour, Götheborg anchored in Vassbotten outside of Vänersborg to be rigged down before passage down the Göta River. During the day on July 23, the passage took place and the ship arrived at Gothenburg in the evening the same day. There she was anchored and rigged up again before continuing with the European Tour 2015.