Tall Ships Belfast 2015: 12 of the most interesting vessels at the festival

The Spanish-built Guayas is named after the river on which the Ecuadorian Naval School is situated. The school was founded by the liberator of South America, Simon Bolivar, in 1822.

The three-masted Norwegian steel barque, Statsraad Lehmkuhl, is the largest ship in the fleet, at 97.21 metres in length - almost the distance between the two try lines at the Kingspan Stadium.

English vessel Johanna Lucretia has a criminal record. She was arrested by British Waterways in 2008, for non-payment of licences and mooring dues.

The Polonez was built in Poland in 1971 for Captain Krzysztof Baranowski, who subsequently went on to single-handedly sail around the world on board the ketch.

The oldest vessel in the fleet is English ship, Leader, launched in 1892. The youngest is Germany's Alexander Von Humboldt II, which was launched 2011.

The Europa, one of the few Tall Ships with a full set of studding sails, has the nickname Ocean Wanderer as the Netherlands-built vessel is one of the most travelled of the fleet, having sailed all the way around the world.

The UK's Jolie Brise was the first winner of the Fastnet Race in 1925. Having repeated the achievement in 1929 and 1930, she is still the only vessel to have won the Fastnet three times.

The Lord Nelson is one of only two tall ships (the other being her sister ship, Tenacious) designed and built to allow able-bodied and physically disabled people to sail side by side.

The Sorlandet is the oldest full-rigged ship still in operation in the world. She was the first Norwegian training ship to cross the Atlantic, the first tall ship in the world to offer sail training for women (in 1981) and competed in the first Tall Ships race in 1956.

La Grace, from the Czech Republic, is an almost exact replica of an 18th century privateer of the same name - captained by Augustin Herman, the most famous sailor in Czech history - built in 1768.

The smallest vessel in the fleet is the Class C sloop, Black Diamond Of Durham, at 13.5m.

After the Tall Ships races in 1990, a group of liaison officers from the Spanish port of La Coruna, were so taken with the philosophy of the races, they decided to charter a boat and race themselves.