Tall Ships from throughout Europe and the Americas will soon dock at Penn's Landing and the Camden Waterfront for the Two Cities-One Waterfront ASTA Tall Ships Challenge® 2004 Camden/Philadelphia, a maritime-themed festival occurring Thursday, July 1st through Sunday, July 4th this summer.
The Two Cities-One Waterfront ASTA Tall Ships Challenge® 2004 is being coordinated in cooperation with American Sail Training Association (ASTA), a non-profit organization devoted to the development, support and promotion of sail training and education under sail, especially for youth.
"The Camden and Philadelphia waterfronts are the perfect place to host the ASTA Tall Ships Challenge as they're home to the Gazela, Tugboat Jupiter, Battleship New Jersey, Mosholu, Northwind, Olympia and the Becuna," said Steve Baker, race director for the American Sail Training Association. "Its vibrant waterfront and the myriad of activities available to visitors makes it one of the most exciting destinations to host the ASTA Tall Ships Challenge."
The event will serve as the region's largest tall ships festival with a dozen ships scheduled to participate, exceeding that of OpSail held in 2000, which hosted eight ships and attracted nearly 200,000 visitors. Scheduled ships to date range from 63-213 feet long and represent six countries from all around the world, including the United States, which touts participation from each state in the Delaware Valley, in addition to New York, Virginia and Rhode Island.
Schedule of Participating Ships
Ships representing the United States include:
- Pennsylvania's Gazela Philadelphia, a century-old barquentine that was built in Setubal, Portugal in 1901 as a Grand Banks of Newfoundland fishing vessel. Her homeport is now Philadelphia where she is owned and operated by the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild. The Gazela sails as a Goodwill ambassador for the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Ports of Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey.
- The Norseman of Delaware, a Viking longship that was built in 1992 and offers visitors a glimpse at Viking culture and reminds them of the part Vikings played in history. Her crewmembers wear full Viking costume as they educate students of all ages. She sails the waters of the East Coast of the United States from her homeport of Wilmington, Delaware, and will be docked at the Camden Waterfront for a special landside exhibit.
- New Jersey's official tall ship, AJ Meerwald, an authentically restored 1928 Delaware Bay oyster schooner that sails from her homeport of Bivalve, New Jersey to cities and coastal towns throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, the Chesapeake and the Northeast Atlantic Seaboard as a floating classroom to teach on environmental issues and the culture and history of New Jersey's Bayshore region.
- Lettie G. Howard of New York, an American two-masted gaff topsail schooner with a homeport in New York City. She was built in 1893 in Massachusetts and has since been rebuilt and restored and is now outfitted to accommodate trainees on educational cruises.
- Serenity of Virginia, a two-masted gaff schooner from Cape Charles that was built in 1986. She sails out of historic Cape Charles Harbor into the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and caters to groups of all ages interested in sail training, maritime history and the Chesapeake Bay.
- Woiee of Rhode Island, was built in Eastport, Maine in 1918 as a sailing fishing vessel with a small gasoline engine that later served as an offshore lobster boat and dragger. Modernized by her present owner, she is now an award-winning private yacht with varnished teak, brass and oriental rugs.
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