For the first time in 24 years, the “Sail Detroit” festival will return to the Detroit River. The festival is part of the Tall Ships Challenge, where large sailboats travel from different ports and will be open for paid tours.
The all-ages festival is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 7-10. Here’s what to know:
Ticket Information
Tickets are sold as morning or evening tickets for one day. Morning tickets allow access to the festival and ships from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., evening tickets allow entrance from 2-6 p.m.
The anytime pass gives an individual access to the festival and the tall ships any day of the festival at any time during the festival’s hours.
Buy tickets here.
Special events
Tickets for the 1½-hour Sailaway experience are sold out. But there are still tickets available for the “Captain Dinner.”
The dinner is from 6-8 p.m. Aug. 8 at the Waterview Loft, 130 E. Atwater in Detroit. It includes free drinks, appetizers and dinner.
Members of the Detroit Wayne County Port Authority will be there with the captains from the ships.
A ticket for one person is $150, for two, it’s $250, and for a table (eight people), it’s $1,000.
More on ships
There are four tall ships confirmed for the Sail Detroit Festival. “The Alliance” is 105 feet long, “Empire Sandy” is 203 feet long, “Ernestina-Morrissey” is 156 feet long, and “Pride of Baltimore” is 157 feet.
Each ship has a captain and roughly 20 crew members, depending on the size.
You can track the ships as they complete the Great Lakes Challenge here.
The history
The Tall Ships Challenge started in 2001 in the Great Lakes. Detroit’s port that year had a festival that brought over a million people to the RiverWalk area in downtown Detroit, with 20 different ships from various countries, according to Director of Events and Communications for the Tall Ships Challenge Erin Short.
She said that every three years, the challenge comes back to the Great Lakes, but this year is the first year since the program’s inception that the ships will make a stop in Detroit.
This year, the Tall Ship Challenge has a fleet of about 15 ships, but Short said they don’t go to all six ports.
“Not every port can fit 15 ships and not every port can afford to dock 15 ships,” Short said.
Are tall ships pirate ships?
Although tall ships look like the ships from “Pirates of the Caribbean,” Short said that the Tall Ship Challenge is trying to shake that image from people’s minds.
“We want to overcome the perception that the people on these ships are drunken sailors,” Short said. “These are certified captains with a well-trained crew.”
Short said part of the Tall Ship Challenge’s mission is to educate people about sailing and what it takes to run a boat
Short encourages individuals and families to be curious — she said there is likely a tall ship near you.
“Go sailing, enjoy the Great Lakes,” she said. “When you have the engine off, and the sails up, and you’re truly sailing. It’s magical.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why you’ll start seeing tall ships in the Detroit River in August
Reporting by Emma George-Griffin, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
