By Staff
June 28th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
It will be exciting!
Eleven magnificent Tall Ships will gather on Lake Ontario near the entrance to the Burlington Bay Canal on Friday, June 30 beginning at 2:00 p.m. with all ships docking at Pier 8 at 4:00 p.m.
In order to get to that canal – you gotta sail past the Burlington Pier, the most expensive chunk of concrete in the province – but we digress.
Where you park and where the ships are.
Burlingtonians can watch the ship sail towards the canal
Prominent vantage points to watch the parade of ships on the Burlington side of the Skyway are|:
Burlington Canal
LaSalle and Bayshore Parks in Burlington.
And of course from the Pier and from a number of vantage points in the Beachway.
The Empire Sandy
Access to vantage points will be affected by the closure of Eastport Drive at the Burlington Canal Lift Bridge from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. to enable the ships to enter Hamilton Harbour.
With the ships in Hamilton, tied up at Pier 8 the Parade of Sail launches the Rendez-Vous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta at Pier 8, Discovery Drive, on July 1.
This will be a rare opportunity – and the only place in the GTHA – to witness the spectacle of 11 Tall Ships touring Hamilton’s beautiful Waterfront.
• Free deck tours are offered from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (first come, first served – no guarantee of access past 5 p.m.)
• Ticketed Harbour Cruises available for purchase online at www.hamilton.ca/tallships. See website for cruise times and pricing, including the evening fireworks cruise that boards at 9:00 p.m.
The Pathfinder
• Family-friendly and nautical-themed activities
• Music on the Waterfront Stage featuring great musicians from Hamilton’s thriving music scene
• Numerous food vendors
• The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s Avro Lancaster will conduct multiple fly-overs of the Waterfront between 11:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on July 1st.
This event is organized by the City of Hamilton in association with Le Rendez-Vous Naval de Quebec, Sail Training International, the Hamilton Port Authority and the Hamilton Waterfront Trust.
The Niagara
More than 40 Tall Ships will be sailing Canadian waters to honour the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation in 2017, with stops in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes
It is a Hamilton event – but they do have to sail past Burlington to get to Hamilton Harbour.
It turns out I was wrong about the bus schedules but I did not find this out until I took the bus into Hamilton. The site clearly lists Canada Day as one of the days buses run on Holiday schedules. My friend and I left home in plenty of time to catch the bus since I never know when my arthritis will act up and slow me down. The bus was supposed to arrive at Plains and King at 12:06. We arrived at 11:38 so I felt I had plenty of time to make a bathroom stop at Macdonald’s. Imagine my surprise when my friend called that the bus had come and he was already on it. I caught the next one and the very nice driver agreed that BT could have gotten out the info that the buses were running on normal Saturday schedules much better.
Might the sail in timing be affected if we have more of these heavy rains at the appointed time!
Now if only I could stay later than 6:00 on Saturday without having to go miles out of my way to catch the Parkdale bus to Burlington or paying 30-40 dollars for a cab. But alas, Burlington transit does not see fit to run their buses later so, as a non driver I am stuck.Even if I did drive there is the issue of drinking and driving.
I think the headline should be corrected. You mean June 30, not July, right?
Editor’s note – we did and thank you for spotting our mistake – it has been corrected – what would we do without you people.
Thank you editor for the detailed information. It’ll make my day much easier:)