"The Parade of Sail with these beautiful vessels entering Portland Harbor is going to be breathtaking," said Alex Agnew, President of Sailing Ships Portland and Chair of Iberdola USA Tall Ships® Portland. "It will be a spectacular site when they are lined up along the waterfront for an exciting and fun festival."
Tickets are available to the festival at www.tallshipsportland.com. Tickets are $15 and allow boarding of the ships and access to the festival grounds.
Below are the sailing vessels that will participate in a parade of sail in Portland Harbor on Saturday, July 18 and be available for viewing July 19 and 20 along Portland's waterfront. (Click on the vessel names for more information.) Ships will be docked at Maine State Pier, Ocean Gateway Terminal and Maine Wharf.
Eagle
New London, CT
The 295' Barque Eagle is the largest vessel in the festival and serves as the training vessel for the U.S. Coast Guard. Built at the Blohm + Voss Shipyard in Hamburg, Germany in 1936, and commissioned as Horst Wessel, Eagle is one of three sail-training ships operated by the pre-World War II German navy. At the close of the war, the ship was taken as a war reparation by the U.S., re-commissioned as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle and sailed to New London, Connecticut, which has been its homeport ever since.
Oliver Hazard Perry
Newport, Rhode Island
At 200', the Oliver Hazard Perry is the largest civilian sailing school vessel in the U.S. and the first ocean-going full-rigged ship to be built in the US in over 100 years. The Oliver Hazard Perry carries 14,000 square feet of sail and 7 miles of rope.
El Galeón Andalucia, Spain
A replica of the famous galeon-class ocean-going sailing ships of the late 16th century. The 170' El Galeon was recently featured in the NBC series Crossbones, about the pirate Blackbeard.
Picton Castle
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
179' working tall ship registered in the Cook Islands and based in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.Picton Castle is a 3-masted, steel-hulled barque that has taken hundreds of sail training students on voyages around the world. It is currently on its 6th circumnavigation.
Fritha
Fairhaven, MA
Fritha is a 74 ft wooden brigantine owned and operated by Northeast Maritime Institute out of Fairhaven, Mass. She operates in various cities along the east coast of the United States offering a variety of educational programs.
Lynx
Newport Beach, CA
The Lynx is a 122' topsail schooner built in the style of the privateers and pirate ships of the early 19th century. The Lynx was launched in Rockport, Maine in 2001. A video of the Lynxis available here.
Bagheera
Portland, ME
The 50’ Schooner Bagheera is a classic Alden schooner, built in East Boothbay in the 1920s.
Wendameen
Portland, ME
The 88' Wendameen is also an Alden-designed schooner, launched in East Boothbay in 1912.
Bowdoin
Castine, ME
The 88' schooner Bowdoin was built for Donald MacMillan and designed for voyages to the Arctic, where it often spent the winter. Under MacMillan's command, the Bowdoin made 26 voyages north and covered 300,000 miles doing Arctic research.
Frances
Portland, ME
The 74' steel-hulled gaff rigged topsail cutter is a replica of working coastal pilot cutters that sailed the waters of Maine and New England between 1790 and 1812.
Alert
Harpswell, ME
The Schooner Alert is a 70' Maine built wooden schooner home ported in Harpswell, Maine.
Tree of Life
Newport, RI
The 91' schooner Tree of Life was built in Nova Scotia in 1991 and has since sailed around the world and currently cruises in New England waters.
Sailing Ships Portland, the local event organizer in cooperation with Tall Ships America, is a Maine-based nonprofit and proceeds from the event will go toward youth sail training and education at sea. The fleet is coming to Portland as the final port in the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® 2015 Atlantic Coast series of tall ships races and maritime festivals, organized by Tall Ships America.
TALL SHIPS AMERICA is the hub for tall ships activity, information, and expertise in North America, and is commended by the United States Congress as the national sail training organization representing the United States. As a national membership organization, TALL SHIPS AMERICA supports the people, ships and programs of sail training and tall ships through professional development grants, sail training scholarships, conferences, education, publications, regulatory and licensing information, public events and advocacy.
