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The Tall Ship Story
Adventurous Spirit
Every sailing ship has a story, and the remarkable story of our Brazil Tall Ship trips is the kind of thing movies are made from. Oddly, the story of Brazil's only true Tall Ship begins in Australia.Markus, our captain, has always had an adventurous spirit. Imagine yourself in his shoes, as this is the story of how his dream became a reality. It's 1998 and you've stepped aboard a stunning two mast wooden topsail schooner in Sydney. From that moment you're hooked and obsessed with the idea, the dream, to build your own tall ship.
Back home in Europe, you plan, save, work and sacrifice everything for 6 years - all for the dream. Finally the day comes, it is time to turn the dream into reality, and you find yourself in the middle of the jungle in Brazil, at a little place called Santaré. You've got barely any money or modern technologies at your disposal, plus you're dealing with searing heat and more poisonous snakes and spiders than you can count. It is here, on the banks of the Tapajós River in the Amazon, where you build your dream.
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"If rightly made, a boat would be a sort of amphibious animal, a creature of two elements, related by one half its structure to some swift and shapely fish, and by the other to some strong-winged and graceful bird." - Henry David Thoreau |
Construction of a Tall Ship
After six years of planning, the dream continues for another six years, building the Brazilian Tall Ship from more than a dozen types of wood indigenous to the Amazon.Here, in the middle of the Amazon, the ship is such an oddity that at first it is hard to describe the size and shape of such an immense project. Slowly, a few adventurous local carpenters and workers agree to assist in the collection of wood and construction of this "jungle beast". Before you know it everyone wants to be part of the team building the biggest sailing ship ever built in the Amazon!
Built almost entirely by hand and using traditional tools takes time, as does finding the best quality wood. By the time it is completed, this ship will require 160 tons of wood, with planks as big as 12m, weighing more than 260kg each!
The keel, cut from Ipé wood deep in the Amazon weighs 2.5 tons. It takes a team of 25 people more than 3.5 months to pull, slide and drag it through the jungle before arriving at the ship building site.
The ribs of the ship are cut from magnificent Itauba Preta wood, accounting for 60 tons of the ships weight. With the amazing carpentry skills of the people around Santarém everything begins to take place as the team cuts, transports, places and smoothes all pieces by hand.
Before you know it the hull has been formed, and you've used more than 2km of wood and 40,000 nails and screws to make your dream come true. After five years of construction, the moment of truth arrives... the Tall Ship is pushed into the water... and floats!
Over the next year you complete the ship with parts from all around the world. The 30m Muiricatiara masts and sails are set and 12 years after the dream began, you're ready to sail and participate in the 500-year anniversary of Brazil!
Sailing the Coast of Brazil
After six years of dreaming and six years of building, finally the sailing can begin in the year 2000. Six years after first setting sail, G.A.P Adventures began offering specialized sailing adventures on this magnificent Tall Ship. These sailing vacations to Rio, Paraty and Ilha Grande keep the adventurous spirit of the ship alive and in November 2006 National Geographic Adventure magazine named our Brazil Tall Ship Sailing Adventures as one of the "World's Best New Adventures for 2007"!The ship was built to last, and with a goal of sailing the seven seas, who knows what the next 6 years will bring…the adventure has just begun!
(Building a Tall Ship in the Amazon was the dream and creation of four adventurous souls - Markus L, René, Kit and Markus S. They spent six years working together with, training and supervising the local people of Santarém during the construction of the ship.)
