Dana Point : 8 Tall Ships--a Record High--to Join in Race

A record eight topsail schooners and square-riggers will spread their huge sails in the third annual tall-ship race, a two-day event in October that ends in Dana Point Harbor.

The race will begin at Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard on Oct. 3, said Steve Christman, president of the Nautical Heritage Museum and owner of the official state tall ship, the Californian.

Christman said the vessels will cross an intermediate finish line off Marina del Rey, then anchor for the night at Long Beach. The next day they will start off the end of the Huntington Beach Pier and finish in Dana Point.

Vessels scheduled to take part include the Californian, a top-sail schooner that was last year’s winner; the Pilgrim, a reproduction of the brig on which author Richard Henry Dana Jr. sailed off Southern California 150 years ago; the Argus, a Sea Scout training ship; the Swift of Ipswich; the schooner Pilgrim built by Dennis Holland in Costa Mesa; Renegade III, Resolution and Spike Africa.