To those churches and charities with donations, here is the information you need:

Our two tall ships, Formidable and Poincare, offer two hour excursion sails in Boston Harbor during the summer.

We are delighted to donate tickets (the number on your donation postcard) to your organization, for rides on our classic square-rigged ships, Formidable and Poincare.

Please use the postcard as your ticket, or make photocopies of the postcard, and use them as your tickets.

Each ticket entitles the bearer to a two-hour sail in Boston Harbor on one of our vessels. We offer complimentary bottled water and ginger snaps. Please feel free to bring your own food and beverages, and we welcome caterers. We are not handicap accessible. If weather causes a cancellation of your trip, we issue a rain check for any missed cruises.

For our Formidable 11 AM, 1 PM, and 3 PM cruises, we leave and return to our dock at Boston Waterboat Marina Long Wharf, Poincare departs from our East Boston Dock


If you plan to auction off our tickets (in this case forty tickets) at silent auction, to avoid sniping and monopsony we suggest you use the following system:

1. Offer the tickets in four lots of ten tickets, during one single auction.

2. A silent auction works best.

3. There is no reserve price for a bid.

4. Bidders need not bid higher than all previous bids.

5. A fixed time and date ends the auction.

6. Bids may be submitted by phone or e-mail, as well as a hand written entry on a bidding slip.

7. There will be four winning bids

8. Each of these winners gets one of the lots of ten tickets.

9. Of the four winning bids, one will be lowest. Each winner pays only this lowest bid.

This Australian auction scheme produces the best bidding and should raise you the most money.

Another approach is to use these tickets as a gift to individuals or small groups who have been loyal workers, volunteers, or supporters. We have seen some very successful parties organized around the birthday or anniversary of a major supporter.

Please call me personally if you have any questions at (617)262-1119, and please ask ticket holders to call and arrange for a reservation. We should be available from Memorial Day to Labor Day, except Mondays.