Tall ships will add sea color



The ships are moored at the dock behind Cleveland Browns Stadium.
CLEVELAND -- Barques and schooners, brigs and sloops -- so long as it's a rigged sailing vessel, it qualifies as a "tall ship."
Fifteen of them were expected to sail into North Coast Harbor for the city's first maritime festival, "Huntington Cleveland Harborfest -- Tall Ships Challenge." It opens to the public today.
Among the tall ships:
UBat'kivshchyna (pronounced bat-keef-SHCHYN-a), a 96-foot steel-hulled, gaff-rigged schooner from Ukraine;
UBluenose II, a 161-foot gall topsail schooner from Nova Scotia, Canada;
UConcordia, (at right) also from Canada, a 188-foot barquentine that sails the North and South Pacific oceans, the Atlantic and the Caribbean;
UU.S. Brig Niagara, a 198-foot flagship that's a reconstruction of the boat Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry sailed during the Battle of Lake Erie at Put-In-Bay;
UPride of Baltimore II, a 170-foot square topsail schooner that's used in sail training.
The ships are moored at Cleveland Port Authority Dock 32, behind Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Other components of the festival include jugglers, mimes, face painters, strolling musicians and displays by maritime artists.
If you go: Festival hours are 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily through Sunday. Nine ships will be open for tours. Boarding hours are from noon to 6 today, 10 to 6 other days.
Admission before 6 p.m. is $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens and free for children ages 10 and under. After 6 p.m., adults and seniors will pay $7.
Call (866) 865-5979 for information or visit www.clevelandharborfest.com.