NIAGARA WINTER SAIL TRAINING

Winter Sail Training Schedule and Syllabus

If you're age 16 or over, and interested in preserving history, sailing, or the great outdoors, then you’ll feel right at home aboard the US Brig Niagara!  New volunteers are invited to join our well-trained volunteer crew to help maintain and learn to sail the ship. Niagara volunteers form an invaluable part of the ship’s sailing crew each summer. You will receive instruction during our winter sail training sessions. Once you have learned the basics of sailing Niagara, you’ll be relied upon as crew and to help share your knowledge with new volunteers and trainees as they join the ship. This process of sharing knowledge is the foundation of the shipboard community.

New volunteers are invited to attend a sail training course (at no cost), which includes hands-on training in the museum's rigging loft, and on the full-scale indoor model of Niagara's Topgallant mast.

During the dark winter months Niagara is an upbeat place where volunteers can come to find a special camaraderie with shipmates that stems from their mutual pride and satisfaction in caring for the ship. Niagara is a famous icon of Erie, with a story of great national significance. Her preservation and operation go hand-in-hand with the proper interpretation of her history.

While the course is free, the Niagara relies on volunteer service to maintain the ship. Volunteers are invited and encouraged to help sail Niagara in the summer months as their availability permits.  Our course will focus on the fundamentals of square-rig seamanship and the volunteers will directly apply those skills in fitting-out the ship for sailing in May.