Shipshape : Pilgrim II Shakedown Cruise to Be Only 5 Weeks Before the Mast

A tall ship from Orange County, the brig Pilgrim II, will take part in celebrations preceding the America’s Cup races off San Diego in early September.

The square-rigger, which is moored near the Orange County Marine Institute in Dana Point Harbor, will sail Friday night, said Stanley L. Cummings, executive director of the institute.

The cruise will be a shortened version of one planned earlier, which would have retraced the wanderings on this coast more than 150 years ago of seaman-author Richard Henry Dana, for whom Dana Point is named.

That voyage would have taken the vessel north to San Francisco, with stops at Monterey and other ports visited by Dana during the hide-trading days of the 1830s. Pilgrim II is a detailed, 93-foot reproduction of Dana’s vessel, which played a large part in his classic book, “Two Years Before the Mast.”

“That voyage was a dream the institute has had for years,” Cummings said. “It would have tied in with the county’s centennial celebration and retraced Dana’s historic course, but we decided to test our ship and crew for another year. Once you get around Point Conception, heading north, it’s a whole different ocean.”

Also, he said, the chance to take part in the America’s Cup ceremonies is a once-in-a-The cruise will be a shortened version of one planned earlier, which would have retraced the wanderings on this coast more than 150 years ago of Richard Henry Dana.

lifetime opportunity to “show off our brig.”

A bon voyage party will be held Thursday at the Dana Point Resort, starting at 7:30 p.m. Proceeds from the event will go to the nonprofit Pilgrim Trust, which is raising money to complete the purchase of the ship for the Orange County Marine Institute.

Cummings said the brig will reach San Diego about 10 a.m. Saturday under the command of Capt. Ray Wallace. It will take part in ceremonies at Spanish Landing with the British-owned replica of the Golden Hind, and will participate in pre-America’s Cup programs Sept. 5. The race between United States and New Zealand sailboats will start Sept. 7. On Sept. 9, Pilgrim II will sail for San Pedro and Santa Barbara, two of the ports at which Dana called, and then return to Dana Point on Sept. 25.

The brig was reconstructed in Portugal in the early 1970s from the hull of a schooner built in Denmark. She was sailed to California in 1975 by Capt. Wallace. Because she was foreign-built, Pilgrim II has operated under a complex 1920 law which forbids such vessels from conducting business between U.S. ports. A bill to exempt her from that law is expected to be acted upon by Congress early next year, Cummings said.

Meanwhile, she can sail only as a pleasure craft, and “can’t even carry brochures or souvenirs” from port to port, Cummings said.