In the early 1800s, the Barbary Wars played a significant part in creating the US Navy and putting the newly established United States on the world stage as both a sovereign nation and a naval power. Author and professor Abby Mullen’s presentation will focus on the ways in which the US Navy and consular service tried their hands at fighting a war in a region where they had no bases and no power. The maritime environment itself played a significant role in the fighting of the First Barbary War, and understanding the material reality of life at sea is a critical piece of understanding this conflict.

Abby Mullen is an assistant professor in the history department at the United States Naval Academy. Her work focuses on the early American navy. She holds a PhD from Northeastern University, where she worked with Dr. Bill Fowler, a mariner and US naval and maritime historian. Her book “To Fix a National Character: The United States in the First Barbary War, 1800-1805”, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2024.

See Also... To Fix a National Character: The United States in the First Barbary War, 1800-1805, Johns Hopkins University Press

During her induction into the US Sailing Hall of Fame, Lin was introduced as “The Enabler.” For more than 50 years, through 12 books, five full length videos and literally hundreds of magazine articles, she has encouraged thousands of potential sailors to set sail and find their own adventures. Working alongside her husband Larry, Lin helped build two capable engine-free wooden boats then voyaged on them over 220,000 nautical miles. She spent time in more than 70 countries during extended east about and west about circumnavigations including sailing against the prevailing wind beneath the great southern capes. When age took Larry, she continued sailing and eventually met David Haigh, an Australian circumnavigator. Together they continue voyaging on David’s 40 foot steel cutter, Sahula. Currently they are preparing for a voyage west towards Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Lin and Larry often said they would continue cruising for “As long as it’s Fun.” Lin, with 58 years of voyaging under her keel and with a new partner, has now amended this to, “As long as we’re able.”

See Also... Books and DVDs

This summer a Canadian sailor pulled into Annapolis from Prince Edward Island with his eyes set on a trans-Atlantic passage to Ireland. 39 days later he arrived in Cork, Ireland in his self-designed, junk-rigged and homebuilt 21’ sailboat, Wave Rover II. This was not Alan Mulholland’s first ocean crossing in a small craft, merely his latest.

See Also... Rover’s Adventure

In December 1978, nine boatbuilding students in southern Maine launched a handmade Chamberlain dory-skiff from a humble cow barn. Today, The Landing School is a renowned training ground, producing skilled boatbuilders, yacht designers, and marine technicians who are in demand worldwide. Join President John Caron as he shares the remarkable story of The Landing School’s origins and discusses what it takes to prepare the next generation of leaders in the marine trades.

See Also... The Landing School

The schooner AMERICA was a technological marvel and a child star. In the summer of 1851, just weeks after her launching at New York, she crossed the Atlantic and sailed to an upset victory against a fleet of champions. The silver cup she won that day is still coveted by sportsmen. Almost immediately after that famous victory, she began a decades-long run of adventure, neglect, rehabilitations, and hard sailing, always surrounded by colorful, passionate personalities. AMERICA ran and enforced wartime blockades. She carried spies across the ocean. And she was on the scene as yachtsmen and business titans spent freely and competed fiercely for the cup she first won. By the early twentieth century, she was in desperate need of a thorough refit. The old thoroughbred floated in brackish water at the United States Naval Academy, stripped of her sails and rotting in the sun. Refitting AMERICA would be a massive project—expensive and potentially distracting for a nation struggling to emerge from the Great Depression and preparing for a world war. But the project had a powerful sponsor. Join us as Annapolis sailor and author David Gendell explains how he delved into archival sources and oral histories and interviewed some of the last living people who saw AMERICA at the Annapolis Yacht Yard as he researched and wrote his latest non-fiction book.

See Also... The Last Days of the Schooner America: A Lost Icon at the Annapolis Warship Factory

Captain Daniel D. Moreland; sailing ship master, sailmaker and rigger, has devoted his professional life to the craft of time-tested sailing ships at their peak development and dedicated his seagoing to the training of young mariners. Best known in recent years for the success of the Barque Picton Castle, this ship is the culmination of a career at sea in square-rig and large schooners. In 1993 he began the project that would become the Barque Picton Castle and established her ocean sail training voyages. In his position as master, he has influenced over three thousand trainees and logged around four hundred thousand miles under sail, teaching seamanship and a host of nautical and sailing ship skills, and sailing to amazing ports and remote islands. This summer, Dan Moreland completed his 8th, round-the-world voyage. Born in 1954 into a Foreign Service family, sailing ships of old were soon imprinted on him with Caribbean cargo schooners servicing the small island of Aruba, long before tourism arrived. Over a career that has included such ships as Picton Castle, Maverick, Romance, Abraham Rydberg, Dolmar, Danmark, Sorlandet, Gazaela, Ernestina, and Niagara, captain Moreland has come a long, long way since growing up on Long Island Sound. This is his story.

See Also... The Barque Picton Castle

In August 2021 Patsy Bolling, serial yacht owner and veritable yachting legend, was invited aboard the 12-metre racing yacht American Eagle. For Patsy, this was the long awaited return to a yacht that she knows like the back of her hand. During her previous two year tenure American Eagle won the 1970 Fastnet in Cowes and raced against Australian challenger Gretel in the America’s Cup test of the same year. She was the first woman to race in an America’s Cup competition, 22 years before they were permitted. As the daughter of the "Incredible Captain Kenedy" Patsy was raised on the famed 300 ton schooner The City of New York and over the years she estimates that she and her husband Bill owned around 13 yachts, of all shapes and sizes, spending their lives restoring and sailing on yachts which were much in need of their love and expertise. Join us as Patsy takes us through some of the most iconic boats of our time and her involvement with them. From racing motorcycles, cars and yachts, it's a remarkable conversation with a remarkable woman.

See Also... The Indomitable Patsy Kenedy Bolling

Hall of Fame sailor Gary Jobson shares his experience cruising his schooner to Antarctica, The Arctic, the infamous Fastnet Race and Sable Island. He also shares his views on the upcoming sailing competition in the Olympic Games, which Gary will be covering for NBC and an advance forecast of the 2024 America’s Cup. Join us as this remarkable sailor describes his journey and the philosophy and experiences that made it possible.

See Also... Jobson Sailing, Inc.

Master Sailor and sailing coach Paul literally helps people go anywhere by sail. He instills confidence and self reliance in sailors who learn from him — he guides them in a respectful and intellectual way to promote their initiative to sail beyond the deep-water horizon. “For 48 years I’ve caught wind with thousands of sailors in many places around the world — I’ve seen “the edge” of different things many times. But, my decades of sailing experience between then-and-now are mere indicators for how ready I am to hop on a boat and sail with success today. Who am I, and are my words worthy of consideration? The only thing that makes me a better sailor tomorrow than I am right now is how my analysis today can be used to make methodical improvements affecting my approach to “sail” in the future.” Paul Exner, Alchemist Join us as this remarkable sailor describes his journey and the philosophy and experiences that made it possible.

See Also... Hands-on Bluewater Sail-Training

custom designed and built based on their knowledge gained from more than 20 years of sailing. A regular participant in the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Races, Woodwind consistently performs at the top of the fleet. This is the 31st season of the Schooner Woodwind.

See Also... Schooner Woodwind

Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander was scheduled to begin filming in Hollywood, CA. Rose, the replica 18th-century warship bought for the production, was in Newport, RI, two oceans and thousands of miles away. Will Sifrin recounts how he and a “ragtag crew of thirty oddballs” embarked on an epic adventure to deliver Rose, hopefully, in one piece.

See Also... All Hands on Deck

capsized in the Chesapeake Bay near North Beach, MD. Twenty-seven souls were washed into the storm and the captain was charged with negligence and manslaughter. Part shipwreck story and part courtroom drama, author Kathy Bergen Smith weaves a tale of Chesapeake history drawn from eyewitness accounts.

See Also... Deadly Gamble: The Wreck of Schooner Levin J Marvel

Sailing and rowing an open shallop, the crew retraced 1,500 miles of Smith’s 1608 exploration of the Chesapeake bay and inaugurated the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail Recreating Capt. John Smith’s Voyage.

See Also... Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail

, on the Viking Route from the Chesapeake to Iceland, via the spectacular Prins Christian Sund fjord system in southern Greenland. Andy shared details about the voyage, including the preparation of both boat and crew, how it compared to his passage to Spitsbergen in 2018.

See Also... 59 North Sailing

 rebuild from lying fallow to charter boat in the Gulf of Maine. It is the story too, of how attention to detail, combined with an eye toward historical accuracy, can yield beautiful results. An open-ended discussion will follow the presentation.

See Also... Schooner Blackbird Sailing

Gordon Laco has outfitted fine yachts and sailing ships for many years and served as an historic consultant on over 50 films including “Master and Commander”. In this expansive story, Laco takes us back to the uneasy peace following the defeat of Napoleon and the Royal Navy’s charting of the Upper Great Lakes.

See Also... G. H. Laco & Son Ltd.

See Also... Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway

In 1929, a 24 year old country boy named Irving Johnson brought a camera aboard the 320′ Barque Peking and filmed his voyage around Cape Horn. Johnson added narration to his spectacular footage in 1980 and produced the iconic film.

See Also... Schooner Pride of Baltimore II

Matt Rutherford completed a record-breaking, non-stop, single-handed voyage of 27,077 miles around North and South America. Since finishing the circumnavigation of the Americas, Matt has created Ocean Research Project, an organization dedicated to science, education and exploration. In 2013 Matt spent 70 days in the Atlantic ocean mapping out the unexplored eastern side of the Atlantic Garbage Patch.

See Also... Save Our Seas

From scouring the forests of Asia for materials, though lead pours in Indonesia, revolution in Jakarta, a posting in Alaska, and a delivery from the Indian Ocean to St. Mary’s City, Maryland, Reggie Townsend pursued a dream to build an ocean going, two-masted boat that could take the rigors of the open ocean yet retain a traditional, easy to handle style.

See Also... WoodenBoat

Mystic Whaler became a fixture along the New England coast and a model for successful non-profit schooners. Captain John’s 46-year schooner career has taken him throughout the entire east and west coasts of this country and throughout the Caribbean.

See Also... National Maritime Historical Society

Internationally renowned photographer, Richard Sherman, walks us through his techniques for taking better marine photographs. Full of tips, this is an engaging and informative glimpse into how the “pros” do it.

See Also... Richard Sherman Photography

August 21, 2020
The Alden 309 and Blackbird’s Restoration
Peter Thompson
Peter's presentation about the restoration of his Alden design 309 schooner, Blackbird, including much information about the 309 design itself, the help Peter got during the restoration, naval architects and design, the yacht business during the depression and “Methods, Materials and Madness.”