WYPR News in Maryland
(2009-11-05)
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They call it "Down Rigging Weekend" here, the end of the sailing season when tall ship crews take down the rigs to spend the winter sanding and painting and fixing things. But, truth be told, there's little if any "down rigging" going on here. It's more like a big boat party.
There's a blacksmith demonstrating his skills under a tent flapping in the breeze, boat builders putting together a wooden Chesapeake Bay skiff for auction and the main attractions, a dozen or so tall ships tied up at the piers.
Naturally, there's the host Sultana, the sleek schooners Pride of Baltimore II and Virginia; Lady Maryland and Delaware's Kalmar Nyckel, ready to take three-hour cruises together.
Drew McMullen, president of Sultana Projects, says the whole thing started almost by accident the year Sultana was launched, 2001.
"It just so happened that the Pride of Baltimore came to Chestertown that fall and we decided, along with Pride, to do a sail of the two boats together. And people liked it; a lot. And we thought, hey, we should do this all the time; or at least a couple times, once a year.
So they did it again the following year, and it worked just as well.
"And then the year after we invited the Lady Maryland, and the year after we invited the Kalmar Nyckel and now we're up to about a dozen boats. 00:55
The crowds were difficult to estimate, but McMullen said they took more than twelve hundred people sailing over the weekend. And as far as he knows, there were few no-shows for the sails. That didn't count those who only visited the ships and soaked in the atmosphere.
Among those sailing were Dave and Magretta Kuzner, from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, just north of Hagerstown.
"Our niece is one of the crew members here. She told us about it and we oh, yeah, we want to do that. Tall ships are going to be here, it's going to be great.
And Reggie Baxter, from Severna Park, who said it, was "great to see history."
"On a day like this, when it's overcast and dreary to see a ship sailing up the river, with the woods behind it and forest, it brings you back several centuries. And it's like stepping into the past; magic door."
The weekend also serves a reunion of sorts for crew members from the various replica ships, many of whom know each other from previous jobs.
"One of the things about working on tall ships is you live with your crew, so there are lots of people out there that I've lived with for months at a time and become really, really close to."
Lauren Morgens is the captain of Kalmar Nyckel, a replica of a ship that brought Swedish settlers to what now is Wilmington, Delaware, in 16:38
"And then at end of a contract, you sort of say, "Okay, well, you know, good-bye. Have a nice life. And you don't know when you're going to encounter that person again. So when tall ships get together like this, it's always fun to see who's on the on other ships, what old friends there are around, which is a lot of fun."
Tanya Banks-Christensen, captain of the Sultana, says there's more to it than reunions.
"Gatherings like this are a really good opportunity for the various crews and folks who work on boats to get to know each other, more than necessarily seeing old friends. Some of them are. But it's a good opportunity to get to know people."
And then THERE ARE the tourists who crowded onto the ships. Banks-Christensen wrestles with the wheel of her ship and calls commands to her crew as they cast off the dock lines in a stiff breeze blowing right up the river.
Sultana comes off the dock slowly for one more sail and moves to catch-up with the other boats that have come away ahead of her. It's the last sail of the season before the grunt work starts over the winter.
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