2008 San Francisco Festival Of Sail

July 23rd to July 27th, Tall Ships Blow Into San Francisco Harbor

Jul 19, 2008

Thirty-two tall ships will visit San Francisco's waterfront this July as part of the West Coast's Tall Ship Challenge.

An event hosted only once every three years, this years 2008 Tall Ship Challenge offers visitors in multiple coastal cities the opportunity to not only view but in some cases sail aboard a tall ship. This years San Francisco port of call will feature such notable vessels as the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle and replica caravel Nina; viewed in tandem they serve as an impressive illustration of sail power’s evolution.

Noteworthy Tall Ships And Replicas

Bounty II, a 412 ton replica of the 1780’s British vessel made famous by Fletcher Christian’s mutiny against Captain William Bligh near Tahiti. Today’s Bounty was originally built for the 1960 movie Mutiny on the Bounty, but now serves as a sailing museum and sail training vessel.

Californian, the official flagship of the State of California. She is a 145 foot, 130 ton two-masted topsail schooner flying 7,000 square feet of sail. Built as a replica of the 1848 revenue cutter C.W. Lawrence, she served as a flagship during the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Today she is affiliated with the San Diego Maritime Museum and serves as a sea education and adventure sail vessel.

Eagle, an 1800 ton steel bark with more than five miles of rigging and 21,000 square feet of sail. The 295 foot Eagle is a leadership and seamanship training vessel for the US Coast Guard, and is the only active commissioned sailing vessel in the US military.

Lynx, a 122 foot two-masted topsail schooner. The Lynx is modeled after an American privateer of the same name that defended American shipping interests from British warships in the War of 1812. Her mission today is to serve as a floating classroom for historical and environmental issues.

Nina, a historically accurate, 100 ton wooden caravel built in replica of Christopher Columbus’s 1492 vessel. She was built in Brazil using only traditional hand tools, and was launched in commemoration of the 500th year since Columbus’s momentous voyage. Today she serves as a sailing museum ship.

Robert C. Seamons, a 300 ton, 134 foot steel brigantine carrying over 8000 square feet of sail. Built in 2001, she is the most technologically advanced sail training / oceanographic research vessel ever built in the United States. She sails in support of the Sea Education Association’s academic program and is homeported in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

The sailing ship is one of humanity’s oldest tools. Sails were first invented some 6000 years ago, and the first “sailboat” probably amounted to no more than loosely bundled rafts equipped with skins stretched over vertical poles. Since then, sail power has followed a relatively consistent and logical evolution guided by the natural forces it harnesses: moving sea and wind. Innovation, materials and technology have changed, but always with the intent to propel ever-better, ever-faster windships.

As Chapman’s Great Sailing Ships of the World notes, “faster” in this context is synonymous with “elegant,” as well as “beautiful”—a fact illustrated by the ships themselves. While wandering the festival this weekend, it is worth noting that the sailing shipwrights of the ages were not just artisans but artists. They built not only massive instruments for commerce, exploration and war, they also created timeless monuments to ingenuity, community, and streamlined elegance.

Reference

Schauffelen, Otmar. 2005. Chapman’s Great Sailing Ships of the World. (English Translation.) Sterling Publishing, New York, New York.

The copyright of the article 2008 San Francisco Festival Of Sail in Boating & Sailing is owned by John Pohl. Permission to republish 2008 San Francisco Festival Of Sail in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.