Watch the Lady Washington, the Lynx and Hawaiian Chieftain shoot it out nightly in cannon battles off Brotchie Ledge along Dallas Road at the Tall Ships Festival later this month.

But don’t go expecting to see a live version of what Hollywood puts on the big screen, Lady Washington’s captain Les Bolton says.

There’ll be no gaping holes in the hulls from cannon balls, downed masts, flaming decks and crew swinging aboard the losing ship. That’s strictly Hollywood and far removed from early sea battles.

Bounty, replica of Nina joining fleet of big boats coming to Inner Harbour.

It will be Hollywood-on-the-highseas at June’s four-day Tall Ships Festival in the Inner Harbour. The Bounty — nautical star of two blockbusters — is coming, festival president Bob Cross announced yesterday at a Maritime Museum reception.

Victoria is the only major Canadian stop — some ships later visit Port Alberni — in this year’s tall ship race series held every three years on the Pacific coast.

His fiefdom is a nondescript office tucked into a corner of the Provincial Capital Commission’s Pandora Avenue administration headquarters. Temporary shelves, no receptionist, no water cooler, no staff as yet.

It’s not much, but for Bernard Brown this is a dream job. The kind of job for which a successful 60 year-old advertising executive is willing to opt out of a semi-retired state and once again take up the nose-to-the-grindstone life he’d left behind.

Tall ships from around the world sailed serenely into the chaos of Victoria’s Inner Harbour Thursday afternoon.

Float planes trying to keep to schedules picked spots to take off and land as the harbour’s bug-like passenger ferries scooted back and forth around kayakers, pleasure craft and — of course — the MV Coho arriving on its regularly scheduled sailing.

Volunteers needed for Tall Ship Festival

As many as 20 historic sailing vessels will dot the horizon as they approach Vancouver Island from around the world next month, on their way to the Victoria Tall Ships Festival, June 23 to 26.

Festival organizers are looking for 250 volunteers to help host crew and ships when they arrive, and to support the volunteer functions.

The 2005 Victoria Tall Ships Festival finished $50,000 in the black last June, attracting nearly 40,000 paid visitors and sinking $5.2 million into the local economy.

The positive results were announced Wednesday as part of a long-awaited economic analysis completed by the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Business.

"I think this was probably the largest family event of the year in Victoria. Every sector of the industry benefited," said Lorne Whyte, chief executive officer of Tourism Victoria.

Pirates part of education resource guide delivered to schools in time for Tall Ships 2005 Schools included in tall ships mix

Capital Region students will get a taste of seafaring life in time for the 2005 Victoria Tall Ship Festival June 23-26.

Bill Conconi keeps tabs on the tall ships. Thousands of smiles are the real payoff for festival’s marine ringmaster

Bill Conconi knows which festival tall ship goes where and when in the Inner Harbour on Thursday.

And all this, the chief of the Victoria Tall Ships Festival fleet says, takes place over four days of the year’s most extreme tides.