Schooner Festival sailing in this weekend

23 vessels, including Columbia, expected

By Sean H organ Staff Writer

The Gloucester Schooner Festival will return this holiday weekend following its pandemic-induced hiatus in 2020 and organizers say they expect large and energized waterfront crowds for the four-day event.

“We get the sense that people are really desperate for it after missing it last year,” Daisy Nell, chairwoman of the festival committee that hosts the event along with Maritime Gloucester, said Tuesday. “This event is a touchstone back to the lives of our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents and Gloucester’s celebrated cultural heritage that is such a reminder of who we are. Everybody loves the schooners.”

The festival, in its traditional spot on Labor Day weekend, is a consensus crown jewel among Gloucester’s

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The schooner Columbia gets ready to race in the annual Gloucester Schooner Festival Mayor’s Races in 2019. The vessel was running ahead of the remnants of Hurricane Ida and was expected to arrive Tuesday night or Wednesday for this weekend’s Schooner Festival.

PAUL BILODEAU/Staff photo

■ Continued from Page 1 summer events. Some years, depending on weather and the lineup of schooners, the festival has drawn tens of thousands of visitors and locals to Gloucester Harbor to bask in the beauty of the vessels that hearken back to the golden age of sail.

As of Tuesday, organizers say the lineup of schooners sits at 23, including Gloucester’s fabled trio of schooners — Adventure, Ardelle and the Thomas E. Lannon.

“We lost one yesterday, but gained two,” Nell said. “Depending on the weather and other factors, it could change again.”

The festival again will feature one of the most popular vessels in the event’s history, with the return of the 175-foot Columbia, the steel replica of the famous fishing and racing schooner of the same name.

Michael De Koster, executive director of Maritime Gloucester, said Columbia, which will tie up at the temporary docks in Harbor Cove, was running ahead of the remnants of Hurricane Ida and hoped to make Gloucester by Tuesday evening or during the day Wednesday.

Adventure and Columbia will be joined by Roseway and American Eagle in the large schooner category.

The Lannon and Ardelle will be joined by Alert, Fame, Fritha, Light Reign, Tree of Life, When and If, and Tyrone in the category for medium-sized vessels.

The group of smaller vessels includes Bald Eagle, Black Bird, Calabash, Eileen Marie, Green Dragon, Lewis H. Story, Malabar II, Redbird, Renegade, Sea Hawk, Strombus and Sycamore.

On Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the public will be able to view the vessels at dock and tour their decks at three locations — the Harriet Webster Pier at Maritime Gloucester on Harbor Loop; the temporary docks off the city-owned I-4, C-2 parcel on Rogers Street; and, new this year, at Ocean Alliance’s docks on Rocky Neck.

Saturday also will feature the annual Maritime Heritage Day at Maritime Gloucester from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., as well as an exhibition dory race at 9 a.m. from Maritime Gloucester toward the Tarr & Wonson Paint Factory and back.

Saturday night’s schedule includes a concert on Stacy Boulevard from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m.; the Boat Parade of Lights from the Annisquam River into the Inner Harbor, from 7 to 9:30 p.m.; and fireworks at 9:15 p.m. over the Outer Harbor.

On Sunday morning, the entire fleet of schooners will participate in the Parade of Sail that offers prime viewing from Gloucester Harbor, Stacy Boulevard and Eastern Point.

The Mayor’s Cup races will follow, 1 to 5 p.m., off Eastern Point.

The return of the festival has not been without some anxious moments, most born of concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic that significantly reduced organizers’ planning time.

“Usually it take a full year to put this festival together,” De Koster said. “This year, we did it in three months. The fact we could do that was testament to the committee’s knowledge and experience, both of which were put to the test.”

Organizers initially were concerned that scheduling uncertainties would curtail fundraising and leave them with insufficient funds to stage the event.

“But people really stepped up,” De Koster said. “It was close, but we made it.”

Organizers confronted their go/don’t go moment in the spring as vaccines arrived and the state accelerated its reopening from the full menu of social restrictions.

The COVID-19 pandemic, at least in Massachusetts, seemed on the wane. The decision was made to move forward.

But the emergence of the delta variant strain and its potential for refiring the pandemic convinced organizers to remain vigilant in their planning.

There is no mask mandate for the event and the captains of each vessel will determine the rules aboard their respective boats. Organizers, however, are urging the public to practice safe social distancing and employ masks in any indoor spaces.

Some events have been scaled back. The popular Mayor’s Reception on Friday night will be invitation-only and be capped at about 170.