Having crewed a historic tall ship for two and a half years, this has been difficult news. I served as helmsman and on the foredeck crew of the privately owned tall ship Royaliste, a gaff-rigged ketch, when she was in Sausalito on San Francisco Bay. I won't mince words with this. They had no business attempting to skirt a storm of this magnitude. It was a huge error on the part of the captain, who I believe must have been under a lot of pressure to make their appearance schedule. A captain is responsible for the lives of his crew and this tragedy was completely preventable.
People don't get it that these ships are made of freakin' wood and that weather, wind and tide will all play a role in the time in which a ship arrives in port. All they care about is that their event goes smoothly. This isn't Disneyland and there are no tracks under the water.
This is Royaliste, my old ship, when she was on San Francisco Bay:
In front of the Golden Gate Bridge
Me at the helm
