CT Schooner Festival Announces Schooner Race Details

The Connecticut Schooner Festival has announced details of the schooner race to be held on Saturday, September 14 in waters off Ocean Beach Park. The committee organizing the race has designed two courses and will select one on race day, depending on wind conditions.  Dr. Melissa Root, the committee chair, described the race this way: “The race will have a reaching course to allow for wonderful viewing opportunities for spectators and race participants alike,” she said. “All schooners will be in one, non-handicapped class, so the first one over the finish line will be the winner.”

The committee that developed the plans in addition to Root, includes Captain Eric Jones, (USCG) Captain Marc Denno (USN), Captain John Eginton (Mystic Whaler), William Turner, Jeff LaMothe, and Rebecca Turner.  In addition, race support is coming from the Thames Yacht Club, US Coast Guard Auxiliary, US Coast Guard Academy, Norwich, Groton, Waterford, Old Saybrook, and Connecticut State Police, which will have their marine craft in the water that day.

Participating schooners will leave City Pier in New London at 11:00am and head south down the Thames River. The race winner will receive the Morgan Cup, named for the historic Charles W. Morgan, the last of the 19th century wooden whaling fleet and the oldest U.S. commercial vessel. The Morgan recently went back in the water at Mystic Seaport after a nearly five-year restoration project and is scheduled next year to visit New London and then embark on what the Seaport is billing as the historic 38th voyage.

John Johnson, the Schooner Festival chair, said given the historic importance of the Morgan, it was fitting to name the cup in her honor.

“Mystic Seaport is playing an important role in the schooner festival and the importance of the Morgan and its restoration work cannot be overstated,” said Johnson. “We’re honored to name our winner’s cup after the Morgan. The governor has proclaimed this to be ‘The Year of the Morgan’ and we wanted to add to the recognition.”

Viewers for the departure and transit out to the race area can be expected to congregate along the Waterfront Park area and at Fort Trumbull State Park. Prime viewing for the race will be at New London’s Ocean Beach Park and the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus in Groton. 

Following the race, all the schooner teams will be recognized at a special awards dinner being held at the Port ‘N’ Starboard gourmet banquet facility at Ocean Beach Park in New London from 6:00-9:00pm.  Guests will enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres served in the lounge and on the deck, followed by a buffet dinner including: pasta station, beef carving station, Italian rosemary roasted chicken, red roasted potatoes, green beans almandine, salad and rolls, and a coffee & tea station and dessert buffet. The United States Coast Guard Academy Idlers will provide entertainment for the evening.  Tickets for the awards dinner are $35, and may be purchased by calling 860.447.8370 or visiting www.CTschoonerfest.com.

The WNLC Classic 98.7 Connecticut Schooner Festival celebrates the State’s maritime heritage, history and spirit of innovation. The five-day festival begins when the schooners arrive at Mystic Seaport on Wednesday, September 11. The festival continues the following day, Thursday, September 12 with a dockside education program for Connecticut school children.  Following this initial education program in Mystic, the schooner fleet moves to the New London waterfront on Friday, September 13. 

Most of the New London activities will take place on the waterfront near City Pier, but a “Made in Connecticut” expo, featuring Connecticut-made products, will take place there was well. In addition, New London’s creative Flock Theatre will present a unique street pageant called “The Burning in Effigy of Benedict Arnold” as the centerpiece of a program that will include, among other offerings, an appearance by the Ancient Mariners fife and drum corps of Pawcatuck, Connecticut.

When the schooner festival arrives in New London on Friday, September 13, the ship captains will be honored at the United States Coast Guard Academy, with the corps of cadets marching in a Regimental Review. The public will also be treated to entertainment including music on the waterfront, a lighted boat parade to welcome the schooners and a host of other activities including sand sculpting, Kidsploration with Steve Elci and Friends, and a large color board for budding young artists.

On Saturday, in addition to the schooner race, New London’s restaurants will engage in the chowder competition from 11:00am to 4:00pm, with visitors voting for their favorites. The plein air painting competition will conclude at 2:00pm, Saturday after two days of painting throughout the New London and Mystic waterfront area.  In addition, Saturday’s festivities include an awards dinner at 6:00pm at Ocean Beach Park’s Port ‘N’ Starboard gourmet banquet facility to recognize the winners of the schooner race.

The Connecticut Schooner Festival will finish on Sunday, September 15 as the ships form a parade of sail and head down the Thames River to close out the event. There is no charge to visit the festival, and a complete schedule of activities is available at CTSchoonerFest.com.

Participating schooners include:

• Virginia, a 121-foot wooden replica of its original twentieth century pilot vessel which sailed in the Chesapeake Bay from 1917 to 1926. Homeport: Norfolk, VA.
• Sophia Christina, a 62-foot wooden vessel modeled after an 1870's Boston pilot schooner. Homeport: Weekapaug, RI.
• Mary E, a 75-foot authentic clipper built in 1906. Homeport: Essex, CT.
• Mystic, a 170-foot three-masted square topsail schooner built and launched in 2007. Homeport: Mystic, CT.
• Adventurer, built in 1925 in Mystic, CT, has sailed in Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race and prizes in Provincetown Great Schooner Regatta. Homeport: Norwalk, CT.
• Brilliant, Mystic Seaport’s prize-winning 64-foot schooner described by Wooden Boat magazine as one of the 100 most beautiful classic boats in existence. Homeport: Mystic, CT.
• Equinox; a racing rig Muscongus Bay Schooner, owned by Mathew Otto and built by Ralph Stanley in Southwest Harbor Maine, 1983-1984, 28-feet in length on deck with a spar length of about 40-feet, moored in North Basin above Mystic Seaport. Homeport: Mystic, CT.
• Irena, a Tom Colvin Gazelle model 42' schooner, built of steel in Florida in 1984, launched in Seattle in 1986, moved to Waukegan, Illinois, for Great lake sailing. Homeport: Newport, RI.
• Lelanta, a 1929 custom designed private yacht by Boston designer John G Alden and built of steel by G de Vries Lentsch at Amsterdam, Holland. Homeport: Sag Harbor, NY.
• Malabar II, a two-masted gaff-rigged schooner designed in 1922 by John Alden in Boston Massachusetts. Homeport: Vineyard Haven, NY.
• Mystic Whaler, a reproduction of a late 19th century coastal cargo schooner that was designed for the passenger trade by Chubb Crockett of Camden, Maine. Homeport: New London, CT.
• Niamh, a 42-foot Tom Colvin Saugeen Witch schooner. Homeport: Thimble Island, CT.

Historically, schooners have played an important role in the development of our state and country.  They were hardly strangers in Connecticut waters as the country struggled against the mighty British navy; they hauled cargo, and, sadly, at times slaves. Arguably the most well known of this class, La Amistad, was intercepted in Long Island Sound by a Revenue Cutter ship and escorted into New London, where it remained moored for more than a year behind the federal Customs House which remains in service to this day. In 2000, Mystic Seaport launched the Freedom Schooner Amistad, an approximate replica of the original. Today, her mission is education.