Tall Ship Sailing out of Charleston SC
by Dale Powell
Title
Tall Ship Sailing out of Charleston SC
Artist
Dale Powell
Medium
Photograph
Description
They came in steady under sail — the schooners, the clipper, the frigate and the barques — with wind kicking and clouds billowing. It had been too long.
Six years after the last Harbor Fest, Tall Ships Charleston opened Thursday with a Parade of Sail, a stately procession of 10 ships through Charleston Harbor to the old Navy base in North Charleston, where the festival is underway this weekend.
The Spirit of South Carolina took the lead — the two-masted schooner named for the coast where it had been had been wrighted and the fest launched to help pay for her. It was history reclaimed.
"I could just picture one of the galleons being a pirate vessel going after the British and the French, with Charleston's history of pirates," said Monroe Khan, of Summerville, as he watched from the Charleston Maritime Center.
Tall ships are replicas of historic sailing vessels, symbols of the seagoing heritage that is the very blood of the coastal ports where they are moored. For the Tall Ships fest, five of the 10 are scheduled to be open for tours and the other five for short trips.
Among other attractions are pirate camps, family boat building, a wooden boat show, cannon and arms demonstrations. Admission is free, but fees will be charged for tours and trips. For more information, go to tallshipscharleston.com.
The Spirit — an eye-catching, a 140-foot-long wooden coastal trade ship — was built in a field near Charleston Harbor more than a decade ago. It was a labor of love among local shipbuilders, modeled on a 19th century Charleston-built schooner that turned out to be modeled on an international sailing champion.
The $4 million schooner launched in 2007, and by 2014 seemed dead in the water. It was designed to be an educational offshore sailing vessel carrying about two dozen passengers at a time, and in three years had hosted more than 9,500 students. But loans taken out to speed its construction put the effort in debt.
The ship went up for auction in 2015, and local businessmen outbid other interests to keep it here. A newly formed nonprofit has taken over its ownership and operation. On Thursday, Capt. Richard Bailey brought it all home.
As the tall ships circled each other, he gazed around from the Spirit's helm, the romance still tugging at him after years piloting the vessels, he said.
"It was nearly a perfect day, a great day for sailing," he said. "It was certainly a proud day for Charleston."
Uploaded
May 21st, 2017
Statistics
Viewed 253 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/15/2024 at 5:24 AM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Comments
There are no comments for Tall Ship Sailing out of Charleston SC. Click here to post the first comment.