Photo: Kyle Bray/WBZ NewsRadio
GLOUCESTER, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Sunday marked the fifth and final day of the 41st annual Gloucester Schooner Festival, and for Justin Demetri, holding the event at America's oldest harbor just makes sense.
"We are the home of the schooner," Demetri told WBZ NewsRadio. "Although historians will argue about where the design was developed, this harbor has probably done more with the concept of the fishing schooner than any place else on Earth."
Demetri is a historian with Maritime Gloucester, the organization that runs the festival.
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The Labor Day weekend tradition saw ships from all over the east coast on display in Gloucester Harbor, turning it into what Demetri calls the "Super Bowl of schooners," attracting everyone from nautical history buffs to curious tourists.
"A lot of people, this is their first time, they don’t even know what a schooner is," Demitri said. "And then when they see these vessels under sail, or they take a deck tour or a visit on one of the schooners, you got ‘em. It’s very captivating once you’re in the thick of it."
In addition to deck tours, the festival also offered public sails, viewing cruises, crafts, fireworks, a "mug up" with Demetri and local and visiting schooner captains, races, and the annual parade of schooners.
"This is the closest you’re gonna get to see what our harbor looked like, back before engine power took over," Demetri said. "To see two dozen traditional rigged craft sailing around, dancing, just for your own amusement."
One of the ships that did not participate this year was Nova Scotia's Bluenose II, which canceled its long-awaited return to the festival amid heightened tensions between Canada and the United States.
In a Facebook post, the Lunenburg Marine Museum Society, which operates the Bluenose II, wrote, "With so many Canadians travelling within the country this year, we’re turning our focus to Nova Scotia’s busy tourism season, supporting the communities we’ll be visiting and sharing our slice of Canadian history."
"They’re doing such great tourism business right now since Canadians are staying home that they didn’t really wanna ruin this good time they’re having up there, so we really couldn’t knock ‘em," said Demitri.
WBZ's Kyle Bray reports.