The weather could have been better. The crowds could have been bigger. But, on its final day Monday, organizers called the Tacoma Tall Ships 2008 a success, and vowed to begin work on bringing the ships back in three years – just as soon as they finish crunching the numbers from this year’s event.

“Everyone I’ve spoken to wants to see this happen again,” festival spokesman Matthew Erlich said.

Some 50,000 people visited on Monday, bringing the total

estimate for the five-day festival to 400,000, Erlich said.

That’s far less than the estimated 700,000 who came to the 2005 festival, but organizers were much more conservative with their estimates this time around.

This year’s number is based on estimates from aerial photos, parking lot usage and consultation with police, Erlich said. It’s difficult to measure precise attendance because admission to the festival was free, Erlich said, although boarding and sailing tickets were sold.

“I think the rain had a bigger impact on the number of visitors than we originally hoped,” Erlich said. There was more open space along the waterfront during Thursday’s Parade of Sail than there was in 2005, he noted.

The busiest day was Sunday, with an estimated 150,000 visitors. The lines to board the most popular ships were sometimes longer than two hours that day, and organizers heard complaints from some visitors who waited, then found the ship they wanted to visit was out sailing.

That’s one of the issues that will be examined as organizers debrief, Erlich said. Organizers might consider going to a timed ticket system or creating a better schedule of the sailings, he said.

It will likely be a few weeks until organizers know how the event fared financially, Erlich said. Despite the lower overall attendance, the paid tickets appeared to do well, he said.

Jonathan Harley, race director for the American Sail Training Association, described this year’s event as simply “fantastic.”

“It far surpasses what they did in 2005,” said Harley in a news release. His group organizes the tall ships’ annual tour and race.

No arrests were made during the festival. Two people were removed from the event, Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said.

“It was an exceptionally good crowd,” he said.

Law enforcement officers worked the festival round-the-clock. Thirty-four Tacoma police officers staffed the event Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., while 20 Tacoma officers worked from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. each of those days. Fourteen officers from other law enforcement agencies worked on the Fourth.

Staffing was reduced Monday because of smaller crowds.

The festival received praise from the ships and the nearby maritime museum, but one vendor said it was a struggle to break even.

Catherine Collins, the executive director of the nonprofit organization that runs the Adventuress, said the Tacoma stop was a success for the Port Townsend-based schooner.

“This has been the best exposure the Adventuress has had in years,” she said. “This has been a really, really great festival for us.”

The crew of the HMCA Oriole also lauded festival organizers. The Canadian Naval ship saw more than 1,850 people board Sunday, her busiest day. The response was overwhelming, Master Seaman Don Read said.

The festival led to record turnouts at the Foss Waterway Seaport Museum, which was free during the event. The displays of vintage boats, antique telephones and old engines drew more than 15,000 people Friday, about 10,000 each on Saturday and Sunday, and a little fewer Monday.

“Clearly, the scale of this is tremendous,” said Tom Cashman, executive director of the Foss Waterway Seaport. “We’re extremely, extremely happy.”

Not everyone was.

Chris Waggoner, the co-owner of Brothers BBQ of Puyallup, said his business was lucky because he received a spot in Treasure Cove Village, where the Class A ships were docked and the largest crowds congregated. He paid $3,000 for the spot and grossed about $9,000. After supplies and labor, he said he was barely in the black for the festival.

“The fee was a little excessive considering the crowd they had last time didn’t show up this time,” he said adding that the business did better in one day at the Meeker Days festival in Puyallup in June than it did during all of Tall Ships.

Throughout the festival, Michelle Merritt, a Tall Ships Tacoma organizer, said she had been hearing from people who want more.

The ASTA Tall Ships Challenge comes to the West Coast every three years, but there are many beautiful ships based on the West Coast. Creating an annual festival around them is a possibility, she said.

ASTA contracts with communities to put on Tall Ships events. In 2005, ASTA awarded Tacoma “Port of the Year” honors. This year’s selection – dependent in large part on the vote of vessel captains – will be announced at an ASTA conference Nov. 14-16.

Jason Hagey: 253-597-8542

Scott Fontaine: 253-320-4758

Staff writers Stacey Mulick and Kathleen Merryman contributed to this report.

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