Hindu Charters offers a perfect and iconic boat wedding venue located in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Perfect for an intimate ceremony or nautical themed bachelor or bachelorette party, our classic sailing yachts (schooner Hindu, and cutter Bloodhound) offer a beautiful and fun way to mark your celebration and create something truly unique and memorable. Our crew and captain will provide a unique sailing experience as Provincetown offers a scenic backdrop for your special celebration.

Facilities and Capacity

Our historic vessels can accomodoate up to 34 guests each.

Services Offered

Our vessels are available for private charter for intimate wedding ceremonies and parties. We are happy to provide recomedations for caterers, florists, photographers, and officiants. You will receive personal service; the ship even has its own dog mascots, or bring your own! We are a dog friendly sailing business.

History

Bloodhound

The original Bloodhound was built in 1874 for the Scottish Marquess of Ailsa. Designed by the legendary William Fife II, she was one of the first yachts of the era built exclusively for racing, incorporating a narrow beam, cutter rig and tall sail plan. She won every race she entered until she burned in a fire in the 1920’s. The replica, built in the 1990’s in Del Ray California, is based on drawings recovered from the Kennedy Family Castle in Scotland. The Bloodhound has seventy feet of beautiful teak deck, a 22 foot retractable bowsprit and a 48 foot boom. She has 3,500 square feet of sail, including a jackyard topsail. We have adjusted her sail area for the comfort of the public, using her loose footed delivery main for charter sailing rather than her racing main.

Hindu

The Schooner Hindu is the second longest running charter boat on the East Coast. Since 1946 the Hindu has been offering sunset and daysail sailing charters at the end of Cape Cod, in Provincetown MA. Generations of families have crewed and celebrated special occasions including proposals, weddings, and celebrations of life onboard. The Schooner Hindu is recognized by the Provincetown Historic Commision for her local historical significance; she is the only wooden schooner still sailing in a port that once boasted nearly 5,000 large wooden schooners known as Grand Banks fishing vessels. A half scale version of a Grand Banks fishing vessel, the Hindu is the last representation of the vessels that sustained the people of Provincetown until the middle of the 20th century.

Above and beyond her significance in Provincetown, MA, the Hindu is a widely adored ambassador of American maritime history, having been featured in two feature films, and participating in schooner races and Tall Ships festivals around the United States, as well offering 20 years of busy winter sailing in Key West Florida. Fans come easily with a history as rich as the Hindu’s.

She was designed by prolific American yacht designer William Hand Jr., known for his handsome and sea-kindly creations. Originally hailed as ‘Princess Pat’, after the British Princess Patricia who sewed banners with her own hands for a military unit in Canada at the turn of the 20th century, the schooner, like her original namesake, has proven over nearly a century to be beautiful and capable.

Built in Boothbay Maine by the Hogdgen Brothers, she was launched in 1925, in the same year the Great Gatsby was published. She changed names and hands several times within a short period, notably sailing alongside, and ultimately falling behind, the racing greats of the 1930 Newport to Bermuda race. Amidst the turmoil of the Great Depression, she was purchased by William A. Parker, who had a creative idea for his new luxury yacht to earn her keep. Parker sailed the schooner to India to pick up spices, and brought them back to trade in Boston. Along the way, he christened the vessel the Hindu; the name that stuck.

As was the case with many wooden vessels, the Hindu was commandeered by the Navy to participate in the coastal picket brigade during WWII. The Hindu served during World War II as a scout for German U-boats along the eastern seaboard. She had a machine gun mounted to her foredeck, her hull was painted gray, and lined with depth charges to drop on submarines if any should pass beneath her. The coastal picket brigade’s presence was a huge success in a previously unchallenged and crippling attack on American cargo vessels. After her service she was purchased by Al Avellar, a Provincetown capt who had served as Chief Petty Officer with the ‘hooligan navy’. Having been fully stripped of her luxury cabins during the war, and fitted by the coast guard with watertight bulkheads, she transitioned easily into a recreational commercial vessel. Noticing that passengers grew wild excitement every time a whale showed up, Al Avellar initiated the first ever whale watch trips on board the Schooner Hindu and later aboard the M/V Dolphin, which now constitutes one of the largest tourism businesses on the water not only in Provincetown but along the northeast coast.

The Hindu was the first boat to raise the equality flag, and has sailed with it ever since. The Hindu is one of only five William Hand schooners still sailing in the world.