VICTORIA, B.C., Canada — Like live ornaments on huge trees, Mexican sailors manned the yardarms as their colorful ship entered James Bay with a style befitting the Tall Ships Victoria festival.

Not since the earlier days of this Hudson's Bay Company settlement have large sailing vessels been so dominant. Twenty six boats, from the minute 20-foot 6-inch Trekka that carried John Guzwell on a four-year circumnavigation, to the massive 356-foot Russian school ship Pallada, were tucked in the inner harbor.

In addition to the spectacular tall ships like the Lady Washington, which starred in the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean," Victoria hosted about two dozen speedy sailboats competing in the fifth running of the Cadillac Van Isle 360 International Yacht Race. Victoria was plumb packed with nautical types touting waterline length, sail area and speed over water as well as the historical significance of wind-powered ships.

Lin Pardey, world cruiser, and author with her husband Larry of a raft of books chronicling their adventures aboard their home-built boats Serafyn and Talesian, was among the 250,000 spectators taking in this first stop on the west-coast tall ships tour. She was in Victoria restoring another wooden boat. "Now we have wooden boats to work on in both hemispheres (Victoria and New Zealand)," Pardey said.

From here, Tall Ships raced to Tacoma, Wash.; Vancouver, Canada and Port Alberni on Vancouver Island before heading down the coast to San Francisco, Oxnard, Los Angeles and San Diego, (Aug. 17-21).

All the action began here.

Just getting to Victoria was an adventure. The 85-foot gaff-rigged schooner R. Tucker Thompson, based in Whangerei, New Zealand, required engine assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard near Hawaii.

Making the trip faster than the projected 35 days, the Russian school ship Pallada covered the almost 5,000-mile distance from Vladivostok in 33 days and encountered some interesting weather off Vancouver Island while cruising around waiting for the Tall Ships festival to begin, according to 19-year-old cadets Gena Grisha and Liseyenko Kondrikov, who commented through an interpreter.

Two storms had the huge, fully rigged steel ship rolling 45 degrees from side to side, making the trip difficult for the 97 marine cadets, six officers and 43 crew aboard the 3,000-ton vessel built in Gdansk, Poland in the 1980s. Named for Greek goddess Pallas Athena, Pallada carries 26 sails on three masts.

It has clocked an impressive 18.7 knot boat speed. Pallada was the largest ship here and its 22-foot draft required high tide to get the ship into and out of the harbor.