BACKGROUND: Golf in the ascendancy, as athletics declines
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According to the Sports Coordinator for the Finnish Seamen's Service Pekka Karppanen, track and field athletics is on the wane in onboard sports.
The reason for this is above all the shorter turnaround times for ships in port, and increasingly small crews, which make it more difficult for any one crew-member to take time off from his duties. Moving around is also made more difficult by new harbour security regulations.
Outside of the Nordic region, athletics has almost disappeared altogether, says the Seamen's Service Executive Director Martti Karlsson.
Sports on the rise include golf and indoor rowing in the gym, a legacy of rowing events that used to be held between the nation's icebreaker crews.
Football has held on to its popularity, and at least in the wider world basketball is gaining friends. One big Finnish football event among crews is the "Seven Seas League", in which the Silja Line ferry Silja Serenade has been the team everyone wants to beat.
Ship's master Paavo Rauhala from the M/S Bravaden says that in the old days, in the winter crews could even step off ships to sweep an area on the frozen sea for skating, at times when they had to wait a while for assistance from icebreakers. Nowadays, with powerful diesels and ice-reinforced hulls there is no hanging around for a tow, but ice hockey tournaments are arranged all the same.
The results lists for onboard sports also include bench-presses in the gym, floorball leagues, and trap shooting.
In 2005, the Engship M/S Bravaden repeated its 2004 win in the track and field category. However, the best sporting ship of the year was Viking Line's ferry Gabriella , also successfully defending its title from the previous year.
The big passenger ferries have tended to dominate this overall event in recent years, since their large crew complements allow for a wider range of sports: there are always one or two good exponents in each discipline.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 20.3.2006
More on this subject:
 Getting shipshape, and staying that way
Helsingin Sanomat
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