The Oliver Hazard Perry, the largest civilian Sailing School Vessel in the United States, has offered programs in New England in the Summer and headed south in colder months. Recently, however, the operation ran a deficit approaching $1 million.

Rather than sail the ship south again this winter, the Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island organization board put the ship in drydock and has decided to take a “strategic pause” to rethinks its strategy for the ship’s financial sustainability. The goal is to refocus the organization’s activities to cut expenses, which would likely limit the ship’s operations to New England’s waters in the foreseeable future. 

“There is tremendous need and opportunity to deliver impactful programming in our home waters, built on strengthening participants’ relationship with the ocean and providing pathways to greater economic opportunity and civic engagement,” according to an organization document: “Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island 2019: A New Plan for Rhode Island’s Tall Ship.”  

The immediate challenge is to raise funds and develop a plan acceptable to their bank. 

NewportRI.com reports that Oliver Hazard Perry owes the bank about $4 million on a loan used to build it. The vessel has an estimated value of $10 million.

The bank has granted the organization a forbearance period on the loan that will end April 30, at which point the organization must resume making monthly payments. “Come April 30, if we can’t convince them we have a plan to go forward, it’s just tantamount to here are the keys,” board Chairman Avery “Whip” Seaman said. Debt service for the organization is $276,000 a year, or $23,000 a month, the document said.

The ship was “seven years and $12 million in the making when she embarked on her maiden sail in 2015,” according to a previous statement from the organization.

SSV Oliver Hazard Perry is the first ocean-going full-rigged ship to built in the U.S. in over 100 years. Her accommodations hold 32 people overnight in addition to her 17 professional crew.