From the Parade of Sails, to touring the boats, and day sails. People said their farewells to nine vessels as Tall Ships Erie 2025 came to a close on Sunday.


Captain Billy Sabatini, the Executive Director of the Flagship Niagara League explained, "Every ship has their own unique character, so you have these people that Liberty Clipper is their favorite, or it's Empire Sandy because it's so big, or its St. Lawrence II or Fair Genie because they have all these high school students on board. So everyone has their own unique way of enjoying Tall Ships Erie because we also get to meet the crew right, so sometimes it's meeting the crew and talking with them that gets them excited."


Captain Sabatini said the weekend wouldn't have gone as smoothly had it not been for the hundreds of volunteers. "We are putting this city, this region, this bay, on the map. We are the center of sail training and tall ships in the country right now and it's all because so many people want to come together to make it happen", said Captain Sabatini.


Captain Sabatini said one of the greatest successes of this weekend has been the fact people are staying for hours on end. Whether it's taking up the day sail, checking out all the ships, getting a bite to eat and checking out all the merchandise too. He said people were buying tickets at the end of the days, hoping for a few minutes to see the ships.
"We have had a steady flow of people both Friday and Saturday which has made for lines not being that long, when we have people show up between 10 and 12 the lines actually get particularly long and it's hard for the people to get through", said Captain Sabatini.


He also said talking to the people and hearing their stories are one of the highlights of the weekend. According to Captain Sabatini, "Erie Distillery is putting barrels of whiskey onto the ship that will be aged for the next three years. So when Empire Sandy comes back to Tall Ships Erie in 2028, they are going to have that whiskey ready so that's one of the cooler stories that has come out of this event so far."

Erie News Now was a proud sponsor of Tall Ships Erie 2025.