Gloria

Sail Tampa Bay 2010 is a five day festival, which starts today, celebrating Tampa Bay’s rich maritime history. The festival centerpiece is a visit by three sail training ships – the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Eagle, three-masted Columbian training barque Gloria and the Uruguayan navy training ship, the staysail schooner Capitan Miranda.

Tall ships sailing into Tampa

A town that goes crazy over a pirate ship called Jose Gasparilla is welcoming tall ships from North and South America.

Historic sailing ships from Colombia, Uruguay and the United States are coming to downtown Tampa on Saturday as part of Sail Tampa Bay, which runs through Wednesday.

The event, hosted by Tampa Bay and Company, was designed to celebrate the city’s rich maritime history and boost sagging summertime business around Channelside.

“It will make our waterfront look like it did in the late 1800s,” said Troy Manthey, president of Yacht StarShip, who has been working on bringing the ships here for two years.

Much like the Jose Gasparilla, the ships will sail down the Seddon Channel and dock at the Tampa Convention Center and Channelside Bay Plaza. Each will carry 50 to 60 cadets learning the ropes of sailing as part of their naval education.

“They are true sailing ships, the old sailing rigs of the past,” said David Choate, vice president of Coventures, which is coordinating the event. “They bring people back to when there weren’t engines or steam.”

The fully restored ships sail around the world serving as “floating ambassadors” for their home countries. Colombia’s Gloria, Uruguay’s Capitan Miranda and the U.S. Coast Guard’s Eagle recently took part in a bicentennial celebration in South America, in which a fleet of tall ships circumnavigated the continent and ended in Veracruz, Mexico.