Is tall ship sticking to mission?

(Updated 10:58 a.m. with Dunbar comment)
The SSV Oliver Hazard Perry, named for the 19th-century Rhode Islander and U.S. Navy commodore, was always envisioned as an educational vessel for Rhode Islanders.

The nonprofit Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island raised $16 million in eight years, mostly from Rhode Islanders, to fund the ship’s construction.

Industrial Recreational Building Authority legislation, which allows industrial and recreational properties benefiting the public to apply for loan guarantees, was rewritten in 2011 to benefit OHPRI. But due to the bill’s “onerous” regulations, OHPRI did not take advantage of an IRBA loan guarantee, according to Bart Dunbar, president of the Bowen’s Wharf Co. and chairman of the board of OHPRI.

In 2012 the ship was designated Rhode Island’s official sailing-education vessel.

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Earlier this month, the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography Inner Space Center announced a $2.9 million National Science Foundation grant funding a climate change-focused research expedition to Canada’s Northwest Passage in which the vessel will be used for research. The grant funds a five-week journey beginning in August 2017 at Pond Inlet, Nunavut. It will be the first time a tall ship has sailed to the Northwest Passage in 100 years.

The grant, however, stipulates that of 36 students to be chosen for the trip, 18 undergraduates must be minorities from schools located outside Rhode Island.

Rhode Island-based students, along with others from across the U.S., can apply for 12 high school and six graduate school spots in early 2017, according to URI.

Gail Scowcroft, associate director of the Inner Space Center, confirmed there will be at least one URI graduate student onboard.

So is the ship, which became fully operational in July, already moving away from its mission to serve the Ocean State?

Definitely not, says OHPRI Executive Director Jessica Wurzbacher. She said the expedition fits the ship’s mission of providing “innovative and empowering” at-sea programming.

“The ship was never built just to stay in Rhode Island waters, you can circle the bay in a day,” she said. “It was meant to represent Rhode Island. She’s a big ship, she was meant to be on the high seas, it would be a waste if she always stayed in Rhode Island.”

OHPRI, explained Wurzbacher, had no input in the NSF stipulations, but has the ability to involve more Rhode Islanders. The length of the voyage is three months and the URI project is five-weeks long, which leaves Wurzbacher and OHPRI to cover seven weeks of operating costs – an amount she is still trying to get a handle on.

“We’ll do everything we can to get Rhode Island students on beforehand and after,” she said.

By enrolling students in OHPRI courses, the nonprofit could cover the remainder of the operating costs and open the opportunity up to more Rhode Islanders, said Wurzbacher, who did not disclose enrollment pricing.

“Although not everyone in Rhode Island can be on the vessel, they can be proud of where she’s going, what she’s doing and the ground she’s breaking,” she said. •

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