Galveston Island will have the honor of being the first port of the Tall Ships 2018 Challenge. The Challenge will be the impetus for the new Tall Ships Galveston Festival coming early in April.
The challenge will be a race of at least five tall ships. Those now on the agenda are:
• The Elissa - an original United States vessel built in 1877
• The Oliver Hazard Perry – the United States’ largest civilian Sailing School Vessel, rebuilt in 2015
• The Oosterschelde – a 1918 vessel from the Netherlands
• The U.S. When And If, commissioned in 1939
• Picton Castle – a ship from the Cook Islands built in 1928
The course will be across the Gulf of Mexico with stops in New Orleans and Pensacola.
The three-day festival will have tours of the participating ships and short sailing excursions. Its first event will be the Parade of Sails, when the fleet travels Galveston’s Seawall Boulevard and enters Galveston Bay. Viewing party hosts are getting their banner printing carried out to show support for the vessels.
The next three days will be full of entertainment on three stages. At the ‘Salute To Sunset Parties’, guests will be given special tours of a tall ship, and light hors d’oeuvres and beverages.
Plankowners’ Captain’s Table Dinner will be held for guests and the captains of the Tall Ships.
The festival will be April 5 through 8 at the Texas Seaport Museum, 2100 Harborside Drive.
