If you are interested in seeing, boarding, or even sailing aboard a tall ship, I suggest you find a way to get to one of the port cities for the various Tall Ship Festivals this summer. The American Sail Training Association's Tall Ships Challenge 2007 begins in Charleston, South Carolina, from May 17 to 20.
Visiting ships will include:
* the 250 foot 3-masted Barque Gloria (the Colombian Navy cadet training ship),
* Prince William, a youth sail training ship from the UK, a brig some 195 feet in length and spreading 18 sails on her two masts,
* the 3-masted Barque Taranghini from the Indian Navy, some 177 feet length overall,
* the 176 foot 3-masted Barque Picton Castle home-ported in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and
* the 112 foot 3-masted Bermudian schooner, Spirit of Bermuda, launched last fall.
From the United States, participating ships will include:
* Pride of Baltimore II, 157 feet in length, a 2-masted square topsail schooner, of a type called a Baltimore Clipper,
* the just-launched 140 foot pilot schooner Spirit of South Carolina, and
* Virginia, a 2-masted gaff topsail schooner, 126 feet long.
The first race will start on May 21, on a course from outside Charleston Harbor, north to a line off Virginia Beach, Virginia, a distance of 375 nautical miles. Depending upon the wind direction & speed, this race is likely to take 3 to 5 days.
On Thursday, June 7, the Sail Virginia 2007 port festival, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown colony, will begin with a rendezvous of participating ships off East Beach in the Ocean View section of Norfolk. Seven more ships visiting from other nations, and 9 more ships from the United States will join the fleet. The next day, there will be a Parade of Sail with more than 20 tall ships, Naval and Coast Guard vessels, harbor tugs and fire boats, and many smaller vessels, all getting underway at 8:00 am to sail up Chesapeake Bay, passing Hampton Roads and the Norfolk Naval Base, arriving at Town Point Park around noon.
This will be a glorious sight; bring your cameras and telephoto lenses. I remember the tall ship parade in New York Harbor in July of 2000. My wife, daughter & I were aboard Queen Elizabeth II, anchored "in the stream", just north of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. The "pass in review" was truly colorful, with signal flags flying, uniformed cadets arrayed along yardarms, great white hulls gleaming, each ship passing us in a line astern formation up the harbor.
The Sail Virginia port festival will continue through June 12th. The tall ships will then sail on to Newport, Rhode Island, for the Tall Ships Rhode Island 2007 festival. More of that later.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
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