Pogoria (ship)

STS Pogoria is a Polish barquentine launched in 1980 in Gdańsk Shipyard, Poland.

The ship was built for the for the Iron Shackle Fraternity - . She was designed by Zygmunt Choreń.

The Pogoria was built in 1979-80 in Gdansk, for the Iron Shackle Fraternity, a a marine educational project which was conceived and founded by Captain Adam Jasser in 1971. She was launched on January 23rd, 1980 and made her international debut, barely a few weeks after completion, in the 1980 Tall Ships Race Kiel - Karlskrona - Frederikshavn - Amsterdam and the windjammer gathering in Bremerhaven that followed. She was designed by Zygmunt Choreń.

In the southern Summer of 1980-81 she was chartered by the Polish Academy of Sciences as a relief vessel for a Polish scientific station on King George Island in the South Shetlands (Antarctica). On that voyage she called also at Stanley in the Falklands and in South Georgia.

The Pogoria took part in the 1982 Tall Ships Races Falmouth-Cadiz-Lisbon-Southampton. That winter she sailed in the Canaries and the following summer in the Baltic. From September 1983 to May 1984 she sailed for the ęClass Afloatł project with young Poles and some young (and a few ęadultł) Westerners on a clockwise circumnavigation of Africa, with a loop around Bombay and Colombo.

From 1985 until the end of 1991 she was under virtual full-time charter to the Canadian Educational Alternative of Ottawa and Montreal, working with school afloat (with breaks only for maintenance holidays). She had a Polish crew of 9 and 20-40 Canadian students and their teachers. In 1985 she made another circumnavigation of Africa. The voyage ended in Montreal and she sailed back to Poland, by way of the New York Op Sail `86. In 1987-88 she sailed around the world. Since then she has been operating in the Atlantic between Europe and West Indies, the USA and Canada. The charter ended at Capetown before Christmas 1991 and then the Pogoria set sails for home, for another refit which took place in 1993 and was financed by the City of Gdynia and the Sailing Foundation of Gdynia became the co-owner of the ship. Right after the refit Pogoria joined the cruise-in-company and the second leg of 1993 Cutty Sark Tall Ships Races Bergen - Larvik - Esbjerg. In 1994 she sailed across Atlantic to join the series of Maritime Festivals on the Great Lakes. In 1995 the Sail Training Association Poland became the shipłs operator and Pogoria entered the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Races Edinburgh - Bremerhaven - Frederikshavn - Amsterdam. In 1996 the operator has chosen the Mediterranean series of Cutty Sark Genoa - Palma - Naples. The following years the ship participated i The Cutty Sark Tall Ships Races every Summer. In 1999, in Aalborg, the final port of the race series "Pogoria" won the most important and prestigious award - the Cutty Sark Trophy. The winners of this award are the crew and the ship which contributed the most to international understanding and friendship during the series of races.

In 2000 "Pogoria" successfully completed the Tall Ships 2000 on the route Genoa - Cadiz - Bermuda - ports on the eastern coast of the US - Boston - Halifax - Amsterdam. Every Summer "Pogoria" participates in the Cutty Sark Tall Shipsł Races. Since 1999/2000 the ship has been operated in Winter in the Mediterranean from the base in Genoa in cooperation with STA Italia.

External links

* http://www.pogoria.pl