The bad news just keeps coming.  The Virginia Maritime Heritage Foundation has announced that the schooner Virginia will be suspending the remainder of her 2014 season and will be returned to Hampton Roads in August, where she will be put up for sale.  The Virginia has gone in and out of lay-up for several years over financial problems. In a press release, the Foundation states that the “revenue from operations and other sources has proven inadequate to support her current operating model and the resources required to sail the vessel appear to be unsustainable over the long term. Accordingly, the sale of the vessel appears to be the most prudent decision at this time.”

The schooner Virginia is a reproduction of the last all sail vessel built for the Virginia Pilot Association.  She is 114′ on deck and sets 6,538 square feet of sail. The original ship sailed for the pilots from 1917-1926, training apprentice pilots in seamanship and navigation. The reproduction, built in Norfolk between 2002-2004, was used as an educational platform. Her programs included courses in maritime history, marine science, maritime literature, and team-building for both students and adults. The ship has sailed as far south as Trinidad, east to Bermuda, north to Prince Edward Island, and all along the Atlantic Coast of the United States.

This year has seen a high turn-over in schooners, usually due to financial distress.  In February, the schooner Nathaniel Bowditch was put up for sale at auction, following a foreclosure, but received no bids.  In June, the schooner Spirit of South Carolina was sold at auction to local buyers following a bank foreclosure.  Today, we also posted that the failing Ocean Classroom Foundation‘s three vessels, the schooners Spirit of Massachusetts, Harvey Gamage, & Westward will be auctioned.

Thanks to Robert Rustchak and Tom Russell for contributing to this post.