TALL SHIPS PARADE SWELLS

Apr 10th, 2002

Fleet of vessels set to sail into Port of Mobile on July 4 reaches at least nine

By STEVE MYERS
Staff Reporter Mobile Register

A parade will turn Mobile Bay and the Mobile River into a "sea of canvas" on July 4, with at least nine tall ships sailing past downtown and docking for the weekend in one of the main events celebrating the city's tricentennial.


Those ships, three of them from other countries, have confirmed their attendance in the Parade of Sail, the highlight of a four-day event called "Sail Mobile: A Salute to the Sea," according to tricentennial organizers.

"You get five or six of those and they put up all their sails, and you've got a sea of canvas," said Jerome Bird, a spokesman for Pride of Baltimore Inc., which owns the Pride of Baltimore II, one of the ships that has confirmed its attendance.

During a wide-ranging tricentennial planning meeting Tuesday afternoon, 80 or so organizers discussed plans for the parade, where the ships will be docked, how people will be able to board the sailing vessels and how they will find dates for the 600 or so mostly male cadets attending a reception over the holiday weekend.

On Tuesday, the tricentennial booked its ninth ship, a schooner from Key West called Wolf, which is 74 feet long, said Carol Hunter, a spokeswoman for Mobile Tricentennial Inc.

The other ships expected to attend include five from this country and three from foreign nations. They include: U.S. Coast Guard Barque Ea gle, Daniel Webster Clements, Larinda, Pride of Baltimore II, Jolly Fisherman, all from the United States, and Cisne Branco from Brazil, Eye of the Wind from the United Kingdom and Simon Bolivar from Venezuela.

"There will be others," said Fred Stein, a Pennsylvania consultant who is the executive producer of Sail Mobile. He said his company has organized other tall ship gatherings and major events, including a Las Vegas casino opening.

All tall ships in the parade will be at least 50 feet long, said Robert Hickman, a tricentennial staffer who is working on booking the ships. While referred to as "tall ships," they are categorized by length, with Class A ships being longer than 170 feet.

No more than 30 tall ships can participate in the parade, Stein said, because of Coast Guard rules and a limited number of places to berth.

From the lineup he has seen, Bird said, Sail Mobile will be comparable to other major gatherings of tall ships.

"When I saw that list, I said, 'Boy, these people are doing it,'" he said.

Stein said Mobile's parade will be similar to a 2000 parade he organized in Philadelphia, in which 23 vessels participated.

Pride of Baltimore II is one of the ships tricentennial organizers are paying a fee for its attendance, Stein said. The other ones are Daniel Webster Clements and Larinda. Those fees generally are $5,000 to $7,500.

Government-owned ships such as the Barque Eagle, the Cisne Branco and the Simon Bolivar do not receive fees, he said.

The ships will be docked on the Mobile River downtown at the Mobile Convention Center, Cooper Park and Mobile River Landing, which is under construction.

Besides the tall ships, the Bay and the Mobile River will be full of private watercraft, said Ryan Bennett of the Alabama Marine Police.

Usually 3,000 to 5,000 watercraft show up for July 4th, he said. With the tricentennial and the parade, perhaps twice as many boats will show up. Invitations have been sent to yachting clubs "from Brownsville, Texas to Miami, Fla.," he said.

At Tuesday's meeting, Stein did not provide a specific estimate of how many people are likely to show up to view the ships, fireworks and other attractions. Instead, he told organizers to prepare for "tens of thousands" of people, who will fill all the available space downtown.

The ships will anchor off Fort Morgan on July 3, and the captains will be taken to Dauphin Island for a briefing and a banquet.

The ships will start sailing up Mobile Bay at dawn on the Fourth. The parade will begin around 11 a.m. and will last a couple of hours. Fireworks will follow at night.

The public will be allowed to tour the ships July 5, 6, and 7. The ships are expected to depart early in the morning on July 8.