The August 25 race from Los Angeles to San Diego!
We (Pat & Hank) will be crewing on the 156 foot, 3 masted square-rigged topsail schooner, Tole Mour !
Length Overall: 156’
Beam: 31’
Draft: 13.5’
Sail Area: 8500 sq. ft.
Rig: Square rigged topsail schooner
Built: 1988 Whidbey Island, Washington
Home Port: Long Beach, CA
The SSV Tole Mour is a 156 ft schooner and sail training vessel operating in the Channel Islands of California, off the West Coast of the United States. Built by the Nichols Bros. Boat Builders on Whidbey Island in Washington’s Puget Sound to withstand the extreme conditions of the South Pacific, she is extremely seaworthy and meets or exceeds all of the United States Coast Guard’s regulations as a Sailing School Vessel, while offering luxurious accommodations in comparison to other tall ships. At 229 gross registered tons she is the largest active tall ship on the West Coast.
Other (possible) participants in the August 25 race.
1) Star of India
Length Overall: 278′
Beam: 35′
Draft: 14′
Sail Area: 18,000 sq. ft.
Rig: Barque
Built: 1863 Ramsey, Isle of Man
Home Port: San Diego, California
The emblematic flagship of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, Star of India holds the distinctive title of the oldest active ship in the world. Star of India became a National Historic Landmark in 1966, and was awarded the World Ship Trust and American Ship Trust Maritime Heritage Awards in 1996. She began her life as the British full-rigged ship Euterpe, named for the ancient Greek muse of music. She is one of the earliest iron hulled ships to be built in the world. In 1901, the Alaska Packers of San Francisco rigged her down to a barque, and renamed her Star of India. In 1927, she was purchased and brought to San Diego for restoration that took almost 50 years before she was ready to sail again. Since 1976, dedicated volunteer crews have had the honor to sail her for special occasions. Star of India celebrates her 148th birthday this November 14, 2011.
2) Surprise
Length: 179’
Beam: 32’
Draft: 13’
Sail Area: 13,000 sq. ft.
Rig: Full Rigged Ship
Built: 1970 Nova Scotia
Home Port: San Diego, California
Surprise, built in 1970, is a full rigged ship. She began her career as part of our nation’s bicentennial celebration. Her builders painstakingly reproduced the 24 gun frigate the HMS Rose from original construction diagrams dated 1757. In 1991, sailing under the name “HMS” Rose, she was certified as America’s first Class-A sail training vessel. In 2001, after significant modifications, the Rose “blossomed,” becoming the star of 20th Century Fox’s hit film Master and Commander where her name was changed to Surprise which was the fictional command of Captain Jack Aubrey, of Patrick O’Brian’s books. The Maritime Museum of San Diego purchased the ship from Fox Studios in 2004, and has recently opened a new exhibit on her decks, “Enlighten Voyages: epic journeys that changed the Pacific.”
3) Californian
Length Overall: 145′
Beam: 24′
Draft: 9′ 6″
Sail Area: 7,000 sq.ft.
Rig: Tops’l Schooner
Built: 1984 San Diego
Home Port: San Diego, California
Californian joined the historic fleet of ships at the Maritime Museum of San Diego in 2002. She is the Official Tall Ship of the State of California, and helps carry out the educational missions of the Maritime Museum by hosting hundreds of students year round in a variety of American Revolutionary history, sail training, and Youth-At-Risk programs. The general public has the chance to sail her weekends or to Catalina on adventure sail expeditions. She was designed as a replica of the 1847 Revenue Cutter C.W. Lawrence and constructed locally at Spanish Landing by many San Diego members and volunteers of the Nautical Heritage Society. Built long and lean, capable of great speeds off the wind, the Revenue Service’s cutters patrolled the Californian coast during the Gold Rush Era and were a precursor to today’s Coast Guard.
4) America
Length Overall: 139′
Beam: 24′
Draft: 10′ 6″
Sail Area: 5,600 sq. ft.
Rig: Schooner
Built: 1995 New York
Home Port: San Diego, California
America is a replica of the schooner that was the first winner of the Royal Yacht Squadron’s race around the Isle of Wight for a cup of one hundred sovereigns in August of 1851. Henceforth, the cup was named the America’s Cup, named after the yacht, and is the most prestigious regatta and match race in the sport of sailing and the oldest active international trophy in sport. Tragically the original America was crushed by a heavy snowfall landing on its boathouse roof in 1942. George Steers was the original designer of America in 1850, but in 1995, an America’s Cup enthusiast had America re-built in New York. It was later sold as a personal yacht in 2005, and then acquired by “Dennis Conner’s America’s Cup Experience” for private charters.
5) American Pride
Length: 130’
Beam: 22’
Draft: 10’
Sail Area: 4,900 sq. ft.
Rig: Schooner, three masted
Built: 1941 Brooklyn, New York
Home Port: Long Beach, California
American Pride was originally launched as a two masted “schooner-dragger” and named the Virginia. Her first forty years were spent commercially fishing the Grand Banks and George’s Banks, searching the New England coasts for cod, haddock, flounder and ocean perch. Her second name change was the Lady in Blue, named after a prayer and was run by the Frontiero family who were Gloucester fishermen. In 1986, she was completely rebuilt for charter operations, a third mast was added and she was renamed the Natalie Todd. Ten years later she was purchased by the American Heritage Marine Institute, renamed the American Pride and sailed through the Panama Canal to reach her new home in Long Beach where she now operates as a private charter for the general public and school groups for the Children’s Maritime Foundation.
6) Pilgrim
Length Overall: 130’
Beam: 24.6’
Draft: 10’
Sail Area: 7,600 sq. ft.
Rig: Snow brig
Built: 1945 Denmark
Home Port: Dana Point, California
The Brig Pilgrim is a full size replica of the 1825 hide brig immortalized by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. in his American seafaring classic novel Two Years Before the Mast. Today’s Pilgrim was built in 1945 and was originally a three-masted Baltic schooner. In 1975, Captain Ray Wallace, a noted marine architect, sailed her to Lisbon, Portugal where she was converted to her present rig. In 1981, she was brought specifically to Dana Point where she was to become the Ocean Institute’s platform for its living history program based on Dana’s historic voyage. In addition to hosting thousands of school children, who experience the dockside living history programs, Pilgrim sets sail every year in the summer with a dedicated volunteer crew. Throughout the year the crews learn the traditional seafaring skills necessary to maintain and sail the vessel.
7) Bill of Rights
Length Overall: 129’
Beam: 23’
Draft: 10’
Sail Area: 6,300 sq. ft.
Rig: Gaff topsail schooner
Built: 1971 South Bristol, Maine
Home Port: Oxnard, California
Built in 1971, the 129’ Bill of Rights is a wooden, gaff-rigged topsail schooner designed by McCurdy, Rhodes & Bates. She is patterned after Wanderer, a schooner built in 1856 as a racing yacht. She was acquired by the Los Angeles Maritime Institute in 1997 after serving as a charter vessel on the East Coast. Bill of Right’s current owner, Stephen Taylor, is also her Captain and the founder of the American Tall Ships institute. She provides private and public party tours of the harbor and a variety of “immersion type” student programs during the week and offers day sails to the public on the weekends to the Channel Islands.
8) Exy Johnson
Length Overall: 111’
Beam: 21.75′
Draft: 11′
Sail Area: 4540 sq. ft.
Rig: Brigantine
Built: 2003 San Pedro, California
Homeport: Los Angeles, California
One of a pair of twin brigantines, the Exy and Irving Johnson are state-of-the-art sail training vessels designed to meet the needs of the Los Angeles Maritime Institute’s (LAMI’s) TopSail Youth Program. Their primary mission is introducing youths to the subtle but profound influence presented by the sea. These twin brigantines were named after sail training pioneers, Irving and Electra “Exy” Johnson. The Johnsons circumnavigated the globe seven times in all. They did this on two different boats, both named Yankee, with each trip using a new group of boys and girls who possessed only a sense of adventure and curiosity. For twenty-five years, beginning in the 1930’s, the Johnsons lived a life at sea that is now legendary and whose legacy continues to give back through the Irving Johnson and LAMI.
9) Irving Johnson
Length Overall: 111’
Beam: 21.75′
Draft: 11′
Sail Area: 4540 sq. ft.
Rig: Brigantine
Built: 2003 San Pedro, California
Homeport: Los Angeles, California
One of a pair of twin brigantines, the Exy and Irving Johnson are state-of-the-art sail training vessels designed to meet the needs of the Los Angeles Maritime Institute’s (LAMI’s) TopSail Youth Program. Their primary mission is introducing youths to the subtle but profound influence presented by the sea. These twin brigantines were named after sail training pioneers, Irving and Electra “Exy” Johnson. The Johnsons circumnavigated the globe seven times in all. They did this on two different boats, both named Yankee, with each trip using a new group of boys and girls who possessed only a sense of adventure and curiosity. For twenty-five years, beginning in the 1930’s, the Johnsons lived a life at sea that is now legendary and whose legacy continues to give back through the Irving Johnson and LAMI.
10) Patricia Belle
Length Overall: 89’
Rig: Schooner
Built: 1998 Washington
Home Port: Mazatlan, MX
Schooner Patricia Belle was built by owner Captain Patrick Hughes from 1994 – 1998. Constructed of locally grown Douglas Fir in Port Orchard, Washington. Her shake down cruise was from Seattle to Nicaragua, returning with 10,000 pounds of Arabic coffee to San Diego. Patricia Belle has sailed the Pacific to Hawaii, Mexican Waters annually for 10 years, Central America, Panama, through the Golf Coast of America, Bahamas, Caribbean and South America. As a private family owned schooner, friends, family and Mariners in training are always welcome aboard.
11) Spirit of Dana Point
Length Overall: 83’
Beam: 25’
Draft: 10’
Sail Area: 5000 sq. ft.
Rig: Gaff topsail schooner
Built: 1983 Costa Mesa, California
Home Port: Dana Point, California
Spirit of Dana Point which is a fine example of an eighteenth century vessel giving twenty-first century children the chance to learn about life at sea. Originally named Pilgrim of Newport, it was Dennis Holland’s lifelong dream to build a traditionally accurate replica of a 1770s privateer used during the American Revolution. It took him thirteen years to build the ship in his backyard from plans he purchased from the Smithsonian Institute. Her design was built for speed, and was a predecessor to the Baltimore Clipper, which was used for smuggling. The ship was purchased by the Ocean Institute in 2004 to join their education fleet and renamed Spirit of Dana Point, in honor of the community that supports her worthy mission.
12) Curlew
Length: 81’6”
Beam: 14’8”
Draft: 8’10”
Sail Area: 2,000 sq. ft.
Rig: Staysail Schooner
Built: 1926 Wiscasset, Maine
Home Port: Dana Point, California
Like many tall ships her age, Curlew has many sea stories to tell. Originally built for Charles Andrews of the New York Yacht Club, Curlew competed in the N.Y.Y.C.’s ocean cruising class racing from Newport to Bermuda. She was then donated to the Merchant Marine Academy in 1940 to serve as a sail training vessel and conducted submarine patrol duty for the Coast Guard during WWII. She continued to serve as a training vessel for the Coast Guard in New Haven, Connecticut and Cape May, New Jersey. Her career in the charter service started with her delivery crew having to abandon her in a storm that was reported to be the largest low pressure in the area for 40 years, which took the lives of 144 people in 1962. After many owners and extensive rebuilds she cruised in the Central and South Pacific, and the West Coast. Today, Curlew’s owner and captain, Bob Harrison operates a successful sailing charter out of Dana Point.
13) Jada
Length Overall: 65’
Beam: 13’
Draft: 9’
Sail Area: 1,955 square feet
Rig: Yawl
Built: 1938 Stockton, CA
Home Port: San Diego, California
The Jada is made from Port Orford Cedar over white oak frames, with bronze strap frames under the masts and rudder post. All interior and decks are teak. Jada has raced the Transpac to Hawaii 5 times and won the Tahiti race in 1969. She was originally built as a schooner and was converted to a yawl in the 1950’s to meet new racing rules more favorably. She sails our waters on whale watching and chartered adventures.
Sailing With Devious, 2014 