Penzance recently hosted visits from Blue Clipper and Morgenster.
Morgenster
Morgenster was launched in 1919 as a herring lugger “Vrouw Maria” SCH 324 for the fishing company den Dulk. She was built at the shipyard Boot in Alphen. In 1927 she was motorised (200 HP La Meuse) and extended for another 7 meters. There she got her new name “Morgenster”. She continued as a motorised fishing vessel until 1970. Due to certification requirements the owner took her out of fishing. She was sold to Jaq Vrolijk who exploited her in sport fishing daytrips.
After losing certificates for this business she was sold to a Rotterdam singer who was said to prepare the ship for ether piracy. The singer was prosecuted, but after a series of trials and 2 1/2 years later he was freed and regained the possession of his ship. In 1983 Marian and Harry Muter bought the vessel in a terrible state of maintenance. The ship was towed to Zijkanaal B near the lovely little village of Spaarndam. Serious repairs and maintenance were carried out during the winter. After selling STV “Jantje” in 2005, Marian and Harry had the opportunity to attend their project with Morgenster on a full time basis.
Finally, in June 2008 she was formally blessed into the sailing world again by the very sympathetic Minister Maria van der Hoeve. Morgenster proved to be a fine vessel ever since, and fast enough in all sorts of weather and easy to handle.
Blue Clipper
Tall Ship Blue Clipper was built in 1991 at Feab Marstrandsverken in Sweden. In 1992 the famous brandy company Hennessey chartered Blue Clipper to celebrate the anniversary of the first delivery of cognac from France to Shanghai 120 years earlier. Painted white and with the name ‘Spirit of Hennessey’ Blue Clipper repeated this historic voyage. She has appeared in various TV programmes and TV commercials including the Trade Winds TV series starring Hugh Johnson. Following this, she went into private ownership and sailed in Mediterranean waters under a Maltese flag.
Maybe Sailing acquired the ship in 2016. After an extensive maintenance period the ship sailed to London to begin a 5 month tall ship Regatta, the 2017 Rendez-Vous. The ship was one of only four vessels to complete the whole race, travelling over 10,000 nautical miles visiting Portugal, the Canaries, Bermuda, USA, Canada and France. This Regatta was to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Canadian Federation. It was an extremely successful regatta for Blue Clipper and her crew, placing either 1st or 2nd in four of the five race legs.
2018 marked a new chapter for the vessel, as she was repainted Blue and travelled North once more to visit the Arctic before heading to the Caribbean for some winter sunshine.