OCEAN INSTITUTE 37th ANNUAL
MARITIME FESTIVAL
Presented By
(Tall Ships Festival)
September 10th – 12th, 2021
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
*subject to change
FRIDAY
Click on event to learn more!
SATURDAY
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- 9:00am – 10:30am – Mermaid Breakfast
- 10:00am – 4:00pm – Maritime Festival Opens!
- Festival General Admission
- A Sailor’s Life Tours, Tall Ship Tours (every 15 mins, last one at 3:00pm),
- local marine life, Intertidal Touch Tank, Shark Touch Tank,
- Activities: gold panning, scrimshaw, morse code, telegram, archeology dig,
- sea monster scavenger hunt, arts & crafts, mermaid Story Time
- Beer Garden
- Live Music
- Food Trucks (open till 5:00pm)
- Vendor Booths (open till 5:00pm)
- 11:00am – 11:30pm – Mermaid Swim Show
- 12:00pm – 12:30pm – Mermaid Swim Show
- 1:00pm – 1:30pm – Mermaid Swim Show
- 2:00pm – 3:00pm – Cap’n Jack’s Pirate School
- 3:00pm – 3:30pm – Mermaid Swim Show
- 4:00pm – 8:00pm – Cannon Battles
- Bill of Rights, Irving Johnson, Curlew, Exy Johnson, American Pride, America, R/V Sea Explorer
SUNDAY
Click on event to learn more!
- 9:00am – 10:30am – Mermaid Breakfast
- 10:00am – 4:00pm – Maritime Festival Opens!
- Festival General Admission
- A Sailor’s Life Tours, Tall Ship Tours (every 15 mins, last one at 3:00pm),
- local marine life, Intertidal Touch Tank, Shark Touch Tank
- Activities: gold panning, scrimshaw, morse code, telegram, archeology dig,
- scavenger Hunt, Arts & crafts, mermaid story time
- Beer Garden
- Live Music
- Food Trucks (open till 5:00pm)
- Vendor Booths (open till 5:00pm)
- 11:00am – 11:30pm – Mermaid Swim Show
- 12:00pm – 12:30pm – Mermaid Swim Show
- 1:00pm – 1:30pm – Mermaid Swim Show
- 2:00pm – 3:00pm – Cap’n Jack’s Pirate School
- 3:00pm – 3:30pm – Mermaid Swim Show
- 4:00pm – 8:00pm – Cannon Battles
- Bill of Rights, Irving Johnson, Curlew, Exy Johnson, American Pride, America, R/V Sea Explorer
Click here for information on parking!
CANNON BATTLES
Friday, Saturday and Sunday Night
4:00pm – 8:00pm
4:00pm – 4:30pm load ships
SET SAIL FOR HIGH SEA ADVENTURES!
Join in the celebration of all things maritime. Step aboard a historic tall ship and set sail off the coast of Dana Point. While on board learn about maritime history and experience the thrill of a mock cannon battles at sea.
Enjoy blasting cannons, towering rigging, bustling decks, and the magnificence of a canvas full of wind during a Cannon Battle! Work with the crew hauling up sail or simply sit back and enjoy the spectacular demonstration of skill, knowledge, and survival!
Festival General Admission included in ticket!
Must be at least 4 years old.
Visiting ships
Click on name below for tickets!
Escort Cruise
Learn more about the visiting ships
R/V Sea Explorer
Owner: Ocean Institute
Type: Research Vessel
Year Built: 1986
Length Overall: 64.8 feet
Fun Fact: R/V Sea Explorer brings thousands of students out to sea each year to explore our ocean and learn to use scientific equipment.
Curlew
Owner: Curlew Charters
Type: Schooner
Year Built: 1926
Length Overall: 81.5 feet
Fun Fact: In the 1930’s Curlew raced in the New York Yacht Club’s ocean cruising class, competing often in the Newport to Bermuda race, right along side several other notable schooners including Teragram, Nina, and Mistral.
America
Owner: Next Level Sailing
Type: Schooner
Year Built: 1995
Length Overall: 139 feet
Fun Fact: America is a replica of the 139-foot yacht that won the historic Royal Yacht Squadron’s 100 Guinea Cup race in 1851.
Bill of Rights
Owner: South Bayfront Sailing Assosiation
Type: Schooner
Year Built: 1971
Length Overall: 136 feet
Fun Fact:Designed around the lines of an 1856 America’s Cup schooner, Bill of Rights was dreamed up by Captain Davis as a swift and agile passenger carrying vessel. The keel was laid in 1969 in South Bristol, Maine at the Harvey Gamage Shipyard, and she was launched March 27, 1971 to unprecedented fanfare with attendance surpassing 10,000.
Irving Johnson
Owner: Los Angeles Maritime Institute
Type: Brigintine
Year Built: 2002
Length Overall: 110 feet
Fun Fact: In April of 2002, the Los Angeles Maritime Institute launched the twin brigantines Exy Johnson and Irving Johnson. Named in honor of the Johnson’s and their lifelong commitments to character-building sail training.
American Pride
Owner: Los Angeles Maritime Institute
Type: Three Masted Schooner
Year Built: 1941
Length Overall: 129 feet
Fun Fact: She later became the Araho out of Rockland, Maine as part of the O’hara fishing fleet and then the St. Catherine, out of New Bedford, Massachusetts and Lady in Blue (1968-1986) out of Gloucester, Massachusetts captained by Sam and Paul Frontiero, father and son. She spent her fishing career, of over forty years, fishing the waters of the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and the Grand Banks in search of cod, haddock, flounder and ocean perch.
SAILS N’ ALES
Friday September 10th
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Join the Ocean Institute in kicking off the Maritime Festival with our Sails N’ Ales event!
Enjoy craft beer tasting from eight different local brewers as well as music by American Idol contestant Casey Abrams, mermaid encounters, food vendors, and a prime viewing location of the visiting tall ships.
Participating Breweries: Sierra Nevada, Mother Earth, Docent, Project X, Station Craft, Lost Winds, Delahunt, and Left Coast Brewing. Check back for more!
FESTIVAL GENERAL ADMISSION
Saturday and Sunday
10:00am – 4:00pm
Adults – $20
Kids – $15
Join the Ocean Institute for fun interactive hands-on activities that will spark curiosity in Marine Science and Maritime History! Explore our new Chambers Artifact Gallery, which is home to a variety of marine life artifacts. Learn about the history of whaling during our scrimshaw activity, you even get to take home your very own sailor’s art!
Can you dig it? Learn the proper techniques of an archeological dig for artifacts or see if you can strike it rich by staking your claim at our gold panning station. Our At Sea Learning Center, which is home to our eels, schooling fish, and many other marine life animals, will include lessons on Morse code and how to send a telegram.
Next, stop by our Sahm Marine Education Center and experience our Discovery touch tank which features intertidal animals such as Sea Star, Sea Urchins, Sea Cucumbers, and more. As well as our Shark touch tank, which has Horn Sharks, Rays, and Shovel Nose Guitarfish. Learn what their skin feels life, adaptations to habitats, importance in ecosystems, diet, and make your own shark hat to blend into their habitat!
Looking for more? Partake in our Sea Monster Scavenger Hunt and learn the myths of the Ocean, what’s true and what’s false and the animals that inspired these stories. You might even find a Mermaid! Don’t miss the opportunity to learn about life as a sailor during the Ship Tours and A Sailor’s Life Tours.
You won’t want to miss out on this fun filled day!
Scheduled Events: included in General Admission Ticket
Ship Tours – Every 15 minutes
10:30 am – Sailor Life Experience
11:30 am – Sailor Life Experience
12:30 pm – Sailor Life Experience
1:00 pm – Mermaid Story Time
3:30pm – Sailor Life Experience
Membership tickets: Are you an OI Sea Star Member? Your Membership includes four complimentary General Admission tickets the the festival.
To claim your tickets enter this code at checkout FEST{member id}.
(ex: FEST101101011) at checkout.
On Saturday September 11th
Ocean Institute will be offering FREE Festival General Admission to First Responders, Active Service Members, and Veterans. Must present identification at festival check-in
Use code: MFService at checkout
(code valid for 1 adult ticket per reservation for Saturday September 11th Festival General Admission Ticket)
Special Experiences:
Experiences include access to general admission at Ocean Institute
MERMAID BREAKFAST
Saturday and Sunday
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Join us for breakfast where you will dine with mermaids. After you will experience a dazzling swim show and story time with mermaids from Sheros Entertainment. An experience you are your family will not want to miss! Festival General Admission included with your ticket.
MERMAID SWIM SHOW
Saturday and Sunday
11:00pm, 12:00pm, 1:00pm, 3:00pm
Join our friends from Sheroes Entertainment as they dazzle with an amazing mermaid swim show. Join the show and get your own mermaid craft. An experience you and your family will not want to miss! Festival General Admission included with your ticket.
CAP’N JACK’S PIRATE SCHOOL
Saturday and Sunday
2:00pm
“School” is back in session: Cap’n Jack’s School for Lil’ Scallywags has some new lesson plans for his pirates-in-training! Suitable for ages 8-12 years old.
PARKING:
Ocean Institute is happy to provide free parking and shuttles to all of our guests.
PARKING & SHUTTLE SCHEDULE
FRIDAY
3 p.m.-10 p.m.
Strands Vista Park: Selva Rd. Right past PCH.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
7 a.m.–10:30 p.m.
Strands Vista Park: Selva Rd. Right past PCH.
* If you are doing Mermaid Breakfast or Cannon Battle, be sure to park at Strands Vista Park
9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Dana Hills High School: 33333 Golden Lantern.
GET INVOLVED:
Become a vendor at our Maritime Festival!
Please complete the page in full, including your name, phone, email, business name, and website (Social Media page OK).
Purchase of a space is for Saturday and Sunday.
Visitors: 8,000-10,000 visitors over 2 days.
Rates on Booths:
-
Artist 10×10 – $300
-
Artist 10×20 – $500
-
Commerical 10×10 – $900
-
Commerical 10×20 – $1,600
Location: Ocean Institute, 24200 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point, CA 92629
What to bring: Tent, weights for tents, product, signage, staff.
We will review each application and will not accept payment until after your booth is confirmed.
100% of proceeds benefit Ocean Institute’s educational programs as well as the preservation of our historic Tall Ship Spirit of Dana Point
PARTICIPATING SPONSORS
Thank you to the following sponors!
Presenting Sponsor:
Community Partners:
