The TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Race is a series of sailing races, cruises, crew rallies and maritime festivals organized by the American Sail Training Association in conjunction with US and Canadian ports on the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts of North America and in the Great Lakes. 

Traditionally-rigged sailing vessels from Canada, the US and other countries are crewed by young people (either civilians or cadets) ages 13 - 25 who are engaged in sail training programs under the supervision of captains and professional crewmembers.

Maritime festivals in each host port give visitors a chance to board the vessels and meet the crew and trainees and learn about the many varied opportunities to sail and travel on ASTA member vessels. 

Racing is one of the most important components of the series. Historically, when two or more sailing vessels are found to be heading in the same direction, an impromptu race almost always ensues.  The crews pay closer attention to the other ships and to the trim of their own sails in hopes of outdoing their counterparts.  

But how can you compare the racing of a 60-foot sailboat with a 240-foot sailing ship carrying 10 times as much sail area?   A special rating system developed in the European tall ships races is used to assign vessels of any size a relative performance factor.   This gives all vessels an equal chance of winning if they are sailed well.
 
Before the series starts, six pages of hull, rigging and sail measurements for each vessel are submitted to Sail Training International headquarters in England. They compute Time Correction Factors (TCFs) for each vessel using a program that has been fine-tuned over many years of competition.   After each race, the ASTA Race Committee multiplies the time it takes for a vessel to complete the course – its elapsed time – by its TCF in the race to determine the corrected time; corrected times are then compared to determine final standings.

Safety at sea is critical and each participating sailing vessel has been inspected and certified for its intended use either by a national maritime authority (the Coast Guard in the US) or by an internationally-endorsed society.   At the beginning of the season, the safety equipment on each vessel is double-checked by the ASTA Race Committee and any discrepancies are remedied prior to the first race.  

While underway, racers use VHF or SSB radio to keep in contact once or twice daily with the race communications officer on the escort vessel and often with the ASTA race office by satellite-assisted email.

The logistics of planning and managing these enormous public events over a vast geography are indeed challenging, but each summer tour builds on the successes and lessons of the last. Building awareness of sail training through the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Race Series is one of ASTA’s most important accomplishments. ASTA and the host ports are striving to increase both activities aboard and ashore for public interaction with the ships, and social, educational and cultural opportunities to augment the rich offshore experience of the sail trainees.