DULUTH 鈥� When a single tall ship visited Duluth in 1976, folks were pretty excited.
"People were there by the thousands, lining the piers from end to end" as the masts of the Christian Radich just barely squeezed under the Aerial Lift Bridge, reported the "There were thousands more inside the harbor."
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"It was the bicentennial that really raised awareness," remembered Craig Samborski. "That's about the same time that Tall Ships America, the association, came into being."
As gatherings of large, traditionally rigged sailing ships proliferated across the country, it took Duluth a while to land regular visits. A local banker's 1986 attempt to permanently acquire a schooner, ended ignominiously. Still, Duluthians' yearning to see tall ships never abated.
Samborski first worked on a tall ship event in the 1990s, when he was director of entertainment at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. That led to years of organizing tall ship events in Duluth and, eventually, across the country.
Under the name "Festival of Sail," Samborski is bringing tall ships back to Duluth from Thursday, July 10, through Sunday, July 13. This year's event is expected to feature nine sailing ships, in addition to a platform diving competition and the world's largest rubber duck.
"It's kind of this big, family-friendly circus that's based around the port," said Jeff Stark, whose company, Winterfell Management, is partnering with Samborski to present the Festival of Sail.
For any mainland U.S. port, a window of availability for a tall ship gathering opens just once every three years.
"Tall Ships America, it really was them that started the cycle," explained Samborski. "They would do Great Lakes one year, they would do East Coast the next year and then they would do West Coast the year after that."
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During planning for the 2022 Festival of Sail, Duluth's harbor seawall was expected to be under construction, so The seawall work, though delayed, has now been substantially completed.
"We made do," said Samborski about the Two Harbors sojourn, "but with the new seawall, for decades, probably, tall ships will be back in Duluth."
The event will begin Thursday, July 10, with a through the Duluth Ship Canal, the tall ships grouped into three "flights" between which the Aerial Lift Bridge can close for vehicles to cross. The parade will take place between about 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., after which ships will dock along the seawall on either side of Minnesota Slip and open for onboard tours.
Admission to the festival includes the opportunity to tour docked ships, such as the William A. Irvin and the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Sundew; to watch the diving competition; and to access vendors, as well as other attractions. Oh, and to see that big duck.
Samborski owns the 6-story duck, which he commissioned after accepting a challenge to "go big or go home" for a Los Angeles tall ships event in 2014.
"It was really built as a publicity stunt for L.A.," he said. "After that, my email started exploding."
Stark provided the connection to USA Diving, the sport's national governing body. The organization wanted to present a high dive challenge in the area, but a competition for internationally ranked divers plunging into the Duluth Harbor proved challenging to organize as a standalone event. Partnering with another large harborside event made sense.
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The Superior High Dive Challenge comes billed as "the first professional high diving event held on the Great Lakes." If the exhibition competition is a success this year with a 65-foot tower, it could potentially come back as an officially sanctioned competition with a 90-foot tower.
"There's talk of potential national championships or world championships that would be located exactly where we're doing this right now," said Stark.
If that sounds like a stretch, just remember that as recently as 2008, the prospect of three tall ships at once docked in the harbor was enough to make Visit Duluth's director of public relations "a bit giddy" (in the words of Now, we will have nine.
"To get to Duluth, that is a long sail," Samborski noted. "But the ships are like, there is no way we can't do Duluth. When we're in the Great Lakes, we have to go to Duluth. It's (the) Woodstock, maybe, of all ship festivals."
Ticket options vary by day. All include tours of docked ships, while others include sailing experiences on various vessels. A "Luxe Pass" includes early admission and other perks, including access to food and amenities at The Garden.
People hoping simply to watch the Parade of Sail on Thursday have a range of free options to observe the ships, which will be visible from much of Duluth as they process from the lake into the harbor. Both piers flanking the Duluth Ship Canal will be open, as will be the green space on the canal's south side; the area immediately in front of the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center is
One reason festivals like this aren't more common, explained Samborski, is that tall ships are most commonly owned by nonprofits with educational missions. Festival appearances are meaningful, but availability for more in-depth educational programs is a priority.
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"They're professional captains and crews," said Samborski. "They're all well-educated and experienced people, so they like to pay that forward."
For Festival of Sail information and tickets, see
The Trust Project
