Tall ship
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.
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[edit] History
Traditional rigging may include square rigs and gaff rigs, with separate topmasts and topsails. It is generally more complex than modern rigging, which utilizes newer materials such as aluminum and steel to construct taller, lightweight masts with fewer, more versatile sails. Most smaller, modern vessels use the Bermuda rig. Though it did not become popular elsewhere until the twentieth century, this rig was developed in Bermuda in the seventeenth century, and had historically been used on its small ships, the Bermuda sloops.
The term tall ship came into widespread use in the mid-20th century with the advent of the Tall Ships' Races, and was not generally used in the era when such ships were the norm. The term's popularity may have stemmed from its use in a well-known nautical poem by English Poet Laureate John Masefield entitled "Sea-Fever", first published in 1902.
While Sail Training International (STI) has extended the definition of tall ship for the purpose of its races to embrace any sailing vessel with more than 30 ft (9.14 m) waterline length and on which at least half the people on board are aged 15 to 25, this definition can include many modern sailing yachts, so for the purposes of this article, tall ship will mainly refer to those vessels rated as class "A".
[edit] Sail Training International
By the 21st century, "Tall ship" is often used generically for large, classic, sailing vessels, but is also a technically defined term by Sail Training International for its purposes and of course, STI helped popularize the term. The exact definitions have changed somewhat over time, and are subject to various technicalities, but by 2011 there were 4 classes (A, B, C, and D). Basically there are only two size classes, A is over 40 m LOA, and B/C/D are 9.14 m to under 40 m LOA. The definitions have to with rigging, class A is square sail rigged ships, class B is "traditionally rigged" ships, class C is "modern rigged" vessels with no "spinnaker like sails", and class D is the same as C but carrying a spinnaker like sail.[1] The STI definitions can be found here and a ship database here.
[edit] Class A
All square – rigged vessels (barque, barquentine, brig, brigantine or ship rigged) and all other vessel more than 40 metres Length Overall (LOA), regardless of rig. STI classifies its A Class as "all square-rigged vessels and all other vessels over 40 metres (131 ft) length overall (LOA)". By LOA they mean length excluding bowsprit and aft spar.[2]
See also list of tall ships for other tall ships, or List of large sailing vessels for a list that includes other sailing vessel types.
[edit] Class B
Traditionally rigged vessels (ie gaff rigged sloops, ketches, yawls and schooners) with an LOA of less than 40 metres and with a waterline length (LWL) of at least 9.14 metres.
[edit] Class C
Modern rigged vessels (i.e Bermudan rigged sloops, ketches, yawls and schooners) with an LOA of less than 40 metres and with a waterline length (LWL) of at least 9.14 metres not carrying spinnaker-like sails.
[edit] Class D
Modern rigged vessels (i.e Bermudan rigged sloops, ketches, yawls and schooners) with an LOA of less than 40 metres and with a waterline length (LWL) of at least 9.14 metres carrying spinnaker-like sails. There are also a variety of other rules and regulations for the crew, such as ages, and also for a rating rule. Here is list of tall ships as of 2011, really just a snapshot, since, while many ships are regulars, many have also come and gone over the course of the tall ship races. Of course there are other sail festivals and races with their own standards, the STI is just one set of standards for their purposes.
[edit] Earlier description of classes
An older definition of class "A" by the STI was "all square-rigged vessels over 120' (36.6m) length overall (LOA). Fore and aft rigged vessels of 160' (48.8m) (LOA) and over". By LOA they meant length excluding bowsprit and aft spar.[3]
Class "B" was "all fore and aft rigged vessels between 100 to 160 feet in length, and all square rigged vessels under 120' (36.6m) (LOA)".
See also a list of class "A" ships with lengths including bowsprit.[4]
[edit] Lost tall ships
Tall ships are sometimes lost, such as by a storm at sea. Some examples of this include:
- Concordia was a triple mast Barquentine built in 1992, operated by Canada as a school ship. Lost at sea in 2010 in a squall.
- Asgard II, an Irish national sail training ship, commissioned in 1982, was lost in 2008 off the French coast. The 2-masted brigantine is thought to have collided with a submerged object.
- Fantome a former yacht built in 1927, then operating as a cruise ship was lost in Hurricane Mitch in 1998.[5]
- Marques, built in 1917, it was lost in a 1984 Tall Ships Race.
[edit] Gallery
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Cisne Branco is a tall ship of the Brazilian Navy
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The Amerigo Vespucci of the Italian Marina Militare is an example of tall ship.
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The USCGC Eagle in 1998 (US Coast Guard).
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The N.R.P. Sagres (Portuguese Navy).
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ARA Libertad (Argentine Navy)
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Greif in drydock
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Tall ship Kruzenshtern
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Kaskelot at the 2004 Bristol Harbour festival in England.
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Kajama, a tourist tallship sailing in Toronto Harbour, Lake Ontario
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The defining feature of square rigged tall ships – going aloft to set and stow sails.
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More than 36 tall ships participated in the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar in Portsmouth, part of the fleet of 167 naval, merchant and tall ships from 36 countries
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The masts and yards of a brig, a typical tall ship.
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The Canadian schooner Maple Leaf, traditionally rigged, with a gaffed foresail, a square fisherman, and Marconi (fore-and-aft) main, staysail and jib.
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Cisne Branco. Class A Tall Ship, Brazil.
Waiting for the wind at the start of the Bergen to Den Helder Tall Ships Race 2008.
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[edit] See also
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- American Sail Training Association
- Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Race
- Jubilee Sailing Trust
- List of large sailing vessels
- List of tall ships
- Operation Sail
- Sail training
- Tall Ships Challenge
- Tall Ship Chronicles
- Tall Ships Youth Trust
- The Tall Ships' Races
[edit] References
- ^ STI Definitions
- ^ Racing & Sailing Rules and Special Regulations, Sail Training International, 2008 edition, p. 2, http://www.sailtraininginternational.org/uploads/images/1233149882328_0.6089951864523053.pdf
- ^ National Institute for Sea Training (NIST)
- ^ National Institute for Sea Training (NIST)
- ^ A CORNERED SHIP
[edit] Further reading
- American Sail Training Association; Sail Tall Ships! (American Sail Training Association; 16th edition, 2005 ISBN 0-9636483-9-X)
- Thad Koza; Tall Ships: A Fleet for the 21st Century (Tide-Mark Press; 3rd edition, 2002; ISBN 1-55949-739-4)
[edit] External links
- About the 16th Century Dutch ship Batavia, a large photo gallery by photographer Jaap Roskam showing the Batavia at the shipyard in Lelystad – and during SAIL parade in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and under full sail near Sydney Australia.
- Tall Ships' Regatta 2008
- American Sail Training Association
- Tall Ships Today! no longer active.
- Sail Training International
- Tallships Australia, site providing information on tallships principally based in Australian and New Zealand waters.
- Bermuda Sloop Foundation
- Tall ship pictures published on USENET stored with a search function.
- Tall-ship pictures for personal/commercial use.
- Maritime Heritage Network, an online directory of maritime history resources in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
- University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Transportation Photographs An ongoing digital collection of photographs depicting various modes of transportation in the Pacific Northwest region and Western United States during the first half of the 20th century.
- Tall ship photo gallery
- Tall Ships Gallery – Photographs of Tall Ships by photographer Richard Sibley.
- Tall Ship Training in Spain
- Tall Ships DelfSail 09 – Tall Ships Delfsail 09 by photographer David Dekel.
- Tall Ships Den Helder 08 – Tall Ships Den Helder 08 by photographer David Dekel.
- Endeavour Tall Ships Project – Tall Ships on Endeavour Tall Ships Project.
- Little Brig Sailing Trust – The world's smallest Tall Ships
- International Tall Ship Club – Meeting point for Tall ship crews and their ships , with a directory to Tallships , crews , a discussion board and a market place.
