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Liberty Classroom Sail Training

Sailing & educational field trips in Boston Harbor

Sailing aboard a tall ship offers an enriching opportunity for learning. Our fleet offers a rare chance to sail the waters of Boston Harbor while learning seamanship skills on a traditional tall ship. Work side-by-side with your students, raising sails and coiling down lines.

The program is designed for elementary, middle, and high school age groups. Optimal group size is 50-80 participants with a student/chaperone ratio of 1:10. Field trips are available Monday – Thursday in the months of June, July, August, and September.

Spending the day sailing on a Boston Harbor cruise makes an excellent summer outing for summer camps, boy scout and girl scout troops, youth groups, and more!

You and your students are split into groups that rotate between stations, mastering new skills and assisting team members.

Read on below to learn more about our on board sailing education program.

Classroom rope on the deck of the tall ship

Training Areas

Safety: Groups learn about ship safety equipment, lifesaving equipment, and safety drills.  Our crew provides instruction and training.  Your group then selects a group-leader and assign tasks to members of the group who then successfully perform a safety drill based upon the information they have learned.

Seamanship: Groups are provided instruction in a small selection of knots and splicing.  Participants help one another learn the material and successfully complete the following: Square knot, bowline knot, clove hitch, becket bend, and a short splice or an eye splice.  (Liberty provides both rope and instruction sheets)

Sail handling: Throughout the charter, groups are asked to help handle the sails. As the ship is constantly moving, this occurs throughout the trip, including setting sail at the beginning of the charter, sail handling throughout, and striking sail at the end of the charter.

Ship handling: All trainees have an opportunity to pilot (“drive”) the ship during their charter.  After each participant has piloted the ship, that participant then provides the instruction, supervision, and debriefing to the next trainee under careful supervision of our Coast Guard Licensed Captain.