Oliver Hazard Perry mainmast stepped

The mainmast of the 200-foot tall SSV Oliver Hazard Perry was scheduled to be stepped in a public ceremony Wednesday, Sept. 24, at The Hinckley Company in Portsmouth, R.I.
 
Earlier in the month of September, the forward mast was set in place at the Hinckley Boatyard where dozens of riggers and shipwrights had been working on the ship this summer. The Perry, when completed, will be a Coast Guard-inspected and approved vessel. The steel-hulled, technologically sophisticated 21st century ship — the first ocean-going, full-rigged ship to be built in the U.S. in 110 years — will be the largest civilian sail training vessel in America. It will be owned and operated by the non-profit Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island group and based in Newport. The three-masted, square-rigged sailing vessel will provide education-at-sea programs as the state’s Official Sailing Education Vessel. Ocean Navigator will teach a series of navigation seminars on Oliver Hazard Perry in 2015.