Tall Ships Tacoma was an experiment in 2005 – a half- crazy gamble that the majestic vessels that plied the seas in the 18th and 19th centuries would prove a hit in the 21st.
A hit it was. The bet produced a jackpot that nearly buried Tacoma. Tall Ships drew at least 700,000 people to the city’s waterfront, overwhelming all expectations and confounding some of the Tacoma Events Commission’ best-laid plans.
Unanticipated problems cropped up; adequate disability access to the attractions, for example. The extra police and fire protection needed for so many people cost an unexpected fortune, and the city bickered with the commission for a year and a half before acknowledging it had overbilled the group by $75,000.
Truth be told, these are the kind of problems a first-time community festival would kill to have. They were a byproduct of the vast numbers of people drawn to the event.
Come Thursday, the tall ships will return – more of them, actually – beginning on that day with the Parade of Sails as the vessels enter Commencement Bay. The Northwest is in for a refresher on the riggings of brigs, brigantines, barques and barquentines.
This time, Tall Ships 2008 is well prepared even for the problems of success. The event’s engineers, the Tacoma Tall Ships Organization, have learned from the mistakes of 2005 and do not intend to repeat them. Public safety, especially, has received much attention: 550 security personnel will be brought in.
The ships themselves are endlessly fascinating; each is a window into history.
One, for example, is a replica of Christopher Columbus’ Nina, built for the Columbus Foundation with 15th-century hand-craft techniques. It is a caravel – the high-tech marvel of its time.
Caravels were among the first ships that could venture across oceans; they carried European discoverers and conquerors around the world in the age of discovery. The Nina was 68 feet long, startlingly small for its crew of roughly 30 sailors, their livestock, water, arms and other supplies.
With superstars like the Nina, Tall Ships is expected to draw another 700,000 visitors through the Fourth of July weekend – many of them people newly discovering the attractions of Tacoma and the Thea Foss Waterway.
This won’t be the gamble it was in 2005. There was no guarantee then that the event would succeed and no guarantee the ships would ever come back. But they’re back, and there’s good reason to think that this grand event is becoming an institution.
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