The 8 September regatta in Grand Harbour will be screened live by Melita Sports and international stations will be showing it as well, apart from a feature on Malta by the television programme Kilimangiaro, Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said.

The National Regatta Association would also for the first time appoint judges for the regatta, to work jointly with the established judges appointed by the regatta commission. The association is setting up a disciplinary and an appeal board to deliberate on any protests presented after the regatta.

Seven clubs will be competing – Vittoriosa, Birzebbuga, Cospicua, Kalkara, Marsa, Marsamxett and Senglea. There will be 10 races, starting at 2pm. A commemorative speech will be made on 7 September at Great Siege Square in Valletta by Judge Giovanni Bonello, of the European Court of Human Rights.

On the day there will be a march by the Armed Forces band, starting at the Christ the King monument in Floriana to Valletta. A guard of honour on St John Square will salute the Prime Minister and the President of Malta as they going into St John’s. Mgr Pawl Cremona, OP, will lead the concelebrated pontifical Mass. President Eddie Fenech Adami will later lay a wreath at the Great Siege monument.