As both sailor and amateur photographer I appreciate every opportunity to connect with the hobbies I love. Just recently I had the pleasure of visiting the Sail Tampa Bay Tall Ship Festival, an annual event that celebrates Tampa’s long maritime history. Here dockside tours provided me the opportunity of capturing some beautiful details of magnificent international sailing ships.
The Captain Miranda, a 205 foot Staysail Schooner built in 1930, and Gloria, a 249 foot Three-Masted Barque, were truly a feasts for the eyes. Both ships, built in Spain between 1930 and 1966, are a true testament to the countries long history of seamanship and boat building. Today, both ships serve as training vessels for young cadets from both Uruguay and Colombia.
As a small craft sailor, with dreams of someday sailing on such ships, I was pleased to see so many familiar systems. From fairleads and wenches to the sails and sheets, the only difference for me was the massive scale. They say that the whole is greater than the sum of all its part, and while I know this to be true, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to focus my attention on the simple details that sometimes get lost. 250 photographs were taken this day.
The details of my photographs hopefully capture the simple beauty of the systems that both power, tame, and support these massive sailing ships.
Please enjoy,
-AG
