Updated: Tall Ships Regatta photos from Turku, Finland

Editor's Update: On Aug. 29, 2011, we published this article with links to photos of the Tall Ships Regatta in Turku, Finland. Since then we received permission to publish some of the individual photos. Here is the revised article with photos of the Tall Ships and some additional photos from readers in Turku, Finland:

Aug. 28, 2011, photo of Tall Ships Regatta, Turku, Finland. Click on photos for larger versions. (Photo © 2011 Shoja Lak. Turun Tietokuva Oy. Reprinted with permission. Photos courtesy Kalle Ipatti, Photographer-in-Chief, Turun Sanomat)*

TURKU, FINLAND -- The city of Turku, Finland, celebrated a Tall Ships Regatta in late August. The Regatta was reportedly the biggest event in the celebration this summer of Turku as the 2011 European Capital of Culture.

View of one of the tall ships participating in the Tall Ships Regatta in Turku, Finland, celebrating the city as the 2011 European Capital of Culture. (Photo © 2011 Shoja Lak. Turun Tietokuva Oy. Reprinted with permission. )

Keweenaw Now reader Annukka Vepsäläinen, a resident of Turku, who directed us to these photos in the Turku newspaper Turun Sanomat, recalls her own experience at the Tall Ships Regatta a few years ago with her partner, Pasi Laihonen:

"Pasi and I had the chance to be there a few years ago when the same ships were leaving Turku. One of Pasi's friends has a beautiful boat, made according to the style of a typical archipelago boat. It was an experience I'll never forget. There were hundreds of boats there to witness the moment. I'm adding a picture from 2006 when Pasi, I and some friends were going on a short trip with that same boat."

The Tall Ships Regatta brought back memories for Annukka Vepsäläinen of Turku -- including the memory of taking a trip in this Finnish archipelago boat, in which she had also witnessed the Tall Ships Regatta in Turku. (Photo © 2006 Pasi Laihonen and courtesy Annukka Vepsäläinen. Reprinted with permission.)

Annukka Vepsäläinen and Pasi Laihonen relax in the Finnish archipelago boat. (Photo © 2006 and courtesy Annukka Vepsäläinen. Reprinted with permission.)*

Click here for a night photo with fireworks.

Click here for more photos, including close-ups of the ships.

Click here to read -- in English -- about Turku's Summer of Culture celebration held on the banks of the River Aura.

* Editor's Note: Thanks (kiitos) to our reader Annukka Vepsäläinen, a resident of Turku, for directing us to news of the Regatta in the Turku newspaper Turun Sanomat; thanks to Kalle Ipatti, Turun Sanomat Photographer-in-Chief, for permission to use photos of the Tall Ships; and to Pasi Laihonen for his photos.