[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 79 (Thursday, May 21, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S5876]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     SENATE RESOLUTION 158--TO COMMEND THE AMERICAN SAIL TRAINING 
ASSOCIATION FOR ADVANCING INTERNATIONAL GOODWILL AND CHARACTER BUILDING 
                               UNDER SAIL

  Mr. KERRY (for himself and Mr. Kennedy) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                              S. Res. 158

       Whereas the American Sail Training Association (ASTA) is an 
     educational nonprofit corporation whose declared mission is 
     ``to encourage character building through sail training, 
     promote sail training to the North American public and 
     support education under sail'';
       Whereas, since its founding in 1973, ASTA has supported 
     character-building experiences aboard traditionally-rigged 
     sail training vessels and has established a program of 
     scholarship funds to support such experiences;
       Whereas ASTA has a long history of tall ship races, 
     rallies, and maritime festivals, dating back as far as 1976;
       Whereas, each year since 2001, ASTA has held the ``Tall 
     Ships Challenge'', a series of races and maritime festivals 
     that involve sail training vessels, trainees, and crews from 
     all the coasts of the United States and around the world;
       Whereas the Tall Ships Challenge series has reached an 
     audience of approximately 8,000,000 spectators and brought 
     more than $400,000,000 to more than 30 host communities;
       Whereas ASTA supports a membership of more than 200 sail 
     training vessels, including barks, barques, barkentines, 
     brigantines, brigs, schooners, sloops, and full-rigged ships, 
     which carry the flags of the United States, Canada, and many 
     other nations and have brought life-changing adventures to 
     thousands of young trainees;
       Whereas ASTA has held a series of more than 30 annual sail 
     training conferences in cities throughout the United States 
     and Canada, including the Safety Under Sail Forum and the 
     Education Under Sail Forum;
       Whereas ASTA has collaborated extensively with the Coast 
     Guard and with the premier sail training vessel of the United 
     States, the square-rigged barque USCGC Eagle;
       Whereas ASTA publishes ``Sail Tall Ships'', a periodic 
     directory of sail training opportunities;
       Whereas, in 1982, ASTA supported the enactment of the 
     Sailing School Vessel Act of 1982, title II of Public Law 97-
     322 (96 Stat. 1588);
       Whereas ASTA has ably represented the United States as a 
     founding member of the national sail training organization in 
     Sail Training International, the recognized international 
     body for the promotion of sail training, which has hosted a 
     series of international races of square-rigged and other 
     traditionally-rigged vessels since the 1950s; and
       Whereas ASTA and Sail Training International are 
     collaborating with port partners around the Atlantic Ocean to 
     produce the ``Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009'', in which 
     an international fleet of sail training vessels will sail 
     from Europe to North America and return to Europe: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) commends the American Sail Training Association for 
     advancing character building experiences for youth at sea in 
     traditionally-rigged sailing vessels and the finest 
     traditions of the sea;
       (2) commends the American Sail Training Association for 
     acting as the national sail training association of the 
     United States and representing the sail training community of 
     the United States in the international forum; and
       (3) encourages all people of the United States and the 
     world to join in the celebration of the ``Tall Ships Atlantic 
     Challenge 2009'' and in the character-building and 
     educational experience that it represents for the youth of 
     all nations.

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