Tall Ships in Boston

When tall ships sail into a harbor, it's a sight to see. In June, 53 vessels from 14 countries sailed into Boston Harbor for Sail Boston 2017 from June 17 to 22.

While we missed seeing these majestic ships in full sail, we took a narrated harbor tour after their arrival. Unfortunately, the weather was not the best that

day as we heard descriptions of and saw sloops, schooners, square-riggers  ketches, barques and 2 full-rigged ships. A full-rigged ship describes a sail plan of three or more masts, usually seen on a classic large sailing ship, like a galleon, clipper or large warship. The El Galeon from Spain is a full-rigged ship that participated in Boston Sail 2017.

This event represented the largest gathering of tall ships in Boston Harbor since 2000 and before that an earlier one in 1976 on the nation's 200th anniversary.

The U.S. Coast Guard Barque Eagle lead the parade of vessels including Union (Peru), Europa (The Netherlands), Alexander Von Humboldt II (Germany), El Galeon (Spain), Nadezhda (Russia), Guayas (Ecuador,) Blue Clipper (UK), Bluenose II (Canada), and Esmeralda (Chile). The U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and Germany had multiple ships.

The Boston destination was an official port of the Rendez-Vous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta. This transatlantic race is expected to cover 7,000 nautical miles over the span of five months in 2017. It also will showcase these impressive and imposing vessels. 

The trans-Atlantic regatta started in the port of Royal Greenwich in Great Britain on April 13.  The fleet then raced to Sines, Portugal and Bermuda before reaching Boston. 

Upon leaving Boston, the ships travelled north to Québec City, Canada for the next leg of the regatta, in time for the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. (There's still time to see them. The ships will remain at various host ports in Québec  Ontario, and the Maritimes from June 30 to August 20.) 

After Canada, the 7,000-mile race concludes with a sail to France in the Port of Le Havre, which will welcome the grand winner between August 31 and September 3. (So, there's still time to book that trip to see them. Maybe I should throw hints to Grenville?)

While they were not part of the regatta, there was a large contingent of U.S. naval ships in Boston Harbor. The U.S. Coast Guard also patrolled the harbor keeping boaters a safe distance from all the docked tall ships.

Even though we didn't see these ships in full sail, it was still a fun visit. Here's a couple of ship mastheads that were a bit "fowl." The flag-bearing chicken was on the Esmeralda, a four-masted tall ship used by the Chilean Navy for training; I don't recall which ships the other two mastheads were on.