Captains of smaller ships grumble about treatment by Sail Boston
By Christopher A. Szechenyi, Boston.com Staff, 07/17/00
When Larry Mahan sailed out of Boston Harbor yesterday aboard the two-masted schooner Larinda, the scrappy skipper looked back with numerous regrets.
"I love Boston, but I'll be glad when I'm gone from this situation," Mahan said as he stood on Pier 5 in Charlestown before his departure. "We're stuck in a trash barrel here. A trash bin."
Mahan and two other captains of small vessels complained Friday about what they see as mismanagement by the organizers of Sail Boston 2000. Their complaints ranged from little dockside service to hazardous and congested port facilities that prevented the public from touring some boats.
Tony Timbs, captain of Eye of the Wind, and John Foss, captain of American Eagle, echoed many of Mahan's complaints. Among other gripes, they said the disparity between the fees paid to large vessels to come to Boston and the lack of any reimbursement whatsoever for smaller vessels like theirs was unfair.
"We would not want this to be the last sailing event in Boston," said Foss. "It's a wonderful place. But when push comes to shove there has to be better management."
Representatives of Conventures, the company that organized Sail Boston 2000 under the direction of Dusty Rhodes, declined comment this morning. "We've got ships still coming in right now," said Liz Shaw, a staff member of Conventures who would not comment further about the captains' complaints. She referred questions to David Choate, who is in charge of marine operations for Conventures, but he was unavailable. Rhodes was in a staff meeting.
"There are always going to be issues in an event of this size," said Pat Moscaritolo, president of both Sail Boston 2000 and the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau. "But the important thing is there were no significant public safety issues and the weather was extraordinary."
As soon as they arrived in the harbor last Tuesday, the captains said their problems began. Nobody from Sail Boston 2000 or Conventures greeted the boats to help them tie up or get supplies like ice and water. Sometimes they faced conflicting orders about where to dock their vessels, the captains said.
Then, in Mahan's case, he believes the situation went from bad to worse. Because Boston did not have enough slips to accommodate the more than 130 visiting tall ships, three other sailboats had to be tied up outboard of his, so their crew members had to walk back and forth across the Larinda's decks to get to the dock, often carrying empty bottles of alcohol from the previous night's parties.
Then three tourists fell on the uneven surface of the walkway leading up to his boat, Mahan said. By Wednesday, he added, Sail Boston officials had put up a sign saying "Crew Only" on the dock leading to his boat, effectively ending visits from the public.
Mahan said he lost money by attending the event in Boston. The public could not tour his boat, buy t-shirts or even make contributions to the Larinda, as they usually do in other ports. Mahan said he could not offer sailing tours of the harbor -- for which he usually gets between $100 to $150 per person -- because of the restricted access to his boat.
"The people who supplied the ships aren't making money," Mahan said. "The food vendors and the t-shirt vendors, they're all making money."
"I'm a sailor. The wind blows and I go," Mahan said, standing below deck of the Larinda, a replica of a 1787 Boston schooner that he built with his own hands from recycled 10-year-old hard pine. "But things have reached a crescendo. I have to support this vessel. I can't do that under these circumstances."
In contrast to other ports with similar events this summer, Sail Boston officials paid small boats like the Larinda nothing to come here. To bring his ship to Norfolk, the city paid him $4,000, and Wilmington and Atlantic City paid $3,000 each, Mahan said.
"I don't need a lot of money," said Mahan, 59, a retired auto mechanic from Cape Cod, "but I don't want to go broke. This is a high-class event but it's run very poorly."
He also complained there wasn't enough dock space. Indeed, an observer could see three other boats tied to the Larinda, and the hazards of the floating docks to which the Larinda itself was tied. "Just look at these lines crossing the floats," Mahan said as he walked beneath ropes tying the boats to the dock. "Look at these cracks and crevices" in the dock
But, despite the obstacles, three people did book a trip aboard the Larinda as she sailed to Halifax, the next stop for most of the flotilla. That journey that began yesterday as she and dozens of other ships sailed out of Boston harbor.
"I'm not coming again," Mahan said.
