Tall Ships 2008
Tacoma's 2008 Tall Ships festival coverage with updates of the event, insight on some of the ships and their crews and a tour of the fascinating world of tall ships.
For complete coverage, visit the Tall Ships homepage
Calendar
July 2008
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << < Current> >>
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    
Archives
XML Feeds
What is RSS?
Misc
Who's Online?
  • MrSinister Email
  • benramm Email
  • Eric Williams Email
  • Guest Users: 527
Team coverage of Tall Ships Tacoma 2008.
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
Posted by Jeremy Harrison @ 11:25:51 pm

Peter Haley/The News Tribune

In case you've missed some of the links to all the great multimedia available online for Tall Ships Tacoma, here's a list of the galleries, video, audio slideshows and 360-degree QTVRs we've put together so far.

Gallery: Tall Ships Tacoma Parade of Sail

Gallery: Setting sail with the tall ships

Video: Learn about cannon battling on tall ships

Gallery: Photos from the Tall Ships festival

Gallery: Tall ships muster in Quartermaster Harbor

Slideshow: It's a pirate's life

Gallery: Aboard the USCG Eagle

Gallery: Tall ships in Victoria, BC.

360 VR: Meet the Lady Washington

360 VR: Meet the Bounty

360 VR: Meet the Eagle

Posted by Hunter George @ 11:17:48 pm

Festival spokesman Matthew Erlich says organizers estimate that 200,000 people attended the festival between Thursday and Saturday.

The improving weather forecast for Sunday - morning clouds and afternoon sun - could cause a surge in attendance.

Categories: At the Festival
Posted by Jeremy Harrison @ 10:34:31 pm

Staff multimedia producer Joe Barrentine spent some time Saturday learning about how sailing ships engage in battle. Check out his video here.

Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 03:36:14 pm

Apparently the folks on the HMS Bounty liked our poster of the ship sailing in front of Stadium High School.

It's taped to a cabinet below deck:

Categories: At the Festival
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 03:08:50 pm

Name: Kathy Lapp

Age: 44

Place of residence: Tacoma

Job duties: “I’m volunteering in the media center. I answer questions, escort media members on the ships and write press releases. I wanted something completely opposite of crunching numbers” at her day job at Russell Investments.

Favorite experience: “It’s the people, hands down. The people have been wonderful.”

Categories: People, At the Festival
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 02:59:58 pm

As a ship liaison, Mickie Hucke has one job title but many responsibilities.

During her shift Saturday morning, the Edgewood resident tracked attendance on the HMS Bounty with an electric counter. She encouraged Tacoma Tall Ships 2008 visitors to get excited about boarding the full-rigged ship. And she was on call if the crew needs anything.

“That can be anything from taking garbage off, finding places to do laundry, arranging transportation in town, finding marine supply shops – basically anything they need,” said Hucke. “The idea is to make it flow smooth. We want to make this fun for the crew and the visitors.”

About 500 volunteers are working the festival as liaisons, organizers said, and each ship has several people assigned to it each shift. (The number of liaisons varies by the size of the ship.) The volunteers begin arriving at 6 a.m. – four hours before the festival opens – and helps take care of whatever the crew needs done for the day. On Saturday, that meant helping arrange transportation for a day trip to Mount Rainier.

=> Read more!

Categories: About the ships
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 02:34:04 pm

I'm being told the credit card system in the ticket windows is back online. Also the wait for the big ships is down to about an hour.

Categories: At the Festival
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 02:23:00 pm

Name: Philip Close

Age: 15

Place of residence: University Place

Job duties: “I’m in line management. I make sure people don’t get too rowdy while waiting in line for the Class A ships.”

Favorite experience: “The food. There’s a crepes stand that is just awesome.”

Categories: People, At the Festival
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 02:09:46 pm

Name: Bob Arenburg

Age: 63

Place of residence: Tacoma

Job duties: “I’m loading and unloading buses and answering any questions people have.’

Favorite experience: “I actually haven’t had a chance to see much of the festival yet. Hopefully that changes this afternoon.”

Categories: People, At the Festival
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 01:45:46 pm

Name: Vicki Borovich

Age: 65

Place of residence: Puyallup

Job duties: “I work at the information center. I give out maps, brochures and other things people need and sell golden Tall Ships Tacoma pins.”

Favorite experience: “I was a greeter yesterday, and I got to wander around, talk to people and hand out maps. Just chatting with people is the best experience.”

Categories: People, At the Festival
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 01:42:56 pm

● The line to see the Class A ships is stretching longer than two hours. To compensate, Tall Ships organizers are handing out free bottles of water to those waiting in line. They’re also distributing free passports, which is a $10 value.

● The credit card system in the ticket booths is down. The problem, organizers say, is with the credit card companies, not the organization. But Tall Ships has negotiated the ATM fee from $4 to $2 for those who only brought plastic.

Categories: At the Festival
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 01:22:40 pm

We're going to be profiling some of the volunteers who make Tall Ships Tacoma 2008 possible.

Name: Karen Knipher

Age: “50-something”

Job duties: “I make sure everyone in the VIP area is taken care of. Also, I make sure people who are going to be drinking alcohol are wearing the proper wristband.”

Favorite experience: “I have two. My favorite experience as a volunteer is just to be able to say thank you to all those who allow Tall Ships Tacoma to happen through their sponsorships. Personally, I went on a cruise on the Lady Washington last night during the fireworks. It was just a fabulous, fabulous time.”

Categories: People, At the Festival
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 10:37:07 am

The Tacoma Symphony Orchestra will perform a free concert tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. in Thea’s Park. (The U.S. Coast Guard Eagle as a backdrop? Now that’s a setting.)

The orchestra will perform “a program of light classics, popular and patriotic favorites,” according to a press release. Among them ate Tchaikovsky’s Russian Sailor’s Dance and John Phillip Sousa’s Anchor and Star March.

For those of you who only know classical music through movies, the orchestra will play The Blue Danube (the Strauss classic from “2001: A Space Odyssey”) and the theme music from Indiana Jones.

Categories: Fun stuff, At the Festival
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 10:13:05 am

Camp Patriot, a non-profit which provides outdoor activities wounded veterans, is hosting a kick-off party for their “Quest for the Summit” program aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Eagle today.

Three vets will climb Mount Rainier beginning Monday, and two groups – Rainier Mountaineering Inc. and International Mountain Guides – will help with their ascent.

The meet-and-greet aboard the Eagle begins at 6 p.m.

Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 09:57:21 am

We’re back at Tall Ships Tacoma 2008 today. We’ve got reporters covering ship liaisons, the volunteer effort, the crew of the HMS Oriole and the impact on local businesses. Photographers are going to be on sea and on the ground.

Categories: At the Festival