PORT TOWNSEND — The official ship of Washington state, Lady Washington, will arrive in time for the 38th annual Wood Boat Festival.
The ship will arrive in Port Townsend on Sept. 3 and will offer tours and excursions during the festival, set Sept. 5-7.
The square-rigged vessel will berth at the Northwest Maritime Center dock. The appearance is the first by the ship at the festival in several years.
Lady Washington is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its launch this year.
A schedule of events for the ship is as follows:
■ Sept. 5: Walk-on tours, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., $3 donation per person requested; Adventure Sail, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., $43 all ages.
■ Sept. 6-7: Walk-on tours, 9 a.m. to noon, $3 donation per person requested.
■ Sept. 6: Schooner race viewing, 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., $75 all ages.
■ Sept. 7: Festival sail-by, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., $75 all ages.
The Adventure Sail is a family-oriented experience with opportunities to help raise a sail, learn a sea chantey or take the helm of a real tall ship, conditions permitting.
Race excursion
The schooner race viewing excursion allows guests to watch the Northwest Schooner Cup regatta from the deck of a real tall ship.
Lady Washington will depart the dock at 1:30 p.m. before the regatta begins at 3 p.m.
The festival sail-by excursion allows guests to take part in the Wooden Boat Festival Sail-By aboard Lady Washington.
The sail-by features many of the largest and most historic vessels in the festival fleet.
Lady Washington will depart the dock at 2 p.m. The sail-by will start at 3 p.m.
Tickets for all Lady Washington excursions can be purchased online at www.historicalseaport.org or by phoning 800-200-5239.
Tickets for the festival itself are available at www.nwmaritime.org.
Launched in 1989 as part of the Washington centennial celebrations, Lady Washington was designed by Ray Wallace as a replica of one of the first U.S. flagged vessels to explore the west coast of North America.
The original Lady Washington was built in the 1750s near Boston and sailed around Cape Horn in 1788 to trade furs with the First Nations peoples of Vancouver Island.
The modern Lady Washington is 112 feet long overall, 22 feet wide, and her main mast rises 89 feet from the water.
She was named the state’s tall-ship ambassador by the Legislature in 2007, and she sails to more than 40 ports a year in Washington, Oregon and California.
The ship, based in Aberdeen, has appeared in several movies, including the 2003 “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”
