OpSail’s origins, O’Brien notes, come in part from the idea of a changing nautical word: the last official working, cargo-carrying tall ship had recently gone out of service when the event was conceived. “So the concept was: Let’s gather these majestic ships before they disappear off the face of the earth forever,” O’Brien says.
That forecast has not come to pass—if anything the numbers are up, at least ceremonially. A mere 16 tall ships showed up OpSail’s 1976 bicentennial event, a paltry turnout when compared with the 25 that will sail in this year for the semiquincentennial. Commodore Harrington says, “This is going to be OpSail on steroids. Just a buzz of activity that whole week.”
How to experience it
Once moored, the ships will open up to the public, inviting spectators aboard to meet the sailors and wander the decks. Among them: Romania’s 88-year-old Mircea, which will again journey from the Black Sea to Brooklyn Bridge Park under the watch of its mustachioed figurehead, contributing to Mircea’s faintly piratical vibe. “It is kind of classic. Not sure we can promise any peg legs or Captain Hook though,” Commodore Harrington said.
The most ideal perch for the procession lies just west of Brooklyn. O’Brien will be stationed on Governors Island, where he once cut his teeth as a young Coast Guard officer and where NBC—including The Today Show—will broadcast the beauties for six hours. “Between the Statue of Liberty and Governors Island’s southern tip, there’s this pitch point where the channel gets narrow and the tall ships seem like they’re right on top of you,” he said. “Great for the cameras.”
The festival’s oldest ship, Elissa, happens to also be one of the few Class A vessels upon which spectators can actually board early that morning and effectively participate in July 4th’s parade of sail up and down New York Harbor. The 50 available spots aboard this surprisingly seaworthy ship from 1877 run around $10,000 a pop including fees.
Texas’s official tall ship hasn’t been to the city since 1986’s OpSail, when Captain Ryan Bradfield was just two years old. This year, he’ll be managing Elissa’s crew of 42, and overseeing rigging maintenance en route. “I’m kind of the ringleader of this circus,” he said. “We get underway from Galveston’s seaport mid-May.”
After the parade, Captain Bradfield and his Texan crew will tie up at Lower Manhattan’s Pier 36, then open the ship to the public for a little après-parade revelry—Texas-centric fare, live music and drinks, including Elissa’s namesake IPA brewed by Houston’s Saint Arnold Brewing Co.
Another ship, Germany’s Gorch Fock, will make the Atlantic crossing once more—only this time Chris O’Brien’s teenage daughter will be aboard. Is the former Coast Guard officer envious? “As a sailor I am very jealous. And her mother is terrified,” he said, laughing. “I’m not. It’s going to be the experience of a lifetime.”