The report that a pig was flying over the Chesapeake last week was actually the news that Chestertown’s own schooner Sultana was the winner of this year’s Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race, an annual charity event that featured up to 30 schooners racing. Created to support the work of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the race ran the length of the Bay from Baltimore to Portsmouth, Virginia.
The Sultana has participated in the race almost every year since her launch in 2001 but, owing to the relative disadvantages of her 18th century rig, has never come close to winning the event outright. Thanks to ideal conditions, the tactical prowess of Sultana’s Captain Michael Fiorentino, and the hard work of the schooner’s crew, SULTANA completed the roughly 130-mile race in less than 24-hours, winning the prestigious AA class, (consisting of the largest vessels in the race), on corrected time.
Sultana’s victory at the Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race comes after a sailing season that saw her voyage with more than 4,000 Maryland school students from 15 different counties.The schooner’s 2016 sailing season will officially end on the weekend of October 28-30, during the Sultana Education Foundation’s annual Downrigging Weekend Tall Ship and Wooden Boat Festival.
Mary Wood says
We all know Sultana is our Wonder ship,beautiful to look as well as bringing our river and our Bay to our children.
Three cheers to Captain and Crew.