"Annual Gloucester Schooner Festival"

CG AUX Crew: (L to R) William Bell, Brian McMahon, John Amoroso, and Lawrence Call. Photo by Gary Cordette.

Labor Day weekend on Boston’s North Shore features the annual Gloucester Schooner Festival and Race, a commemoration of the seaport’s fishing history. A century ago, fast and graceful schooners sailed to the Grand Banks to harvest cod and halibut, and then return their catch to Gloucester while it was still fresh, and ahead of their rivals.

The speed of these ships, and the competitive spirit of their crews, culminated in the Fishermen’s Cup races of 1938, when Canada’s Bluenose bested Gloucester’s Gertrude L. Thebaud in a closely fought duel off Gloucester.

Although power-driven fishing vessels gradually supplanted the schooners in the first third of the twentieth century, many schooners found a new life as nautical ambassadors, sail training ships, tourist excursion vessels and private yachts, so racing them off Gloucester continues a tradition.

This year, Bluenose II, a replica of the original Bluenose, visited from Lunenburg, NS and Virginia arrived from her Norfolk homeport to compete in the 2008 race. With good weather forecasted for the race, there was a significant turnout of spectator craft. Auxiliary operational facilities were needed to screen the schooners as they got underway from the crowded Inner Harbor in the early morning.

The only way for a sail operational facility that is home-ported 12 miles away to be on station- with an alert crew- for this event was to arrive the day before the event (is that powerboater cackling I hear?)

My wife and daughter were the delivery crew, and we enjoyed a swordfish barbeque that night onboard our Sabre 386 sloop En Garde!. We were moored courtesy of the Gloucester Harbormaster, BMCS James Caulkett USCG (ret), formerly the Officer in Charge of CG Station Gloucester.

Early Sunday morning we prepped the boat for patrol and then tied up at the Harbormaster’s dock to exchange family crew for our Auxiliary crew and start our patrol.

While underway, we cautioned small craft that the schooners were un-rafting and required a lot of maneuvering room in the Inner Harbor. They would need that same maneuvering room when they reached the Outer Harbor, turned upwind and set sail.

Bright blue skies and an appropriately strong “schooner breeze” made the race exciting to watch, but worrisome for the crew of USCG Cutter Grand Isle, which was anchored as the northern end of the start and finish line. The cutter served as the race committee boat and appeared to be the target of several schooners forced off track by leeward competitors.

At the start, two competitors passed north of USCGC Grand Isle and had to come about, return to the other side of the starting line, and try again. We could hear angry shouting over the luffing sails. With the gusty wind it was no surprise that one of the schooners lost a gaff, the spar that supports the upper part of a sail. Bruce Clarkson’s Operational Facility Laura Jane retrieved it from the water and brought it back to the Harbormaster’s dock.

The schooners reached west and then east under the northerly wind for several legs as Virginia stretched out her lead, winning this year’s race as she had also done in 2007.

Although patrolling this event requires additional effort for the coxswain of a sail facility, assisting in a living history demonstration with a great crew makes it well worthwhile.

~HRW