In Stunning Spectacle, RI Tall Ship Sails for First Time

Narragansett Bay was graced by the mighty presence of the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry on Thursday as she set sail for the first time on wind power alone on a maiden voyage to join other Tall Ships for the Portland 2015 festival in Maine.

The replica ship is a 200-foot-long full-rigged monolith and is the first of its kind to be built in America in more than 100 years.

It’s the Ocean State’s Official Sailing Education Vessel and the the remarkable sight early in the morning was made possible by a legion of local master builders toiling for years alongside fundraisers, educators and others to bring her to life.

It was a clear, cool morning as she left the Hinkley Boat Yard in Portsmouth to make her way up the coast. Anyone looking out over the East Passage of Narragansett Bay would have seen her 20 sails get unfurled one-by-one as her crew climbed up high to free the lines that secured them to the yards.

It was a sight that hearkened to times of colonial war, when the bay was host to battleships, frigates and cannon fire setting fires to massive sails.

“This is a huge milestone,” said Jess Wurzbacher, Executive Director of the non-profit Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island (OHPRI), “over the past seven years all of her movements have been under the control of tugs. The wind was blowing 12-15 knots out of the north to make it a nice downwind run out of the Bay, so it was great to watch the sails harness some of that power – it is what we have all been waiting to see for years.”

Oliver Hazard Perry was dockside at Newport Shipyard last week for a fundraising gala that celebrated the $16 million economic development project that brought maritime industry jobs to Rhode Island. The gala itself raised $122,000 and the nonprofit’s board chairman Bart Dunbar was lauded for his devotion to Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island and its educational mission.

We are far from finished with fundraising,” said Dunbar, explaining that the focus will soon turn to the ship’s Education at Sea programs, “but it is a huge milestone to have the ship completed and going through its final inspections and preparations for accommodating students of all ages.”

The Oliver Hazard Perry is 200 feet long, three-masted and is a Class-A size Tall Ship hosted by maritime nations around the world.

The impressive silhouette of SSV Oliver HazardPerry includes a towering rig, the tallest part of which reaches 13 ½ stories high; a total of 19 spars that have been turned from massive Douglas fir trees on the largest spar lathe in North America; seven miles of rope and wire that have been made integral to the ship’s operation by tradesmen trained in both modern and traditional rigging techniques; and 20 sails, both square and fore-and-aft that total 14,000 square feet.

As a Sailing School Vessel, the Tall Ship will carry not passengers but students of all ages participating in academic and experiential learning programs aboard while engaging in all aspects of shipboard life.

“The Perry is a modern, steel-hulled ocean-going civilian sail training vessel, with a 13 ½ story rig and 20 sails (made by Hood Sailmakers in Middletown, R.I.) with 14,000 sq. ft. of sail area,” says the ship’s Captain Richard Bailey, a Wellfleet, Mass. native greatly respected for his previous Tall Ship commands and his knowledge of maritime traditions, education and their combined relevance in the modern world. “Her design is based on centuries-old tradition, but her equipment is anything but antiquated.”

In addition to her three decks, modern galley and Great Cabin (where captains, in days of yore, entertained), the Perry sports, among other things, high-end navigation and communication systems, a state-of-the-art science lab (designed under the guidance of the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography), and wheelchair accessibility (including accessible below deck staterooms, heads and a wheelchair lift). The Great Cabin will be used less for entertaining and more for education in its capacity as a classroom outfitted with monitors displaying real-time navigation and meteorological data. The other classroom space will house laptop computers (donated by Intel), interactive SMART boards (donated by Shanix Technologies, Inc.) and a well-stocked library.

“Below decks, she is really not like any other Tall Ship that is sailing out there today,” says Bailey, who notably ran “HMS” Rose for 20 years before it was bought by Hollywood producers for the movie Master and Commander. “Above decks, however, she is a completely traditional Tall Ship, and in that respect there are many artisans who will have had a hand in contributing to her character.”

By the nature of sailing itself, the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry will be energy efficient, powered by the wind whenever possible. To reduce its energy footprint further, the ship’s diesel engines and generators will run on biodiesel (supplied by Newport BioDiesel), and ultra-high capability Ensolve separators will cleanse oily waste water down to 2-15 ppm using naturally occurring microbes. On board, the focus will be on sustainable living: conserving water, minimizing trash and reducing food waste. Trash will be separated and all plastics taken ashore for recycling, while black water will be treated in an onboard waste water treatment plant.

“It is expected that with all these ecologically responsible practices in place, along with first-hand experiences of the fragility of ocean life, a sense of pride, stewardship and passion for the marine environment will be instilled in our shipmates,” said Richard Bailey, the Captain of the ship.

For more information about SSV Oliver Hazard Perry, please visit www.ohpri.org

Photos: Onne van der Wal