Owen Sound saw the return of the Playfair on July 26th. The Playfair is an occasional visitor to the harbour and is notable for its “brigantine” rigging. Brigantine ships use square sails on the foremast and fore-and-aft sails on the mainmast.
The Playfair is operated by Brigs Youth Sail Training, and is crewed almost entirely by high-school students. They sail all over the Great Lakes and make stops at various ports where they offer tours of the top deck to locals.
The Playfair has a unique claim amongst Canadian ships: when it was launched in 1973, it was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II. This makes it the only Canadian ship to have been commissioned by a reigning monarch.
