Membership - American Sail Training Association

  • What is a Tall Ship?

    Ship Shapes

    Sail Plan

    Key Terms

    Regulation of US Vessels

    Choosing A Program

    Resources

    The vessel/program information presented on this website is supplied by the vessel operators. ASTA can not possibly verify all the information, nor visit all the ships in order to evaluate programs. For these reasons, you must take the information as a starting point only, subject to change and correction, and proceed directly with the vessel operator. The American Sail Training Association is not an agent or business partner for the vessel operators, and is not a travel agent.

What is a Tall Ship?

US Coast Guard's training vessel Barque EAGLE

A tall ship is not a strictly defined type of sailing vessel.  Most of us use the term to mean a large traditionally rigged sailing vessel, whether or not it is technically a “ship”.  The United States Coast Guard’s training ship Eagle, for example, is technically a “barque”.  A tall ship can also be a schooner, brigantine, barquentine, brig, ketch, sloop, or a full-rigged ship depending on the number of masts and the cut of the sails.

For the purposes of classification and race rating, the American Sail Training Association adheres to the descriptions found in the Racing and Sailing Rules and Special Regulations established by Sail Training International.

CLASS A
All square-rigged vessels and all other vessels over 40m (131 feet) length overall (LOA)

CLASS B
Traditional-rigged vessels with a LOA of less than 40m (131 feet) and with a waterline length (LWL) of at least 9.14m (30 feet).

CLASS C
Modern-rigged vessels with a LOA of less than 40m (131 feet) and with a LWL of at least 9.14m (30 feet), not carrying spinnaker-like sails.

CLASS D
Modern-rigged vessels with a LOA of less than 40m (131 feet) and with a LWL of at least 9.14m (30 feet), carrying spinnaker-like sails.

  • Square-rigged vessels (Class A) are defined as those vessels whose sail plan is ship, barque, barquentine, brig or brigantine.
  • Traditional-rigged vessels (Class B) are defined as those vessels whose sail-plan has predominance of gaff sails.
  • Modern-rigged vessels (Class C and D) are defined as those vessels whose sail-plan has a predominance of Bermudan sails.
  • Length Overall (LOA) is the length between the forward end of the stem post and the after end of the stern post.  It does not include the bowsprit, pulpit or any other extension at the bow or stern.

 

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