The Summer We Return to the Great Lakes

We could not be more excited to announce our TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE®2019 Race Series in the Great Lakes. Eleven ports will host a fleet of tall ships throughout June, July and August. But wait, Sarnia and Midland are on the same dates!? How observant of you.  While some ships will be in Sarnia and the Detroit River, the rest will head up to beautiful Georgian Bay and Midland for the weekend.

We have an amazing line up of returning ports – Brockville, Toronto, Erie, Cleveland, Green Bay and four time Port of the Year winner, Bay City. We also have some fresh faces in the mix this year – Buffalo, Kingsville, Sarnia, Midland, and Kenosha.

We’ll also have your favorite Great Lakes (and beyond!) tall ships as part of the fleet and we are sprinkling in some new ships for your viewing pleasure. It’s going to be a busy summer and I can’t wait to get started.

Stay tuned for more updates, including websites as they go live and participating ships. Mark your calendars for the summer of 2019!

Third time is the charm

Cleveland skyline and Sorlandet

My very first tall ship event was in Cleveland in 2006. Prior to that, I had never seen a tall ship in real life until I saw Niagara sail past, guns blazing.  Whenever I return to Cleveland, I can’t help but reflect on that memory and then shake my head at how long ago that seems and all the amazing experiences I have had since that very first sighting. Needless to say, I always love returning to Cleveland.  This year’s Port of Cleveland 2013 Tall Ships(R) Festival built on those memories. We had a fabulous attendance, long (patient) lines for the ships and a well-looked-after fleet. The fleet included Peacemaker, Sorlandet, Pride of Baltimore II, Lynx, Denis Sullivan, Appledore IV, Unicorn, Liana’s Ransom, Playfair, and brief appearances by Pathfinder and Niagara.  The weather gods must have reasoned that we suffered enough in 2010 (scorching, brain-melting heat that year) and decided that a few days of cloud cover and lake breezes would benefit our team. While it was still warm, it didn’t stop people from waiting up to an hour and half to board the ships. Thanks to amazing volunteers and tireless liaisons, there were minimal incidents and smooth boardings.

Stairway to Heaven

4 July 2013 – Cleveland, Ohio
by Eliza

During a trivia game a few years ago, I was asked what waterway bypasses Niagara Falls. The answer is the Welland Canal, a twenty six mile channel that winds from Lake Ontario up to Lake Erie. I knew the answer right away, for an atypical reason – I’ve gone through it. And a few days ago, I went through it again.

If you’ve been around the maritime industry for a year or two, you’ve probably heard of the Welland Canal. A series of eight locks operate as a floating stairway to lift and lower vessels over three hundred feet. Cargo vessels built halfway around the world are constructed to the dimensions of the Welland Canal locks. It takes seven to seventeen hours to get through the locks, primarily based on traffic, and often requires all hands on deck to manipulate docklines and fenders.

On Monday morning, the crews of Unicorn and Pride of Baltimore II woke shortly after five and got underway for Port Welland. The other boats would follow later that day. We collected every fender on board and lashed them over the sides. They would absorb the shock and protect the boat if we made contact with the lock walls. We then lashed newly created “Welly-boards” outboard of the fenders. These sacrificial chunks of lumber slide up the lock walls as the boat rises. Some tall ships even add a second layer of sacrificial wood, nicknamed “spuds”. If there is still a great deal of friction as the vessel grinds up the lock wall, a crew member may be sent to take the cook’s container of Crisco and be told to slather grease all over the fenders. Having accomplished this duty for Lynx, a Crisco-covered crewmember earned the nickname Crisco Man!

We reached the first lock around 0800 and were lucky to find a green light, signaling us to enter.  The Captains took the helms and skillfully steered into a towering, cement box. One of the most remarkable features of the locks is their immense size. Only more remarkable is the size of the cargo vessels that traverse them. Lines were tossed down from the top of the lock wall, nearly forty feet above our heads. We hitched these lines to our sturdy docklines so that workers on the dock could haul our docklines up and loop them around bollards. Once we were secure, enormous wood and metal gates slammed shut behind us and water started pouring into the lock.

We had requested a slow fill but the turbulence in and beneath the water rocked the boat. At the Captain’s orders, deckhands aboard eased and took up slack in the docklines, enabling us to maintain our position as we quickly rose to dock level and cheering bystanders appeared through the chain link fences at the edge of the cement dock. Finally, the water settled. Ahead, the thick gates rumbled open and we glimpsed flashes of green grass and trees and murky, blue, canal water. Slipping off the dock and out of the lock, the crew breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed on the deckboxes, exhausted. One down, seven to go.

Aaaand…Action!

It seems every time the tall ships arrive in Cleveland, they bring the heat. Yesterday was no exception. As the temperature rose, and we sought out any shade we could find, those of us on site waiting for the ships agreed that yes, it was hot, but not as hot as 2010. Small consolation when you are standing on the boat deck of a steel steamship called the William G. Mather. But what made up for the heat was the fact that we had the best seat in the house for watching the parade of tall ships arrive into the first U.S. port of the  TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE(r) Great Lakes 2013 Race Series. The Port of Cleveland 2013 Tall Ships(R) Festival, presented by the Rotary Club of Cleveland,  starts today (July 4th) and ends on Sunday, July 7th.  We have some new ships joining out fleet, Denis Sullivan and Appledore IV. They join Peacemaker, Sorlandet, Pride of Baltimore II, Lynx, Unicorn, Pathfinder, Playfair and Liana’s Ransom.

While it was hot for the Parade of Sail,  that did not stop the crowds from coming down to the waterfront to watch the ships sail past –

As the ships started to dock, it started to look like a festival at the Port of Cleveland –

Denis Sullivan comes in to dock next to Pride of Baltimore II and Sorlandet

And, finally, the local media was on site and Captain Miles (a seasoned veteran of the TV interview) seems to have a relaxed attitude about being on TV –

Around the Buoys and Away We Go

Peacemaker (l), Unicorn (c), and Sorlandet (r) with Toronto skyline after the squall

There were a tense few moments during the start of the first race of the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® 2013 Race Series when Captain Trost of Pride of Baltimore II canvassed the race participants to determine if the race was still on. A few moments earlier, those of us on the race committee boat had scrambled to throw on our jackets and hang on as a squall with about 30 knot winds came right through the fleet, throwing off the start. The ships that had sails up already scrambled to strike and then reset the sails prior to the cannon. After the squall, and after we heard the captain’s come back in the affirmative, the countdown began and ships began to make their way to the start line.

Red Carpet Night on the Queen Mary

It was an emotional and happy night on Tuesday as the American Sail Training Association presented it’s TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Awards from this summer’s race series on the Great Lakes, and our Sail Training Awards. And without any further ado, here are the winners:

 TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Awards

Perry Bowl – Awarded to the Top Finishing ASTA Member Vessel in the 2010 TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Races 

Winner: Pride of Baltimore 2 (Photo – Bert Rogers and Linda Christenson, Executive Director of Pride of Baltimore 2)

Waving good-bye from shore

It seemed like only a few weeks ago that I was frantically packing up my office to go on the road. It was with nervous anticipation that I looked forward to the first stop of the series in Toronto. How would the interns be? Would they all get along? How will we make it through SIX ports without getting burnt out?  Luckily, I needn’t have worried. Brian, Patti and I bonded in the minivan for the five hour drive (and two hour wait at the US-Canada border) to the first port of Toronto. As Brian and I fought like siblings over the radio, Patti napped in the back of the van and I knew then that this summer was going to be OK.   Here is an example of what the minivan dynamics were like:

I had to drop my cookie to shoot the cannon!

Lynx and Pride approach the start Race Two

Sacrifices were made on the race committe boat Monday evening as the skipper of our 41′ ketch on the pin end of the line scrambled to keep up with the starting sequence. The cookie was still edible and the start went off with out a hitch. In fact, it was an awesome start with Lynx and Pride of Baltimore 2 both over the line within a minute of the starting cannon being fired.  Lynx blasted the race committe boat and we were once again close enough to hear the water slapping the hull of “America’s Privateer”.

Lynx blasts by the start boat Race Two

Unfortunately, Lynx couldn’t race for long and soon retired from the race and headed back down to Toledo, Ohio for a weekend festival, leaving Pride of Baltimore 2, Pathfinder and Denis Sullivan on their own. Earlier that day, Roald Amundsen and Europa had started the race together and slowly made their way north to Drummond Island. Both of them also retired early due to weekend commitments. Regardless, Pride of Baltimore 2 and Pathfinder both persevered and finished the race, with Pride of Baltimore crossing the finish line 13 hours ahead of Pathfinder. Final standings are still to be determined, however. These vessels are all handicapped to accomodate thier different rig types so who wins on the water could very well be different once thier Time Correction Factor is figured into the mix.

Pathfinder at start of Race 2

And that is exactly what happened on Sunday night after the winners for the first race from Cleveland to Pelee Passage were announced. Everyone knows that Pride of Baltimore is a fast ship. Baltimore Clippers were built for speed, at first built for moving highly perishable cargo and then later built as privateers during the American War of Independence and War of 1812, fast enough to evade the British naval vessels. With their raked masts and sharp hull, Lynx and the Pride of Baltimore just look sleek and fast (another reason why it is so exiciting to have both Lynx and Pride in the races this year, serious competition!). However, while everyone was looking at the Clippers, no one was watching the “briglette”.

The dark horse of Race One was St. Lawrence 2 out of Kingston, Ontario.  With a sparred length of 72′ she is brigantine similar to the Toronto-based brigantines, Pathfinder and Playfair (hence the “briglette”). Like Pathfinder and Playfair, St. Lawrence 2 is a youth sail training program with the captain usually the only adult on board.  Our very own Libby Drew is a crew member on board when she’s not interning with the ASTA race team.

St. Lawrence 2 and Denis Sullivan at the Race 1 start out of Cleveland

When the final results were all tallied and the handicaps factored in, St. Lawrence 2 ended up the winner of race one, beating out Pride of Baltimore 2 and Appledore V.

Here are the final results for the Race One, Cleveland to Pelee Passage

Class A
First Place-Europa (NETH)
Second Place-Roald Amundsen (GER)
Special Recognition for Dedication to the Race-Roald Amundsen

Class B, C, D
First Place-St. Lawrence 2 (CAN)
Second Place-Pride of Baltimore 2 (US)
Third Place-Appledore V (US)

Hauling lines on Pride of Baltimore 2

An update from Niagara

By Ben Rogers

July 11, 2010 

The festival in Cleveland has been a success so far, and it started off on the right foot with the parade of sail into the harbor. We were still in the finishing stages of our post-Welland rigging, when we arrived at the rest of the fleet. OS’s Dylan and Sydnee, and trainee Barbara and I were at the main fighting-top with come-alongs and marline, tuning and seizing the main t’gallant mast bentinck shrouds so we could set our main t’gallant, which we immediately did. In fact, we set all 15 sails on our girl, something that hadn’t been done in six years.

A report from an embedded intern on Europa

13 July 2010 – By Samara

We might have won the race. At least after twelve hours of sail handling – tacking, wearing, and setting and striking almost all of Europa’s sails – it feels like we should have.

Yesterday morning we bid farewell to Cleveland and headed out into the harbor for the first race of the Great Lakes United TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE^® 2010. Along with more than ten other tall ships we set sail and maneuvered around to starting line in preparation to begin the race. This was my first experience in a tall ship race, let alone a sailing race of any kind, and needless to say I was somewhat taken aback to see all of the ships spread out over the harbor in what looked to be anything but the beginning of an organized race! But my surprise quickly dispelled when I realized that, unlike the small boat racing I had seen on television, tall ships need more space and time to navigate – of course we couldn’t tack and wear right at the starting line. When it was time to begin the race we came around between the race boats and followed Roald Amundsen across the starting point towards Pelee Passage under full sail.