Tall Ships: Elcano and Vespucci

Tall Ships: Elcano and Vespucci, photo by Willie Waw.

The 4-masted square topsail schooner Juan Sebastian de Elcano is the naval sail training ship for Spain and the full rigged ship Amerigo Vespucci has the same duty for the Navy of Italy.

This photo was taken in Cadiz at the start of the Tall Ships 2000 race to Bermuda.

The 2006 Tall Ships Challenge Series will be in the Great Lakes and the 2007 series will be along the Atlantic Coast of North America.

Visit the American Sail Training Associaton (ASTA) web site for further information on the series.

Brewer Wickford Cove Marina

Brewer Wickford Cove Marina, photo by Willie Waw.

It's spring in Rhode Island and the yachtyards are bustling!

I hope to get a better shot of the beautiful black sloop on the right -- I think it may be the 12 meter Northern Light built in 1938....

Asgard II and Eye of the Wind

Asgard II and Eye of the Wind, photo by Willie Waw.

Brigantines Asgard II of the Irish Sail Training Association and Eye of the Wind based in England shown here at the start of the Tall Ships 2000 race from Cadiz to Bermuda.

Asgard II was commisioned in 1981 as a youth sail training vessel. Eye of the Wind was built in 1911 for the lucrative South American hide trade and later carried cargo in the Baltic and North seas and fished for herring off Iceland. She was restored in 1974-75 and set off on a circumnavigation which took nearly three years.

Youth from Ireland should link here to learn about sailng on the Asgard II and all are welcome on the Eye of the Wind.

Laser Port Tacker

Laser Port Tacker, photo by Willie Waw.

In this Masters Regatta in Houston, Laser 150069 managed to get his nose in on port tack while most of the fleet overstands on starboard.

Will he have room to tack?

Laser Racing in Houston

Laser Racing Houston, photo by Willie Waw.

It worked -- he made it -- now if he can get the boat flat and get it moving....

Sailors Aloft on the Cuauhtemoc

Cuauhtemoc with Sailors Aloft, photo by Willie Waw.

Barque Cuauhtemoc of the Navy of Mexico preparing for the Tall Ships Challenge departure parade of sail from New London in 2004.

The ship was named after the last Aztec king who was martyred trying to defend his homeland from the Spanish in the 1520s.

Link here to go to the Cuauhtemoc's Wikipedia page.

Lettie G Howard near Wickford

Lettie G Howard near Wickford, originally uploaded by Willie Waw.

Historic schooner Lettie G. Howard from South Street Seaport Museum in New York City ghosts along on Narragansett Bay.

She was built in 1893 in Essex, MA and operated as a fishing schooner for many years. She now carries youth sail trainees for experiential educational voyages.

Photo by Sarah Austin

For more on South Street Seaport and its fleet, link here.

Gazela of Philadelphia

Gazela of Philadelphia, photo by Willie Waw.

Barkentine Gazela Primeiro was built in Setubal, Portugal in 1883 and sailed from Portugal as a Grand Banks fishing vessel until 1969 when she was sold and moved to Philadelphia. She has been a museum ship and an operating sail training vessel. Here she is representing Philadephia in the Halifax Tall Ships Challenge Parade in 2004.

Link to the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild here to learn more about the Gazela and also their 1902 tugboat Jupiter.

Barque Eagle in Halifax

Barque Eagle in Halifax, photo by Willie Waw.

The Barque Eagle provides sail training for cadets from the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT and for Coast Guard OCS. She often participates in the ASTA Tall Ships Challenge Series.

The Eagle was built as the 'Horst Wessel' in Hamburg, Germany in 1936 and was one of three sail training ships operated by the German Navy prior to World War II. At the end of the war, she was claimed by the US as a war reparation and was brought to New London as the US Coast Guard Barque Eagle.

Link here to learn more about the Eagle.

Cold Fog on Narragansett Bay

Cold Fog on Narragansett Bay, photo by Willie Waw.

Low fog forms just above the water surface on cold fall and winter mornings.

Schooner Serenity

Schooner Serenity, photo by Willie Waw.

The Serenity, seen here sailing into Lake Michigan from Muskegon, is based on the Chesapeake and sails from Cape Charles on the beautiful eastern shore of Virginia.

Join the Lohse family for day sails or sunset cruises. Link here to go to the Serenity web site.

Historic Schooners Lettie G Howard and Amistad

Lettie G Howard and the Amistad, originally uploaded by Willie Waw.

Sail trainees from the Harbor School trying to get the 'Lettie' moving in barely a zephyr on Narragansett Bay. The Lettie G. Howard is owned and operated by the South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan.

The re-created Freedom Schooner Amistad (launched in 2000) is drifting along in the background.

Link here for more on the Lettie (launched in 1893) and other vessels in the South Street fleet and here to go to the Amistad web site.

Photo by Sarah Austin

Schooner Appledore IV

Appledore 5, photo by Willie Waw.

Schooner Appledore IV is based in Bay City, Michigan -- great youth program.

In this photo, they are sailing out of Muskegon in the ASTA Tall Ships Challenge Series parade of sail -- very carefully so they don't get a ticket from the water police on jetskis.

Link here to learn more about the Appledore IV, the Appledore V and BaySail.

Crew Training

Crew Training, photo by Willie Waw.

New voyage crew (sail trainees) aboard the barque Tenacious are given a lesson aloft prior to venturing out to sea.

Tenacious is currently sailing from the Caribbean to Europe; link here to track the Tenacious and other tall ships as they roam the seven seas...

Barque Tenacious from the UK

Barque Tenacious from the UK, photo by Willie Waw.

The Tenacious is operated by the Jubilee Sailing Trust and specializes in voyages with mixed-ability sail trainees. This means they have berths for abled-bodied trainees as well as those with physical disabilities.

Link here to visit the Jubilee Sailing Trust web site.

Bark Europa in Muskegon

Europa, photo by Willie Waw.

Barque Europa from the Netherlands spends the winter months taking sail trainees from Ushuaia, Argentina to Antarctica and back.

She is now on the final 2005-2006 Antarctic voyage which goes from Argentina to Antarctica, then on to Elephant Island, South Georgia Island and Cape Town, South Africa.

The ship and her adventuresome crew and trainees are now in South Georgia where Shackleton traveled to get help for his crew stranded on Elephant Island. Shackleton's grave is also on South Georgia Island.

Link here to follow the voyage across to South Africa and on up to Europe. Or link here to go to the Europa web site in Dutch or English).