Are You Ready for the CHALLENGE?

Tall Ships®Victoria (Photo by Erin Short)

ASTA's TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Pacific Coast Series opens in
Victoria, BC on June 26!

The summer Tall Ships® event season is taking off with the arrival of the tall ships in the Pacific Northwest for the start of the American Sail Training Association’s (ASTA) TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Series. Starting in Victoria, BC with a Parade of Sail on June 26th, a fleet of over 25 sail training vessels will then race their way to Tacoma, WA for a five day festival on the Foss Waterway. From Tacoma, the ships sail their way up the Alberni Inlet to the city of Port Alberni.  All three of these festivals promise to be big on swashbuckling adventures and definitely not short on fun.

From June 26-29, the Victoria Tall Ships, sponsored by Coast Capitol Savings, will feature a line-up of local ships such as YANKEE CLIPPER, MAPLE LEAF and ZODIAC and returning favorites LADY WASHINGTON and HAWAIIAN CHIEFTAIN. Also, for the first time in nine years, the Barque EAGLE, the sail training vessel of the United States Coast Guard, will be a participant in the West Coast series. This is also a great opportunity to see two of the most famous ships in the world, the HMS BOUNTY and the Columbus ship, NIÑA. Live music and concerts, theater performances, wooden boat building and adventure sails ensure fun for the whole family.
 
HMS BOUNTY on her way to Victoria (Photo by Thad Koza)

At noon on June 30th, six vessels will line up to race their way toward Tacoma, WA.  Tall Ships® Tacoma, sponsored by State Farm, will start off with a Parade of Sail featuring 32 tall ships.  This will be a great opportunity to see both the Canadian naval vessel, HCMS ORIOLE and the US Coast Guard vessel USCG EAGLE, sail together.  Built in 1921, the ORIOLE is the oldest commissioned ship in the Canadian Navy.  The EAGLE was obtained as a war prize after World War II and is one of five sister ships built in Germany in 1936.  Once berthed, all of the ships will be open to board from July 3-7 and the food, music and fun begins.

From Tacoma, the fleet will make their way to Port Alberni, BC for the Port Alberni Festival of Sails, July 10-12. LADY WASHINGTON, NIÑA, HMS BOUNTY, LYNX, HAWAIIAN CHIEFTAIN and others will be berthed along the waterfront as a picturesque background to the maritime festival.  Singers, dancers and evening cruises with mock gun battles promise to bring a little bit of maritime history to life in downtown Port Alberni.  On Sunday July 12, the ships
will parade out of town starting at 8am.  From there, some ships continue on down the coast to California, while others return to their homeports in the Northwest.

LADY WASHINGTON on her way to Victoria (Photo by Thad Koza)

In all three ports, the ships will be available to board with the purchase of an event ticket. Additional information for the port events can be found at www.tallshipsvictoria.ca; www.tallshipstacoma.com; www.portalbernitallships.ca.

Additional information on the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Pacific Coast Series can be found at:
http://tallships.sailtraining.org/tallships/2008pacific/index.php

Follow the adventure in the Logs of the ASTA Summer Interns!

Check out the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Pacific Coast 2008 Photo Gallery

Based in Newport, RI, American Sail Training Association is an international youth education and leadership non-profit with a strong interest in preserving North American’s maritime history and traditions.


(Slide show images by Thomas Hyde)