The Schooner Coast Voyage of the Denis Sullivan

Archived event (2012). This listing is restored from the Schooner Coast website as captured on June 28, 2012. Dates, phone numbers and programs are historical. For current plans, see World Ocean School, the ship's owner since 2022.

Step aboard the wooden deck of the world's only re-creation of a three-masted Great Lakes schooner and see how the sailors and ship captains of the 19th century lived and worked.

Wisconsin’s Schooner Coast is hosting a number of voyages on the S/V Denis Sullivan. Take a deck tour, reserve space on a Lake Michigan cruise or book a two or three-day family sail.

River Rendezvous

June 30 & July 1

The Denis Sullivan begins its Schooner Coast voyage at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc as part of the museum's annual River Rendezvous event.

Schooner Coast Adult & Family Sail

July 2 & 3

Enjoy a two-day sail to experience nautical life on the S/V Denis Sullivan as it cruises along Wisconsin's Schooner Coast.

Kewaunee Harbor

July 2

During its two-day family sail, the Denis Sullivan anchors in Kewaunee harbor in the late afternoon/early evening.

Schooner Coast Adult & Family Sail

July 7-9

Cruise from Sturgeon Bay to Manitowoc and take part in daily life aboard a 19th century schooner.

Schooner Coast Adult & Family Sail

July 31 - August 2

Milwaukee to Sturgeon Bay-Arrive in Sturgeon Bay just in time for the Annual Classic & Wooden Boat Festival at the Door County Maritime Museum.

Door County Maritime Museum

August 4 & 5

Take a deck tour of the Denis Sullivan during the Classic & Wooden Boat Festival at the museum.

Schooner Coast Adult & Family Sail

August 5-7

Sturgeon Bay to Milwaukee-Youth only sail. Youth passengers become part of the crew on a three-day, two-night sail.

Added in 2026

The Denis Sullivan under sail. Photo: Michael Pereckas from Milwaukee, WI, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The 2012 voyage above, listed with the other summer programs on the events pages, was a one-season program, and the ship has since left Lake Michigan. Discovery World in Milwaukee, which owned the Denis Sullivan, kept her docked through the pandemic seasons and in September 2022 sold her to World Ocean School, a sail-training nonprofit based in Boston. She left Milwaukee under motor on October 8, 2022, escorted by a flotilla of local boats, had repairs in St. Petersburg, Florida, and reached St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands that December.

She now spends winters running school programs and public sails out of Christiansted Harbor on St. Croix and sails north toward Boston for the summer. Milwaukee is still listed as her home port, for ceremony's sake.

Launched: June 2000, Milwaukee
Length: 137 ft overall, 98 ft on deck
Rig: three-masted gaff schooner, ten sails
Owner since 2022: World Ocean School

Sources: Wikipedia article "Denis Sullivan (schooner)"; World Ocean School program updates from St. Croix, 2025 to 2026 (read November 2026).

Questions visitors ask

Can I still sail on the Denis Sullivan on Lake Michigan?

No. Since late 2022 the ship has belonged to World Ocean School and sails on the East Coast and in the Caribbean. Public sunset sails are offered during her winter season on St. Croix.

Is the Denis Sullivan a copy of a real schooner?

Not of one ship. Her designers drew on several nineteenth-century Great Lakes schooners, the Rouse Simmons and Clipper City among them, but gave her a deeper hull and weighted keel to meet modern passenger rules.

Original text restored from the Wayback Machine capture of June 28, 2012. Typos and dead links were tidied; nothing else in the original section was rewritten. How this archive works.