Boaters invited to join Parade of Sail with tall ships in Sail Portsmouth 2023

PORTSMOUTH — This year, joining the celebration of Portsmouth’s 400th anniversary of its settlement, five tall ships will sail up the Piscataqua River in the 2023 Parade of Sail and Flotilla and everyone is invited to join the party.

The Parade of Sail and Flotilla on the evening of Thursday, July 27 will officially kick off the 2023 Sail Portsmouth festival and celebrate centuries of the Seacoast’s maritime history. The tall ships participating are the three-masted Trinidad, the two-masted schooner Ernestina-Morrissey, the three-masted schooner Denis Sullivan, the topsail schooner Lynx and the schooner Bowdoin. The Parade of Sail and Flotilla is a joint presentation of Sail Portsmouth and the Propeller Club. Gov. Chris Sununu will be the grand marshal of this year’s Parade of Sail. The festival runs through July 31.

“We want the Parade of Sail and Flotilla to be more festive and include more boats this year,” said Richard Burbine, a member of the Propeller Club of Portsmouth, a sponsor of the event. “Any boater with a safe craft is invited to join the Flotilla. We want to create a festive occasion on the water.”

At 6:15 p.m. on July 27, the tall ships joined by the Gundalow Piscataqua, Portsmouth’s own tall ship, will begin the parade into Portsmouth Harbor from the mouth of the Piscataqua River. They will be accompanied by a flotilla of vessels, both civilian and commercial fishing boats plus military and municipal craft. The Parade of Sail will end at the Memorial Bridge, where the tall ships will turn around and head to their mooring sites. Two will berth at the Portsmouth Commercial Fishing Pier, which will be the festival’s headquarters for the weekend, just across from Prescott Park. All boaters are invited to join in the Parade of Sail.

More on Sail Portsmouth 2023: Details on festival tickets and more

New this year, private pleasure and commercial fishing vessels which participate in the Parade of Sail and Flotilla are eligible to win a $1,000 gift certificate from Hamilton Marine. The Propeller Club will distribute 500 beer koozies, which will contain a ticket to enter the Hamilton Marine raffle and U.S. Coast Guard boater safety information, to local marinas a week before the Parade of Sail and Flotilla. Koozies will also be available at Brewster’s Bait and Tackle in Portsmouth and at the boat launch near the Portsmouth Commercial Fish Pier. Boaters can pick up a koozie, join the parade on July 27 and then turn in the entry form at the Hamilton Marine store at 56 U.S. 1 Bypass in Kittery where the winning entry will be drawn about two weeks after the parade to give time for boaters to visit the marina and turn in their entry tickets.

Brewster’s Bait and Tackle is also providing 15,000 feet of colorful plastic flag garland for local boaters to decorate their boats with for the Parade of Sail and Flotilla. Boaters can pick up the garland at the bait shop at 121 Mechanic St., Portsmouth.

Jason Brewster, in cooperation with Sail Portsmouth and Portsmouth NH 400, is organizing a renewal of the City of Portsmouth’s traditional Blessing of the Fleet. This year, a multi-denominational collection of clergy and spiritual leaders will bless each vessel in the Parade of Sail and Flotilla as they pass Four Tree Island.

“Portsmouth has been a great city, it is a great city and it will continue to be great. It’s our 400th birthday and it’s wonderful to acknowledge it and the very strong impact the marine industry has on our economy,” Burbine said.

Details and tickets for the festival’s tall ship tours and day sails can be found at sailportsmouth.org.

More details about the tall ships:

Trinidad

The Trinidad is a replica of the flagship of the Magellan-Elcano expedition, leading the first sailing expedition around the world between 1519 and 1522, which is considered by many the greatest maritime feat in history. It’s a replica of a nao ship, which were used first as cargo ships in Spain and then later as exploration vessels. This full-sized replica was built by the Nao Victoria Foundation and launched in March of 2018.

Denis Sullivan

The Denis Sullivan is a replica three-masted, wooden, gaff rigged schooner originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was built in 2000 as a sail training classroom and was a flagship of both the state of Wisconsin and of the United Nations Environment Programme until she was sold to the World Ocean School and moved to Boston, Massachusetts in late 2022. The Denis Sullivan is not a replica of a single ship, but was inspired by the design of the Great Lakes cargo schooners of the 19th century. The year, the Seacoast teens chosen for Sail Portsmouth’s Sea Challenge program will spend a week learning to sail board the Denis Sullivan.

Ernestina-Morrissey

The Ernestina-Morrissey was built in 1894 at the James and Tarr Shipyard for the Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing fleet. The schooner first served as a Gloucester Grand Banks fishing vessel, an Arctic explorer sailing to within 600 miles of the North Pole, and as a World War II survey and supply vessel. Between 1946 and 1965, she served as the last of Cabo Verde’s transatlantic packet ships, bringing immigrants to the U.S. The Republic of Cabo Verde gave the ship back to the U.S. as a gift in 1982, and became a maritime education and ambassador. The Ernestina-Morrissey recently underwent a full restoration at the Boothbay Harbor/ Bristol Marine Shipyard in Maine.

Bowdoin

The Bowdoin is the flagship of Maine Maritime Academy sail training fleet, and the official sailing vessel of the state of Maine. Built in 1921 for exploring the Arctic waters, the schooner is one of the strongest wooden vessels ever constructed. Between 1921 and 1954 she made 26 voyages above the Arctic Circle under the command of explorer Donald B. MacMillian. As MMA’s flagship, Bowdoin now teaches MMS students to sail and manage traditional and modern sail vessels, and serves the state of Maine, teaching about maritime history.

Lynx

Lynx is a square topsail schooner based in Nantucket, Massachusetts and was built to represent the design and operation of a privateer schooner of the War of 1812. The original Lynx, a privateer ship, was a “letter of marque” Baltimore Clipper commissioned at the start of the war to defend America. She completed one voyage, running the Royal Navy blockade, before the British captured her in 1813 at the start of her second voyage and took her into service as HMS Mosquidobit.

Sponsors of this year’s Parade of Sail and Flotilla are Avery Insurance, The Black Dog Family of Companies, Hamilton Marina, Seacoast Maritime Charters and Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel as well as the organizations Portsmouth NH 400, The Propeller Club of Portsmouth and the Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Sail Portsmouth tall ships 2023: Boaters invited to join parade