A resolution to commend the American Sail Training Association for advancing international goodwill and character building under sail.

Whereas the American Sail Training Association (ASTA) is an educational nonprofit corporation whose declared mission is to encourage character building through sail training, promote sail training to the North American public and support education under sail;

Whereas since its founding in 1973, ASTA has supported character-building experiences aboard traditionally rigged sail training vessels and has established a program of scholarship funds to support such experiences;

Whereas ASTA has a long history of tall ship races, rallies, and maritime festivals, dating back as far as 1976;

Whereas each year since 2001, ASTA has held the Tall Ships Challenge, a series of races and maritime festivals that involve sail training vessels, trainees, and crews from all the coasts of the United States and around the world;

Whereas the Tall Ships Challenge series has reached an audience of approximately 8,000,000 spectators and brought more than $400,000,000 to more than 30 host communities;

Whereas ASTA supports a membership of more than 200 sail training vessels, including barks, barques, barkentines, brigantines, brigs, schooners, sloops, and full-rigged ships, which carry the flags of the United States, Canada, and many other nations and have brought life-changing adventures to thousands of young trainees;

Whereas ASTA has held a series of more than 30 annual sail training conferences in cities throughout the United States and Canada, including the Safety Under Sail Forum and the Education Under Sail Forum;

Whereas ASTA has collaborated extensively with the Coast Guard and with the premier sail training vessel of the United States, the square-rigged barque USCGC Eagle;

Whereas ASTA publishes Sail Tall Ships, a periodic directory of sail training opportunities;

Whereas in 1982, ASTA supported the enactment of the Sailing School Vessel Act of 1982, title II of Public Law 97–322 (96 Stat. 1588);

Whereas ASTA has ably represented the United States as a founding member of the national sail training organization in Sail Training International, the recognized international body for the promotion of sail training, which has hosted a series of international races of square-rigged and other traditionally rigged vessels since the 1950s; and

Whereas ATSA collaborates with port partners around North America to produce the Tall Ships Challenge races and maritime events, drawing sail training vessels from around the world: Now, therefore, be it