Talls Ships Race Through Doldrums at Languid Pace

They’re not the tallest of the tall ships. Nor in Sunday’s hot, languid breezes were they the fastest.

But the seven wooden sailing vessels competing in the second leg of the two-day Tall Ship Race from Oxnard to Dana Point drew hundreds of shore-bound viewers lured by the romance of the sea--the flapping canvas sail ballooning with a silent wind, the varnished wood, the coiled ropes, the smell of brine and tar.

“The ships are exciting to me, not the race,” said Bill Flory of El Toro, who had arrived before noon at Dana Point’s Orange County Marine Institute to make sure he had a parking place when the seven vessels arrived in the evening.

Family of Ship Builders

Part of a family of ship builders, Flory said he also saw the last two annual Tall Ship races.

The second leg of the two-day race was won Sunday by the Californian, owned by the Nautical Heritage Society of Dana Point.

The Californian was also declared the overall winner and was awarded the perpetual silver trophy at an awards banquet Sunday night.

Earlier in the day, a mild “yea” went up when race results were posted and a small group was informed that the brig Pilgrim II, moored in Dana Point Harbor as a teaching vessel for 10 months each year (it races and makes educational trips for two months), had tied for first in the first leg of the race from the Channel Islands Harbor. That leg was cut short Saturday after four hours when winds virtually died, according to Harry Helling, director of education at the institute, who sailed on the the Pilgrim II.

Later Sunday, however, officials announced that the Spike Africa had actually won the first leg.

Helling, surprised to learn this late Sunday, said it didn’t really matter.

“All that counted was that we all had a lot of fun,” he said.

The ships dropped anchor near Long Beach and began the race again Sunday from Huntington Beach.

This year, a complex handicapping system, calculating one ship’s expected speed against another, was used to determine staggered starting times, Helling said.

Models of 19th-Century Vessels

Not all the ships were designed to race. Six are models of 19th-Century sailing vessels. The other is a fishing vessel from the 1920s.

The brig Pilgrim II represents the cargo vessel described by Richard Henry Dana in the book “Two Years Before the Mast” and used to haul hides during the early California mission era. Its square sails, which picked up the trade winds, were not designed for speed, Helling said.

But the re-creation of the revenue cutter Californian was. The 145-foot schooner was meant to overtake seagoing tax evaders during the Gold Rush and could take advantage of the coastal winds.

The crew on the Pilgrim II was composed of volunteers who normally spend weekends maintaining the ship. The race served to maintain their enthusiasm and hone their skills, he said.

They proved to be competent and competitive, Helling said. Whenever the Californian passed another ship, its crew fired its cannons to humiliate the losers, he said. “It’s all in good spirit,” he added.

On the Pilgrim the volunteer crew demanded to be treated like 19th-Century sailors, Helling said. At one point when the winds were light, the captain mustered the crew and ordered them to tar the ship’s shrouds “from top to bottom.” Like sailors of old, they complained and sang sea shanties, he said.

Meanwhile, at the Marine Institute, viewers brought blankets, beach chairs and binoculars to the beach and the jetty while others crowded a gazebo and windows of bluff-top restaurants above.