Remember summer?

Here’s a chance to think back to a time when it didn’t spit snot every other morning, and when white sails and cannon fire punctuated Commencement Bay.

Tall Ships Tacoma is hosting the theatrical premier of its official video with two gatherings at the Galaxy Theater Gig Harbor, 4649 Point Fosdick Drive N.W.

The events run from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, April 2, and Wednesday, April 8. Tickets are $20 a person, and the DVD sells for $15. You can order them at tallshipstacoma.com, or call (253)272-5650.

The evenings will begin with a

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The City of Tacoma’s expenses related to the Tall Ships Tacoma 2008 festival totaled $291,983.

The figure is lower than the $300,000 of in-kind services the city committed to the July event because lower attendance allowed the police department to reduce staffing, according to an internal memo released Tuesday.

Police services were estimated to cost about $250,000 but came in at $211,141.51. Other costs included staffing from the fire department, paramedics and public works employees.

The nonprofit Tacoma Tall Ships Organization will receive the remaining $8,017 in cash. The nonprofit is currently digging itself out

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The Tacoma Tall Ships Organization sent out an e-mail to its supporters after today’s story about its deficit. If you’re interested, here it is:

Dear Tall Ships Supporter:



As you have probably seen this morning in the news, the Tall Ships festival this year finished with a deficit of about $500,000.



This deficit is in no way a reflection of your support and dedication to the festival. In our minds, the festival was a success because of the overwhelming community support it received, the positive reception the crews received, and the hundreds

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The non-profit organization that operated last month’s Tacoma Tall Ships 2008 ran the festival at a $500,000 deficit, its co-chairman said Thursday.

But the Tacoma Tall Ships Organization has no plans to declare bankruptcy or seek a bailout from the city, Stan Selden said.

"Our ticket sales were not what we forecasted. Our expenses were less than we forecasted," he said. "But the ticket sales, combined with free tours of the Eagle – we just did not have the income. And that’s something we couldn’t have known until the event happened."

About 300,000 people attended the event, which ran July 3-7. That number is 100,000 lower than the original estimate, and lower than organizers were hoping. Poor weather during the event was likely a large factor in the turnout.

Admission to the U.S. Coast Guard Eagle, the 266-foot three-masted barque that was the main attraction of the event, was free, but boarding passes were required to visit the dozens of other ships moored in the Thea Foss Waterway.

All of the organization’s creditors will be paid, Selden said.

"We’re not running away from the problem," he said. "There are various ways to solve these kinds of problems in the non-profit world, and we’re exploring three or four of those simultaneously as we move forward. No one likes to face up to these problems and make these kinds of phone calls, but we feel it’s our obligation."

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David Doxtater, the executive director for Tall Ships Tacoma 2008, said organizers are a few weeks away from releasing financial and attendance figures from last month’s festival.

Organizers are still in the process of crunching revenue numbers – including the numbers of boarding passes and sailing excursions – and reconciling them against the expenses.

"We should have some more information pretty quickly," he said. "We’re just doing our normal accounting."

He said he didn’t know if early indications point to a profit or deficit for the festival. But he said early estimates put the attendance figure

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Tall Ships Tacoma 2008 has been over for more than month now, but organizers still don’t have final attendance or financial figures.

And it might be a while, one of the event’s co-chairmen said.

"We haven’t had any conclusive discussions with the city – they’ve been very cooperative – but we got all mixed-up in ’05" with the numbers, Stan Selden said. "The county is doing an economic-impact study, and we’re not going to put out numbers we’re not sure of."

Selden was referring in part to an early estimated attendance of 1 million during the inaugural

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It’s an announcement that makes Kits Merryman wish she was born in the early 90s.

Five teenagers from the Youth on Board program will spend four days working alongside the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Eagle, the barque that was the centerpiece attraction of last month’s Tall Ships Tacoma 2008 festival.

The five were selected based on recommendations from their ships’ captains and evaluations based on participation and performance from the Youth on Board program, when 47 teens sailed from Victoria, B.C., to Tacoma.

They’ll board the Eagle in San Pedro, Calif., and sail to San

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