Tall ship Nao Santa Maria coming in May | Local News

Tall ship Nao Santa Maria coming in May | Local News

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NEWBURYPORT — For the third time in four years, a tall ship will come sailing to Newburyport, this one flying the Spanish flag and bringing tales of Christopher Columbus.

The Custom House Maritime Museum announced Friday that it will dock the 200-ton Spanish sailing vessel Nao Santa Maria at Waterfront Park from May 31 to June 10.

“A tall ship from Europe is coming in Newburyport, that’s pretty much what people want to know,” said Maritime Museum board member Ken Jackman.

Jackman served as board chairman in 2016 when the museum brought the Spanish tall ship El Galeon to Port.

Nao Santa Maria, a replica of Columbus’s historic vessel, was built by the same private foundation behind El Galeon, Fundacion Nao Victoria.

“This is a Spanish-flagged, exact replica of Christopher Columbus’s flagship, the Santa Maria,” Jackman said. “This will be the first time that this ship comes to any port in New England. Newburyport will be the first place you will be able to see this vessel, board it, explore it and see the entire ship from stem to stern.”

Built and launched in Spain in 2018, the 92-foot-long Nao Santa Maria has sailed to the Canary Islands, across the Atlantic to Puerto Rico, up to Florida and is expected to arrive in Newburyport after a brief stop in Virginia at the tail end of May.

Jackman said the ship is expected to arrive on the high tide, roughly 10:30 a.m., on Friday, May 31, and should dock at Waterfront Park around noon.

“This is the non-negotiable point about being a tall ship in Newburyport, you have to get them over the bar at the mouth of the river,” Jackman said.

The ship’s arrival is “going to be viewable from the tip of Plum Island to the jetty to the Salisbury Beach side and from Joppa Flats,” he said.

Mayor Donna Holaday said she is happy to hear of the tall ship’s impending arrival.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the city,“ she said. “It brings tourism, it brings residents to the downtown. There are always a lot of great events. When they had (El Galeon) here, we had a pirates day and it is a wonderful event for the city. I think it is great that it is also the weekend after Memorial Day, so it really kicks off our summer season with a bang.”

Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce executive director Frank Cousins was also excited about Nao Santa Maria’s schedule visit.

“We’ve worked with the Custom House on other things in the past and we would be glad to work with them again,” Cousins said. “The tall ships create a great atmosphere for people to shop and to eat and spend time in the downtown. I think it’s great.”

Nao Santa María will spend two weekends in Newburyport and would depart the during high tide, roughly 5:45 a.m., on Monday June 10.

“It wasn’t going to work out to have them here by Memorial Day weekend but if you look at it from the flip side, that weekend brings a lot of people into Newburyport anyways,” Jackman said. “But Memorial Day is a spike in activity in town and then you look at a couple of weekends after and it kind of drops until you get into the real heart of the summer. Our hope is that over these two weekends we can create a lot of new activity in the downtown that, otherwise we wouldn’t normally get to enjoy.”

Jackman said he is working with city restaurants and businesses and local school districts to plan many events, ranging from black-tie cocktail parties to children’s pirate parties, breakfast events and tours for the week of Nao Santa Maria’s stay.

“We will also have a good number of programs in the museum about both sides of the Christopher Columbus story,” Jackman said. “That is pivot point in history and there are many different sides to the story. It will be an interesting thing to have a conversation with all sides involved.”

El Galeon and her crew were a big hit in the city when they arrived in 2016.

“There are so many great stories about people in Newburyport who dropped off bicycles for the crew who wanted to go out to Plum Island and people having them at their homes for dinner,” Jackman said. “Everything you would hope a community event would be.”

The Custom House Maritime Museum also hosted two Gloucester schooners in 2017, Adventure, which is based in Gloucester, and Alabama, with a home port in Vineyard Haven, Martha’s Vineyard.

“Last year was an off year for us. We didn’t have a tall ship here,” Jackman said. “A lot of people missed them last year and I am certainly one of them.”

Jackman said he hopes to have a tall ship in Newburyport on an annual basis.

“They should be something that everyone in town looks forward to, every year,” he said.

Jim Sullivanmay be contacted at 978-961-3145 or [email protected].

More about Nao Santa María

9,842: Feet of ropes for firm rigging and labor.

3,229: Square feet of sail, with the maneuvering of sails and rigging faithful to the Santa María of the 15th century.

200: Tons in weight.

92: Feet in length.

26: Maximum beam in feet.

11.5: Strut in feet.

Decks: Main deck, forecastle, awning and quarterdeck

Masts: Major, mizzen, ratchet and bowsprit.

Sails: Major, topsail, mizzen, and ratchet.

Nao Santa Maria on the web: www.fundacionnaovictoria.org/construction-nao-santa-maria/

Custom House Maritime Museum on the web:  https://customhousemaritimemuseum.org.

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