Toshiba Funding Saves Tall Ships Festival

The 12th annual Dana Point Tall Ships Festival was in danger of being scuttled this year until a corporate sponsor offered to replace $6,550 in city funding that the event had lost.

Toshiba’s copier and fax division committed the money this week after hearing that the festival, organized by the Orange County Marine Institute in Dana Point, might not happen.

“It would have been a real tragedy if we were to allow an event such as this to come to such an inauspicious end,” said Brian Merriman, vice president and general manager at Toshiba American Information Systems.

The centerpiece of the festival is the Pilgrim, the institute’s working replica of the 130-foot brig that carried author Richard Henry Dana up and down the California coast in 1834.

“The Pilgrim and its history represent to Dana Point what the Mayflower means to New England,” said Stanley L. Cummings, president of the institute.

Dana Point in the past has given grants to nonprofit groups and events in the city, including the Tall Ships Festival. But the city has opted to hold onto the $70,000 set aside for grants this year, despite requests from 37 organizations. Mayor Bill Ossenmacher has said he prefers that such groups get their funding from private sources, instead of using taxpayer money.

Without the city money, Cummings said, the institute staff had already written off the festival and decided to concentrate on other programs for the summer. But when Toshiba pledged its support, Cummings said, the staff scrambled to enlist the musicians, artisans and vendors who recreate the 1800s atmosphere for the event, which typically draws about 12,000 visitors.

Cummings said he expects as many as 10 ships to join the Pilgrim for a parade into the harbor to open the festival on Sept. 6.