[taken from a PostNL handout] [click on any of the pictures for larger versions]
Sail Den Helder (Tall Ships Races)

Date of issue: 26 June 2023

On 26 June 2023, PostNL will publish the Sail Den Helder 10-stamp sheet. This year’s maritime event will take place from 29 June to 2 July. Sail Den Helder is organised together with the 2023 Marinedagen (Navy days), marking the start of the Tall Ships Races 2023. The ten stamps feature photos with examples of the types of ships that are present at these three events. A sheet of ten stamps costs €10.10.

This is the 6th time the port of Den Helder has hosted this maritime event. It is expected to attract 300,000 visitors. Den Helder’s harbour and quays will give them the opportunity to learn about what the maritime sector has to offer: from sailing heritage and tall ships to modern training ships and naval vessels. Besides the many hundreds of ships, the focus will be on social issues such as energy transition and protecting life on and under water.

Sail Den Helder will be combined with the Marinedagen, the open days of the Dutch Royal Navy. In addition, the port of Den Helder will be the starting location for the Tall Ships Races 2023 on 1 July. This race, in which just under 100 tall ships are expected to participate, will run via Hartlepool (England), Frederikstad (Norway) and Lerwick (Shetland Islands) to Arendal (Norway). The Tall Ships Races are designed to introduce young people to the world of seafaring and sailing. That is why half of the crew of the participating ships are between the ages of 15 and 25.

The sheet features two different designs. On the left side, the stamps are rotated 180 degrees compared to those on the right side. Both stamp designs feature photos of two different sailing ships. The landscape image features a Navy motor vessel on the right-hand side, on the tab next to the stamp. The perforations extend to the sheet edge. This allows each stamp to be torn from the sheet together with its corresponding tab. The typography on the stamp runs between the pictures at right angles.

All events are listed on the edges of the sheet. At the top is the title Sail Den Helder 2023, with Marinedagen underneath. At the bottom is the title The Tall Ships Races 2023, with, in chronological order, all the ports of call of the sailing race and their corresponding latitude and longitude. The five ships on the stamps are typical of the types of ships that will be present during Sail Den Helder 2023 in June and July. The ships pictured are the air defence and command frigate Zr. Ms. De Ruyter from 2002 (Netherlands), the two-master Abel Tasman from 1913 (Netherlands), the tall ship Juan Sebastián de Elcano from 1927 (Spain), the three-master ARM Cuauhtémoc from 1982 (Mexico) and the three-master Mircea from 1938 (Romania).

The sheet was designed by graphic designer Maud van Rossum from Amsterdam. She explored the subject partly by visiting the Maritime Museum in her hometown. “What fascinates me about this maritime subject is how everything works on board those big ships,” Van Rossum says. “Reflecting the many aspects of the subject on two different stamp designs was a real challenge. And not just Sail Den Helder, but also the Marinedagen and the Tall Ships Races that are linked to it.”

For PostNL, Van Rossum also designed 200 years of the Mauritshuis (2022), Queen Máxima at 50 (2021) and The first atlases (2020). With Piet Gerards, she collaborated on the World Heritage Sites in the Netherlands (2014), Inauguration of Willem-Alexander (2013) and 100 years of Heemschut (2011) stamps.

Technical Details:
Format: sheet of ten stamps in two different designs, with value 1 for post up to and including 20g for destinations within the Netherlands
Item number: 430861
Design: Studio Maud van Rossum, Amsterdam
Photography: Sail Den Helder
Lithography: Marc Gijzen, Voorburg
Stamp size: 40 x 30mm
Sheet size: 170 x 122 mm
Paper: normal with phosphor print
Gum: gummed
Printing technique: offset
Printing colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black
Print run: 80,000 sheets
Printing company: Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé B.V., Haarlem
Item number: 430861

Note: PostNL does not sell directly to collectors in North America. Its website refers to a company called Nordfirm, which says it sells Dutch new issues at face value. The Virtual Stamp Club has no connection to this company.