54 square metres of sail for Gdynia's 100th birthday. ORP Iskra to carry the city across the Baltic

This is no novelty sail but a fully working upper fore topsail - a 54-square-metre square sail that will go into service this season on the foremast of ORP Iskra. Poland's only barquentine flying the white-and-red naval ensign, with Gdynia as her home port for the past 44 years, will carry the city's centenary colours across the waters of the entire Polish coast. The sail was cut by the Gdańsk sailmaker Sail Service - which, rarely these days, applied the anniversary logo to the cloth by hand, with a brush.

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12 june 2026   |   12:37   |   Source: Gazeta Morska / gdynia.pl   |   Prepared by: Kamil Kusier   |   Print

fot. Magdalena Czernek

Working canvas, not decoration

It would be easy to think of a birthday sail as an ornament. This one is not. It is a genuine part of the barquentine's square rig, cut to the centimetre to the ship's own documentation - it works, it pulls, it drives the hull forward.

For the commander of "Iskra", however, it carries a meaning far wider than the technical one.

- I am honoured that, thanks to cooperation between the Polish Navy and the city, I can personally receive a sail bearing a logo marking Gdynia's centenary. It is a kind of summary of the fruitful cooperation between the maritime branch of the armed forces and Poland's sailing capital - says Cdr Lt Jakub Przygodzki, commander of the training ship ORP Iskra.

From the plotter to a hand-painted logo - inside the sail loft

The sewing was handled by Sail Service of Gdańsk - a loft with traditions reaching back to 1949, which has made sail production its speciality. The road from design to finished cloth is longer than the layman imagines.

- It starts with the design, then the finished sail is drawn on a special plotter. Next we stitch the individual panels, reinforce the corners and all the various strengthening points. It is constant teamwork between the sailmaker and the seamstress - explains Marcin Szostak, production manager at Sail Service.

Production itself takes around 30 hours, and on top of that comes a finishing touch that is almost an oddity today: the centenary logo does not come off a printing machine but is laid onto the sail by hand, with a brush. That is exactly what gives the cloth its craft character.

Dacron cut for Baltic weather

The material is no accident - it is Dacron, a working fabric whose properties matter out on open water.

- Dacron is in fact a polyester fabric resistant to weather and UV radiation, and that is what makes it durable. Correct stitching is a key element - it guarantees the longevity of the product - Szostak adds.

In practice this means the centenary colours stand a good chance of outlasting the anniversary year itself.

A promotional cruise - from Hel to Świnoujście

The most important part: the sail will not end up in a display case - it will go to sea. It is a floating postcard from Gdynia that thousands of people along the entire coast will see in a single season.

- This season the sail can be admired aboard ORP Iskra in ports including Hel, Kołobrzeg, Szczecin and Świnoujście, as well as on the waters of the Baltic Sea. Whenever weather conditions allow, and with safety procedures observed, the sail will be displayed - when entering and leaving port, during berthing, and at state and military ceremonies - adds Przygodzki.

A barquentine with Choreń pedigree

The choice of carrier for the colours is no coincidence. ORP "Iskra" is a training ship of the Polish Navy - a floating school on which cadets of the Polish Naval Academy learn the sea for real, on long navigation-and-training voyages. She is a three-masted barquentine in the classic configuration: a square-rigged foremast, a gaff-rigged mainmast and a Bermuda-rigged mizzen.

Her pedigree is thoroughly Polish. The ship was designed by the legendary tall-ship constructor Zygmunt Choreń and built at the Gdańsk Shipyard. Her keel was laid on 11 November 1981, she was launched on 6 March 1982, and her ensign was raised on 11 August 1982. Her home port has not changed once since - it is Gdynia. Four decades of shared history between city and ship have just been given their sail.

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żagiel stulecia Gdyni 100-lecie Gdyni Sail Service Gdańsk Marynarka Wojenna RP ORP Iskra

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