Earlier this month, we ran an update on the tall ship's festival, including mini-profiles of each ship. Careful reader and Coast Guard veteran Gordon Patnude wrote in about an apparent mistake in one of the profiles: that the Eagle is 266 feet in length.

As a Coast Guard Academy alumnus, I am always interested in the activities of the Eagle, the Academy training ship.

I was disturbed when reading the article today, that you cannot get the correct specifications of this remarkable vessel. Even WIKIPEDIA has it correct.

The USCGC Eagle is a 295-foot barque with 22,315 square feet of sail, with all sails set. On one of my cadet cruises, we sailed at nearly 22 knots for several hours as we made our way up the English Channel in a steady and lively breeze.

Here's what I wrote back:

You highlight an issue on which we've had considerable discussion. As I'm sure you'll recall from your Academy days, the confusion arises because there are two or three valid ways to measure a ship.

According to the American Sail Training Association, the Eagle is 295' sparred length, 266' length overall and 231' length on the water line. We're using length overall - bow to stern, not counting the spar - in order to assure an apples to apples comparison. This is in line with the way the ASTA classifies ships.

As we bring you coverage, we're going to try to stick with the length overall measure whenever possible. It's difficult to be consistent because even the ships' Web sites throw around various figures.