South Street Seaport Museum
Sail New York Harbor
Aboard Schooner Pioneer

The South Street Seaport Museum announces the beginning of the 2017 season to sail New York Harbor aboard the historic 1885 schooner Pioneer. Public sails began on Saturday May 27, 2017.

Spend an afternoon at the Museum! Pioneer tickets include free admission to the Museum’s historic ships and exhibitions on the day of your sail. Just bring the ticket to the Museum before or after your sail!

The Museum now offers later hours allowing visitors to see the Museum’s exhibitions before or after their Pioneer sail.  The Museum’s historic ships and main exhibition space will be open Wednesday through Sunday from 11am-7pm from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day.
 
Tickets for Pioneer are available at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/947114.
 
Pioneer is also available for charters. Bring friends, family, coworkers, and colleagues aboard for a private 2-hour sail on New York Harbor with striking views of the lower Manhattan skyline, Statue of Liberty and Governors Island. Customized scheduling and catering recommendations are available. Contact charters@seany.org for details.
 
 
ABOUT THE SCHOONER PIONEER
In the days before paved roads, small coastal schooners such as Pioneer were the delivery trucks of their era, carrying various cargoes between coastal communities: lumber and stone from the islands of Maine, brick on the Hudson River, and oyster shell on the Chesapeake Bay. Almost all American cargo sloops and schooners were wood, but because Pioneer was built in what was then this country’s center of iron shipbuilding, shewas launched in 1885 with a wrought-iron hull. She was the first of only two cargo sloops built of iron in this country, and is the only iron-hulled American merchant sailing vessel still in existence. 
 
By 1930, when new owners moved her from the Delaware River to Massachusetts, she had been fitted with an engine, and was no longer using sails. Beginning in 1966 she was substantially rebuilt, turning her back into a sailing vessel once again and relaunching her in 1968. Since 1970 she has been a part of the South Street Seaport Museum’s collection, plying the waters of New York Harbor carrying adults and children instead of cargo in her current role as a piece of “living history.” 
 
Today Visitors can board Pioneer for 2-hour day and evening cruises as she sails New York Harbor May through October. School classes and other groups can book exciting education programs and Pioneer is available for private charter throughout her season. You can join the crew too! Pioneer is an award-winning sail training vessel teaching traditional maritime skills, and the art of tall ship sailing to volunteers of all kinds.
Pioneer offers an experience that is unique in New York. Not a replica, but rather an authentic 1885 sailing vessel, a trip aboard Pioneer provides more than just an enjoyable cruise on the harbor; visitors can take part in using a 132 year old museum object for exactly the purpose which it was built: sailing. 
 
There is no equal to a sail on Pioneer-step aboard, grab a halyard, or sit back and feel the wind on your face and become a part of “Where New York Begins.”
 
ABOUT SOUTH STREET SEAPORT MUSEUM
The South Street Seaport Museum, located in the heart of the historic Seaport district in New York City, preserves and interprets the history of New York as a great port city. Designated by Congress as America’s National Maritime Museum, the Museum houses exhibition galleries and education spaces, working nineteenth century print shops, and an active fleet of historic vessels that all work to tell the story of “Where New York Begins.”