SSV ''Tole Mour'' is a

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

and

sail training From its modern interpretations to its antecedents when maritime nations would send young naval officer candidates to sea (e.g., see Outward Bound), sail training provides an unconventional and effective way of building many useful skills on a ...

vessel operating in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

of California, off the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast and the Western Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the Contiguous United States, contig ...

. Designed by Ewbank, Brooke and Associates, she was built by the Nichols Bros. Boat Builders on

Whidbey Island Whidbey Island (historical spellings Whidby, Whitbey, or Whitby) is the largest of the islands composing Island County, Washington, Island County, Washington (state), Washington, in the United States, and the largest island in Washington stat ...

in Washington's

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ; ) is a complex estuary, estuarine system of interconnected Marine habitat, marine waterways and basins located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As a part of the Salish Sea, the sound ...

to withstand the extreme conditions of the

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, she is extremely seaworthy and meets or exceeds all of the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

's regulations as a Sailing School Vessel, while offering luxurious accommodations in comparison to other

tall ship A tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigging, rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a r ...

s. At 229 gross registered tons she is the largest active tall ship on the West Coast. The ''Tole Mour'' was originally commissioned by the Marimed Foundation of

Hawai’i Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...

in 1988 as a self-contained primary health care support vessel, operating in the US trust territory protectorate of the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 c ...

. The name of the ship was selected by a competition of Marshall Islands school children, and means 'A Gift of Life and Health' in the

Marshallese language Marshallese ( or ), also known as Ebon, is a Micronesian language spoken in the Marshall Islands. The language of the Marshallese people, it is spoken by nearly all of the country's population of 59,000, making it the principal language. There ...

. With onboard

medical Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

, dental and

ophthalmological Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

offices, the ''Tole Mour'' provided

services to over 15,000 islanders over a period of 4 years, until the Marshallese government commissioned their own fleet of medical delivery vessels and the ''Tole Mour'' returned to Hawai'i to serve other purposes. In 2001, she was acquired by Guided Discoveries'

Catalina Island Marine Institute The Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI) is a non-profit educational program founded in 1979 and run by Guided Discoveries on Santa Catalina Island, California. It is the host to approximately 15,000 students a year, who visit it in school-orga ...

, offering

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of to ...

and

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and ...

education to hundreds of school-aged participants a year. The professional crew was housed in up to 6 double cabins and 2 master rooms within her 123 feet on deck and

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

. Up to 36 youth participants could be accommodated in cabins housing 4, 8 and 10 berths. Her previous medical requirements provided areas for laboratory equipment, touch tanks, and

aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

s. In 2014, the ''Tole Mour'' was sold to Island Windjammers, a charter cruise company operating in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

. She underwent a refitting, as well as a name change, and is now known as ''Vela''.

References

{{Reflist

External links

CIMI Tallship ExpeditionsMarimed FoundationThe American Sail Training AssociationEwbank Naval Architects formerly Ewbank Brooke & Associates
Schooners of the United States Individual sailing vessels Training ships Sail training ships Tall ships of the United States Three-masted ships 1988 ships Ships built in Washington (state)

See also

References

External links