Tall Ships Line Up For AWBF 2017

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We have excellent news that the feature vessel line-up for 2017 is already looking good and we may even be scratching our heads to figure out where we will put all of them.  Back from her hugely successful circumnavigation is the Australian youth flagship Young Endeavour, always a welcome guest when Navy Week coincides with the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.  The ship, under the command of the well-known-in-Hobart Captain Gavin Dawe, has completed a 35,000 nautical mile voyage, visiting 18 countries and changing the lives of 200 young Australians. She’ll be very welcome in Hobart in 2017.  The Australian National Maritime Museum, in a much closer partnership with AWBF this time around, will send the ship Bark Endeavour, one of the most remarkable, historically accurate replicas ever built.  We loved her last visit to Hobart (albeit a little delayed by weather), when she loosed a broadside of cannon on entry to Sullivans Cove.  Thankfully, the charges were blanks, but the effect brought cheers from the crowd awaiting her arrival.  The superb three-masted barque Tenacious will be a dramatic addition to the line-up. At 65 metres (213.25 feet) in length, she is of a similar size to the James Craig and the largest wooden ship launched in Great Britain in the last 100 years.  More remarkable still, she is adapted for sailing with people with disabilities, offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many disabled sailors to crew an ocean-going tall ship in full sail. The ship is operated by the Jubilee Sailing Trust, which sent the Lord Nelson to Hobart for the Tall Ships Festival in 2013. Enterprize is a familiar friend at the AWBF, and now famous for battling the terrifying weather in the Bass Strait and making it to Hobart in 2015, when even the James Craig was unable to complete the voyage.  (It’s worth remembering that all ship sailings are subject to wind and weather, of course).  With Tasmanian ships Windeward Bound, Rhona H, Julie Burgess, Lady Nelson and Yukon, the 2017 Parade of Sail is shaping up to be one of the most dramatic in recent years.  We’ll keep you posted as we add more ships to the roster and confirm notable historic yachts and overseas guests.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1265″ img_size=”600×600″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1266″ img_size=”400×400″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1260″ img_size=”400×400″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Tall ships Tenacious, Young Endeavour and Bark Endeavour will be with us for AWBF 2017[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]