Ship’s Sailing Schedule
2011 Sailing Schedule
2011 Sailing Schedule Version 3-24-11
We have a schedule that we can publish for everyone!!! The day sails are pretty much locked in so you can sign up for those whenever you would like. The only changes that may be made would be in the ports we are going to this summer and I will make sure that the schedule is updated as soon as I know there is a change. Please let me know if there is any problems with viewing the schedule. I believe you will have to rotate it once you open the pdf to view it in landscape. If you have any questions send me a message or comment on the blog. Let’s go Sailing!!!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 7 so far )Spring is Here! Due to Fair Weather Forecast, Niagara Crew to Uncover the Ship Early!
In an annual effort to prepare the Flagship Niagara for the summer sailing season, the ship’s volunteer crew will don their work clothes this Friday and Saturday, March 19th and 20th to remove the ship’s winter cover. Originally scheduled for removal on Saturday, March 27th, the project has been moved earlier due to the weather forecast for the next ten days.
Made of steel posts, wooden beams, and traditional canvas, the ship’s winter cover is designed to protect the ship during strong winter gales and heavy ice and snow. The volunteer and professional crewmembers will begin removing canvas at 11am on Friday, March 19, and will remove the cover’s framing on Saturday.
“This Saturday marks the beginning of the 20th sailing season for the Flagship Niagara, and we intend to celebrate it by sailing more, taking more people out on the water, and delivering our educational cargo to more people this year than ever before” said Capt. Wesley Heerssen. “To do this, we need to get the ship prepared for sailing earlier than ever before. This was an El Nino winter…shorter and milder than usual, and we intend to take advantage of the early spring. We’re going to uncover the ship this weekend with volunteers, then get the ship cleaned up for the seasonal crew to move onboard when they arrive in Erie next weekend. With any luck, we’ll only see a couple inches of wet snow in late March, which we’ll have to plod our way through, and then we’ll rig up the ship in time for sailing on April 29th.”
“The public are, as always, invited to volunteer as ship’s crew, and it’s never too late to get started. This Saturday, new and prospective volunteers are asked to show up at the rear entrance to the Erie Maritime Museum, directly at the dock, alongside the ship, at 9am. New volunteers should ask for the Chief Mate, Billy Sabatini, and he’ll get them signed up and started” said Capt. Heerssen.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )New Sailing Program for Niagara
Here is the press release for our latest program that has been developed.
College Consortium Press Release
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )2010 Sailing Schedule
Here is the latest Sailing Schedule. We are leaving for the college consortium earlier than in the last schedule.
2010 Sailing Schedule Version 3-2-10
I have also changed the schedule in the previous posts as well.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 7 so far )2010 Sailing Schedule
As promised there has been some changes to the schedule and here they are.
2010 Sailing Schedule Version 3-2-10
I have also changed the schedule in the previous posts as well.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )2010 Sailing Schedule
2010 Sailing Schedule Version 3-2-10
So the schedule has been put together as best we can this far in advance. We wanted to get this out there as soon as possible so people start making plans now. There is always a chance that the schedule will change and we will contact anyone who is affected by the change if you have signed up for a particular passage. As soon as we have determined what the TBD(To Be Determined) sections will be I will update the schedule with a new post.
I encourage all of you to sign up to be a trainee for passages soon. This is a big season for us with many great passages to make and thousands of miles to sail on all 5 Great Lakes. We are also going to be a part of the Tall Ships Challenge Race Series with ASTA racing against many other tall ships. With ports stops of Duluth, Chicago, Cleveland, Toronto, Green Bay and Put in Bay it’s sure to be a fun summer and quite the adventure. Trainees will start joining the ship once we start uprig and will leave once downrig is complete. Let’s fill the ship this summer!
Who wants to go sailing?
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 11 so far )An End and a Beginning
Today marks the end of the 2009 sailing season. We will be down to only a couple seasonal crew left to help with maintenance. The galley will stop operations and the crew will start living semi normal lives again. We have sailed more days this summer than any other summer here in the Lakes. In 84 days at sea we sailed 2673 nautical miles. That is a lot of sailing for not doing a large voyage.
I am very pleased with how the crew how done this season dealing uncertainties the entire time but still holding true to taking care of the ship, their shipmates and when they had time themselves too. It has been an honor to sail with this crew and I can only hope that the 2010 crew will work as well together.
Tomorrow marks the beginning of Winter Maintenance. I know it’s not winter yet but it will be soon enough. As usual there is a big maintenance project going on. We will be replace at least one of our Main channels. I will post about that project as it happens. In the Rig Shop out goal is to get through all the pallets of rigging this year and we can use all the help we can get so anyone interested in volunteering come on down.
We made through this season and with everyone’s continued support we will hopefully be able to make through 2010 as well.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )The Last Sail of the Season
OK, so I didn’t finish telling everyone who the crew is/was this year but they have all left for the most part. I also didn’t update anyone on what we’ve been up to this summer. Well, I apologize for that. I had the best of intentions sitting in my office in April but as soon as the sailing season hit I wasn’t sitting in my office anymore and the blog suffered. I do intend on updating more often this fall and winter as the work progresses.
That said, tomorrow will be our last sail of the season. We will actually will be sailing with Pennsylvania Sea Grant and doing a program with them similar to the program that we have done with them twice this season. We will be sailing with students from local schools both in the morning and afternoon.
If any of you are volunteers and would like to sail tomorrow let me know and we’ll go sailing! Just send me an email at wisabatini@state.pa.us.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )The Professional Crew for 2009 is Selected!!!
Here’s the crew for 2009:
Senior Captain: Walter Rybka
Captain: Wesley Heerssen
Chief Mate: Billy Sabatini
Second Mate: Joe Lengieza
Third Mate: Chris Cusson
Engineer/Carpenter: Pat Crosby
Cook: Ray Krugger
Boatswain: Rob Aspinwall
Alpha AB Seaman: Monet Brazier
Bravo AB Seaman: David Goldman
Charlie AB Seaman: Rocky Hadler
Ordinary Seaman: Isaiah Young
Ordinary Seaman: Natalie Schaefer
Ordinary Seaman: Sydnee Groenendaal
Ordinary Seaman: Jeremy Dann
Ordinary Seaman: Michael Pierson
Ordinary Seaman: Ben Tribby
Ordinary Seaman: Billy Rudek
I plan on posting here and on facebook informatin on each of the crew members and what they are doing this winter so keep checking the blog and you’ll find out who your 2009 Niagara crew is. This looks to be a great crew and I can’t wait to sail with them this summer. The crew will start arriving March 3rd and our full compliment will be here by the Shakedown Sail on May 21st. Let’s Go Sailing!!!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )New Volunteer Orientation and Sail Training
We’re going to start a new sail training class for anyone looking to become a volunteer on Niagara for the upcoming season. There is no cost for this class. The orientation will take place on January 31st, 2009 here at the museum at 0830. The sail training sessions will begin February 7 and continue until April 18th. We will meet from 0830 until 1230 every other Saturday. If you are interested let me know. If you know anyone who might be interested please let them know. I can be contacted at wisabatini@state.pa.us, 814-452-2744 ext 210, through facebook or just leave me a comment here. These are some pictures of last year’s group.
« Previous Entries
Billy Sabatini
wheerssen
