My name is Wojtek Wacowski and I am involved in coordinating the visit of the Polish tall ship POGORIA in the US this summer. The ship will be participating in a series of tall ships races and port festivals organized by the American Sail Training Association, starting in Florida and ending in Nova Scotia. The international tall ship events are traditionally a unique opportunity for young people from many countries to interact with each other. POGORIA usually sails with the majority of the crew under the age of 25, as she is operated by the Sail Training Association of Poland. Due to the unfortunate combination of the traditionally very strict immigration regulations of the US towards Polish visitors and prohibitive costs of transatlantic flights, the barkentine Pogoria will have some unoccupied berths during her voyages on the East Coast.
I am trying to help the ship by promoting the idea of aquiring crew members among students of academic institutions which offer Poland-related courses. Sailing on a tall ship itself is a dream of many - and here is also the possibility to combine it with a "visit to Poland" without leaving the US, as well as an opprtunity to meet Polish youth on board. Sailing on a tall ship does not require any previous sailing experience and the ship's schedule allows for boarding for just one week as well as spending over a month of immersion in Polish maritime culture. The Pogoria will be accompanied during the races by her sistership - a sailing ship of Polish Navy - ORP ISKRA.
The POGORIA, built in 1980, exemplifies a perfect balance of tall ship tradition with modern standards in design, materials and equipment. She was designed to serve as a sailing classroom for the education of young people through active paricipation in an ultimate team work environment.
Please visit the website: www.pogoria.tallshipharbor.com or e-mail to pogoria@tallshipharbor.com to receive more information on the POGORIA's Program in the US.
Phone: 203-772-1492
My best regards
Wojtek (Voytec) Wacowski
Please also read the following press release:
A Unique Opportunity to Visit Poland Without Leaving US. Polish Tall Ship Pogoria will be participating in the ASTA 2004 Tall Ship Challenge organized on the East Coast.
New Haven, CT – April 29th, 2004. - Who wouldn’t like to relive the adventures of Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow or Russel Crowe in Master and Commander – The far side of the world? ? The far side of the world will be East Coast this summer. Polish tall ships Pogoria and Iskra after croosing the Atlantic will join the international fleet of the 2004 Tall Ships Challenge® organized by American Sail Training Association (ASTA) from June till August as the series of traditional sailing ships races and festivals. ORP Iskra will sail with the cadets of Polish Navy, while Pogoria will open her deck to a mixed international crew of tall ship fans willing to actively participating in the festivals in ports of Jacksonville, FL; Charleston, SC; Philadelphia, PA; Greenport, NY; Quonset Pt, RI; New London, CT; Halifax, NS.
There are much more large sailing ships today than it was 50 years ago, giving the right to call the present times a New Golden Era of Sail. There is a growing interest in big sailing ships recently boosted by the Hollywood movies. Sailing parades are traditionally gathering hundreds of thousands of spectators being major tourist events for hosting communities. Most of landlubbers are not aware that it is very easy to achieve a dream to sail a tall ship. ASTA races though mainly geared for the younger people (under 25) are also giving the opportunity practically to anybody to taste a high-sea adventure on board of variety of participating tall ships with a well known Polish barkentine Pogoria among them.
Poland as the only foreign country will be represented in the summer events by more than one square-rigger reminding that a significant amount of modern large sailing ships was build there at the end of the 20th century. Barkentine Pogoria was built in the very same shipyard in Gdansk that brought a Solidarity movement that started the democratic changes in the former East Block countries. Sailing the oceans is the ultimate metaphor of freedom. The 24-year-old vessel is a witness and symbol of all the changes that happened in Poland since 1980. The most memorable Tall Ship event ever held in USA was a 1976 OpSail in New York, when even the boldest political thinkers would not dare to predict how the world would look just 20 years later... The Polish tall ship Pogoria is a floating sign of hope for all of us who are overwhelmed by the present world politics.
Pogoria is now a flagship of STAP (Sail Training Association of Poland) and during her US cruise will open her deck to visitors and guest sailors. Sailing Pogoria along the US coast will be the unique opportunity to arrange a vacation in Poland without leaving America. Tall ships community is all about the international cooperation so the invitation on board is not limited to Polish-American community but open to everybody.