Cpt Blackthorne Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 Has anyone been on an age of sail adventure, either working on it, volunteering, or paid for the adventure? It has always been on my bucket list, and I am unsure of how to get on a volunteering mission, as there is no way I'll be able to afford another $7-9,000 vacation that these seem to cost. Below are a couple videos that I found interesting. The first is of the tour guide from Spain who says she does a 6 month volunteer on this old ship that sails around the world making stops at many ports. Sadly, she mentions that US citizens cannot volunteer for either of those ES ships, because you have to be a ES citizen to work under the ES flag. So hopefully someone here knows of an American age of sail ship we can volunteer for?? The second video is of a RU ship and their crew, kind of a video blog. Enjoy mates, and hope to hear of your adventures at sea on one of these ships. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maturin Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 El Galeon barely ever sails, so I would spend that money on a cruise instead. But Shtandart looks like the real deal. AFAIK she's the only authentic 18th Century ship besides Hermione that is actively sailing the world, now that Gotheborg is up for sail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Blackthorne Posted July 27, 2016 Author Share Posted July 27, 2016 It's rather sad to know that there are only two age of sail ships still in service for adventures. I hope to hear from people who have done these adventure, volunteered on them, or work on them in some manner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maturin Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 It's rather sad to know that there are only two age of sail ships still in service for adventures. I hope to hear from people who have done these adventure, volunteered on them, or work on them in some manner. Oh no, there's plenty more. I'm just arbitrarily restricting my list to ships (three-masted square riggers) that wouldn't look out of place in Naval Action and actively do blue water sailing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Blackthorne Posted July 27, 2016 Author Share Posted July 27, 2016 Those are the only ones I'm interested in. I've done plenty of cruises from cats to commercial cruise lines, but never an age of sail adventure... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maturin Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 Those are the only ones I'm interested in. I've done plenty of cruises from cats to commercial cruise lines, but never an age of sail adventure... Well it would be silly to turn down the Picton Castle, for instance. The Age of Sail has a fuzzy end date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Blackthorne Posted July 27, 2016 Author Share Posted July 27, 2016 True, but isn't that a cruise ship, not one that you can volunteer on and is rather difficult to get a job on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeRuyter Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 First you want to define your adventure. A one off summer booking on a sailing vessel or a more permanent volunteer situation? For the former you can pretty much go anywhere but most of the options are likely to be steel hulled sail training/cruising vessels well after the NA period. Having said that you are still sailing on a square rigged tall ship and the seamanship has not changed much. Also as you noted these can be quite expensive! I can think of 1/2 a dozen based in Europe: Europa, Stad Amsterdam, Oostschilde are examples: https://www.stadamsterdam.com/en/index.xml Here is a page from a sail training booking site: http://www.atseasailtraining.com/177/ships/12/oosterschelde.html AFAIK there are not as many tall ships carrying passengers for extended sails in the US. Some offer day sails, or are used for youth sail training. Lynx and Pride of Baltimore II are examples of this. You can book day sails and help the crew haul on lines etc. I sailed on Lynx for an event in Baltimore as a passenger. The tops'l schooner Sultana is a replica of an 18th century ship, but is mostly used as a youth training/education ship. There are a number of schooners on the East coast, in Maine, for example where you can book a week for a sail, but more as a passenger. I did have the opportunity to do the latter, volunteer as crew on a tall ship. Mostly this is down to time and location. IMO the best would be to volunteer on Niagara , but you need to live near Lake Erie. In the Northwest there is the Lady Washington, Hawaiian Chieftain and Californian among others. I am not sure if HMS Surprise uses volunteers or offers sail training. I volunteered on Kalmar Nyckel which is a replica of a Dutch ship built in 1625 and used by the Swedes to bring colonists to the East coast. The initial training class was six weekends after which you have to put in 40 hours maintenance prior to each sailing season in order to voyage. http://kalmarnyckel.org/ It was an awesome experience but I still have an Atlantic crossing on my bucket list! Here is a link to the Tall Ships website which has a lot of information on sail training: http://www.tallshipsamerica.org/ Good luck! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maturin Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 True, but isn't that a cruise ship, not one that you can volunteer on and is rather difficult to get a job on?No, it's one of the many tall ships where you volunteer or pay to be trained in sailhandling and seamanship. There are very few blue water tall ships that focus on paying idle passengers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirones Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 La Grace brig can be cruised on alot of modern tallships too. keep looking around and you will find something for you. another option is Fairtransport a dutch company using a tiny fleet for CO² free cargo hauling wich offers taking part in parts or the entire voyage 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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