These days just about anything with a mast or two is called a “tall ship.” Some are and many are not. One ship that definitely qualifies is Rhode Island’s Oliver Hazard Perry. A dedicated team of riggers has just about finished raising the masts, crossing the yards, bending the sails and running the halyards, bunts, clews, braces and all the other lines necessary to control the sails. Congratulations to all who worked so hard through such a long and brutal winter to rig this fine new ship.
The three masted Oliver Hazard Perry is the largest civilian sailing school vessel in the US, as well as the the first ocean-going full-rigged ship to be built in the US in over 100 years. Her rigging requires 7 miles of rope and 160 belaying pins. She will set 14,000 sq ft of canvas over 20 sails. Click here to learn more about the ship and its education programs.
A video from January, showing the fore-course yard being crossed.
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A worthy enterprise, and I hate to say it, but the ship is graceless and ungainly. The proportions all display a lack of sensitivity to nautical traditions and aesthetics, and the old fashioned excrescences (billet head, quarter galleries) look fake, rather than integral, and only emphasize the artificiality of the concept.
I have no doubt that she will be beautiful undersail.
Hull down.