Forty-one tall ships from more than 20 countries are set to sail into New York Harbor over the Fourth of July weekend for Sail 4th 250, a six-day flotilla marking the 250th birthday of the United States. The event, reported by MommyPoppins, runs Friday, July 3 through Wednesday, July 8, and folds in NYC’s annual Fleet Week, which normally lands on Memorial Day weekend. For six days, the ships dock in the harbor and along the city’s rivers, and on certain days you can climb aboard for free.
The best free seats are close to home. On Friday, July 3, from 1 to 3 p.m., the ships run down the East River from the Hell Gate Bridge near Randall’s Island and Astoria all the way to Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn. Domino Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Bridge Park and East River Park are the prime viewing spots, and organizers say to get there early.
The bigger procession is Saturday, July 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., when the flotilla comes up the Hudson from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, through the harbor, and up to the George Washington Bridge. You can watch from waterfronts in Staten Island, New Jersey and Manhattan, including Hudson River Park and Riverside Park. That same morning, the Navy’s Blue Angels are scheduled to do a flyover.
Starting the afternoon of Sunday, July 5, the ships open up for free tours through Tuesday, July 7. The public can board at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Sail City (the Intrepid Museum and the Manhattan Cruise Terminal), South Street Seaport and Staten Island Waterfront Park. Tours begin at noon, and you need a separate free reservation for each pier you want to visit. Reservations are already open online, and some time slots have sold out.
One catch for anyone bringing little kids: because of safety rules, children under the age of 5 and strollers are not allowed on board. If you’ve got small ones, the view is from the pier.
The fleet itself is the draw. Among the headliners is the ARA Libertad from Argentina, a 340-foot, three-masted vessel billed as one of the largest and fastest tall ships in the world. Italy’s Amerigo Vespucci, 329 feet and launched in 1931, earned the nickname “the most beautiful ship in the world” after a U.S. aircraft carrier flashed the compliment at it in the Mediterranean in 1962. And the Elissa, a 141-foot barque built in Scotland in 1877 and now based in Galveston, Texas, is one of the oldest sailing hulls still in operation; it last came to New York in 1986 for the Statue of Liberty centennial.
Alongside the free tours, there are paid ticketed cruises, according to ForumDaily, which relayed the MommyPoppins reporting. The event closes Wednesday, July 8, when several of the tall ships depart New York in a race to Boston for the Five Sisters Cup, with entries from the United States, Portugal, Romania and Germany. You can book free boarding slots and paid cruises through the event’s ticketing page.
Featured image: Bushwick Daily image
