San Diego Classes Revive Dying Art Of Tall Ship Sailing

Every Sunday morning, about a dozen people gather aboard the Californian, a replica 19th century Tops'l Schooner. It's one of the Maritime Museum's four tall ships that actively sails. With the new addition of the 16th Century Spanish galleon, the San Salvador, the ships span four centuries.

On a windy morning in December, 13 crew members steered the Californian around San Diego Bay. Depending on the weather and how many guests they have aboard, they'll often take it further to sea. It's grueling work. There's a whole language to learn to understand commands and the parts of the ship. All the sails are lifted and lowered by hand, and tied down with special knots, so the Californian can harness the wind. For crew member Bob Ross, it's all worth it.

"It's a passion. These ships, they're my time machine," Ross said. "You have to preserve the skill and pass them down. They're magnificent ships, and if there's any place I'd rather be, it's on the deck of a tall ship out at sea."

Ross said he's spent more than 4,000 hours working on these tall ships over 31 years of volunteering.

"It's been one heck of a ride," Ross said.

Ross and the crew that sail the Maritime Museum's ships are all volunteers. Guests who pay to sail with the crew also get asked to pitch in with some of the simple tasks. The only paid sailor is the captain. Aboard the Californian, that's Chuck McGohey.

"Last year, they put in 80,000 hours. To pay a labor force that, we couldn't afford that," McGohey said. "I sit back here and give some commands, but the actual activity, the actual sailing of the ship, is being done by the volunteers. Without them, we wouldn't be sailing anything. I wouldn't have a job without them."

Every year, the museum puts out a call for new volunteers to learn to sail these historical ships. It's a dying skill in today's world of technologically advanced vessels.

Katie Schoolov

"There's only a handful of people in the world who have this knowledge: to be able to take a replica vessel or an artifact vessel, like the Star of India, out to sea and handle that — just under her own power of the wind and the sails," Ross said.

Another veteran volunteer, George Sutherland, will be teaching most of the classes.

"We start you out with the basics of learning to identify the parts of the ship, the parts of the rig, and then get into the lines that actually handle, maneuver, teach the knots that need to be taught," Sutherland said.

Sutherland owned a business, but was so captivated by sailing San Diego's tall ships that he gave it up 25 years ago so that he could volunteer. Now he's often barking orders at other volunteers, serving as the First Mate of the Californian.

In September, after four years of construction, the museum debuted its newest ship: the San Salvador. It's a replica of the Spanish galleon that explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay in 1542. Sutherland says with the addition of the San Salvador, the goal is to sail all four tall ships at once. For that, the museum needs to increase its number of trained sailors.

"We'd hope to get 200 people down if we could, which is how many showed up when I started back in '93," Sutherland said.

Katie Schoolov

Katie Schoolov

During the school year, the ships will take San Diego students on short educational trips. By summer, the newly-trained sailors will take the San Salvador and the Californian on overnight voyages up the coast. 

The San Salvador will need extra sailors for several days while it's being filmed for a new National Park Service film about Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and San Diego's history.

Ross says the grueling work required to sail these ships builds a lasting bond among the crew and keeps many volunteers coming back, sometimes for decades.

"You become ship mates," Ross said. "You can't explain it to someone whose never been there, but to somebody who has, you don't' need to."

Orientation to join the sailing crew is at 6 p.m. Wednesday aboard the Berkeley, with online registration. Sailing classes are free, and run every Sunday morning from Jan. 24 through March 6, with makeup classes available.