The 'TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE®' is an annual event organized by Tall Ships America alternating in a three year cycle between the Great Lakes, the Pacific and the Atlantic coasts of North America.
Founded on April 3, 1973, by Barclay Harding Warburton III, the American Sail Training Association (ASTA), now known as Tall Ships America, is currently the largest sail training association in the world and a founding member of Sail Training International.
The Great Lakes, also called the Laurentian Great Lakes and the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of interconnected freshwater lakes primarily in the upper mid-east region of North America, on the Canada–United States border, which connect to the Atlantic Ocean through the Saint Lawrence River. They consist of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, although hydrologically, there are four lakes, Superior, Erie, Ontario, and Michigan-Huron. The connected lakes form the Great Lakes Waterway.
The West Coast or Pacific Coast is the coastline along which the continental Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. As a region, this term most often refers to the coastal states of California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. More specifically, it refers to an area defined on the east by the Alaska Range, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and Mojave Desert, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The United States Census groups the five states of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii together as the Pacific States division.
The event draws hundreds of thousands of people to witness beautiful tall ships from the age of sail and provides a unique opportunity for the participants to interact with the crews of different vessels in friendly rivalry as they race from port to port.
A tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or festival.
The series began in 2001 on the Great Lakes and saw vessels from six countries and visited seven US and Canadian ports. Since its launch, the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® series has visited dozens of North American cities, bringing millions of spectators down to the waterfront to experience the tall ships and creating a cumulative economic impact of hundreds of millions of dollars for host communities. It has continued to grow every year and is an eagerly anticipated event in the seaside communities that host the vessels (see, for example Philadelphia's Summer Sail 2007)and beyond.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.
Summer Sail 2007 was a sailing festival sponsored by the American Sail Training Association (ASTA) as part of the larger ASTA Tall Ships Challenge 2007, which continued until September 2007. Well-known tall ships such as Prince William, Bluenose II and A.J. Meerwald were expected to attend. The event, hosted by the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild, was expected to attract 10,000 visitors from all over the world. The event, with ship tours, live entertainment, music, crafts and food, was held June 19 to June 23, 2007, at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The festival was part of ASTA's ongoing goal of educating the North American public in sailing techniques, Atlantic ocean conservation, and maritime history. Many of the member ships such as Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild's barkentine Gazela and the privately owned Canadian barque Picton Castle sail all over the Middle Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, giving tours and doing educational outreach whenever they are in port.
Each year, the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® series is designated a Marine Event of National Significance by the US Coast Guard.
Tall Ships America summer interns maintain a blog about their experiences called the Official Blog of the Tall Ships Challenge series
