Sail Boston's pledge fails to win over Menino

Without a public safety agreement with the city, Sail Boston 2009 will not be able to invite the public to the ships or the piers where they dock, said a spokesman for the nonprofit organization.

"The ships would still need to be accommodated since they're still coming to Boston," Scott Ferson said. "For the visiting ships, they would be confined to a limited number of piers with locked gates."

In recent weeks, Sail Boston has tried to broker a deal with city officials, who had rebuffed their initial efforts to assure the city it would not be left holding the tab for the event. Organizers tried to muster up more corporate sponsors for the event, whose fundraising had flagged in tough economic times.

Fearing that the mayor's rejection would dash any hopes of enticing sponsors or ticket sales, Sail Boston even sent emissaries to the mayor to try to rally his support.

Menino acknowledged today that Paul D. Foster, a friend of the mayor and Reebok vice president who serves on Sail Boston's board, presented him an offer: Sail Boston would pay the city $250,000 up front and a promise of $500,000 later.

But the mayor said he could not take a chance on the money coming in, as he did years ago. After the Tall Ships event in 2000, the state failed to reimburse the city for the public expenses of putting on the spectacle, which typically boosts state tax revenue through meals and sales taxes but does little for the city coffers. This time, Menino has asked the Sail Boston to provide the money for public safety up front.

"Paul is my friend. I trust him. But this is using public money," Menino said today. "I would love this to happen if I was made whole. But I cannot take a chance like I did several years ago when people promised me the money and it never came."

The five-day nautical festival planned July 8-12 was originally expected to draw at least 27 tall ships from around the world and millions of spectators to Boston. But Sail Boston had to downgrade its plans when the devastating recession dampened event fund-raising and sank city revenues, leading the mayor to say he could not invest in a sailing event at a time the city was laying off teachers and workers.

Sail Boston abandoned the idea of hosting a dramatic Parade of Sail that was expected to draw the greatest crowds and offered to reimburse the city with the proceeds of first-time ticket sales for "passports" to board the ships.

But early last month, city officials said that even the scaled-back plans would cost the city about $1.1 million. And Menino's administration demanded the public safety portion of it -- estimated at $826,300 -- in advance. That ruled out ticket sales as the source of the funds.

Ferson said the Coast Guard set a Tuesday deadline to arrange plans for the arrival of international sailing vessels in Boston.

"The question is how they come in and where they go and how that's handled. It's obviously a fair amount of logistics involved and we're coming down to the wire," Ferson said.

The ships might be visible in Boston Harbor but they would have to dock at the Fish Pier or the Black Falcon Terminal in South Boston, where there would be no public events or accessibility. The Massachusetts Port Authority that owns the piers has also tried to get up-front financing from Sail Boston and would not accommodate the ships without the cooperation of city officials.

"We have worked closely with the City of Boston in planning for this event and we cannot foresee the possibility of a public event along the waterfront without the active participation of the City of Boston," said a statement from Massport.