IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 197 
To commend the American Sail Training Association for its advancement 
of character building under sail and for its advancement of international 
goodwill. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 26, 2009 
Mr. KENNEDY submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
To commend the American Sail Training Association for 
its advancement of character building under sail and 
for its advancement of international goodwill. 
Whereas the American Sail Training Association (ASTA) is 
an educational nonprofit corporation whose declared mis-
sion 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 promoted 
these goals through— 
(1) support of character building experiences aboard 
traditionally rigged sail training vessels; 
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(2) a program of scholarship funds supporting such 
experiences; 
(3) a long history of tall ship races, rallies, and mar-
itime festivals dating back as far as 1976; 
(4) the Tall Ships Challenge series of races and 
maritime festivals which— 
(A) have been conducted each year since 2001; 
(B) have reached an aggregate audience to date 
of some 8,000,000 spectators; 
(C) have had a cumulative economic impact of 
over $400,000,000 for over 30 host communities; 
and 
(D) involve sail training vessels, trainees, and 
crews from all the coasts of the United States and 
around the world; 
(5) support of its membership of more than 200 sail 
training vessels, embracing barks, barques, barkentines, 
brigantines, brigs, schooners, sloops, and full-rigged 
ships, which carry the flags of the United States, Can-
ada, and many other nations and have brought life 
changing adventures to thousands and thousands of 
young trainees; 
(6) a series of more than 30 annual sail training 
conferences to date, conducted in numerous cities 
throughout the United States and Canada and embracing 
the Safety Under Sail Forum and the Education Under 
Sail Forum; 
(7) extensive collaboration with the United States 
Coast Guard and with the premier sail training vessel of 
the United States, the square-rigged barque USCGC 
Eagle; 
(8) publication of ‘‘Sail Tall Ships’’, a periodic direc-
tory of sail training opportunities; and 
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(9) supporting the enactment of the Sailing Schools 
Vessel Act of 1982, Public Law 97–322, on October 15, 
1982; 
Whereas ASTA has ably represented the United States as its 
national sail training organization as a founding member 
of Sail Training International, the recognized inter-
national body for the promotion of sail training, which 
itself carries forward a series of international races 
amongst square-rigged and other traditionally rigged ves-
sels reaching back as far as the 1950s; and 
Whereas ASTA and Sail Training International are collabo-
rating with port partners around the Atlantic Ocean to 
produce Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009, an inter-
national fleet of sail training vessels originating in Eu-
rope, voyaging to North America, and returning to Eu-
rope: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) commends the American Sail Training As-
sociation for its advancement of character building 
experiences for youth at sea in traditionally rigged 
sailing vessels and its advancement of the finest tra-
ditions of the sea; 
(2) commends the American Sail Training As-
sociation as the national sail training association of 
the United States, representing the sail training 
community of the United States in the international 
forum; and 
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(3) encourages all citizens of the United States 
and of nations around the world to join in the cele-
bration of Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009 and in 
the character building and educational experience 
that it represents for the youth of all nations. 
Æ 
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