Behind the Tall Ships Standoff resolution

THE OBSERVER
This Tall tale is one for the books
Standoff between Menino and Sail Boston ends with a Pyrrhic settlement

By Sam Allis, Globe Columnist | June 21, 2009

There have been a surfeit of worries bouncing like marbles around the tiny head of the Observer lately: the fate of the Globe, the split between Billy Joel and his third wife, the conundrum of Iran. What’s a boy to do?

As a result, I skipped most of the psychodrama between veteran event planner Dusty Rhodes of Sail Boston and Boston Mayor Tom Menino over money to cover costs of the 2009 iteration of the Tall Ships early next month. This pair belongs in a cage fighting ring together. Anyway, on July 7, 49 tall ships from 18 countries - a few of them rather short ships actually - will start arriving in Boston Harbor. (“Tall Ships,’’ it turns out, was trademarked by Rhodes’s partner in this, the American Sail Training Association.)

It’s a gorgeous Boston story of grudges and expectations fueled by a vigorous game of chicken. Menino has insisted for ages that Sail Boston, Rhodes’s nonprofit that is managing the event, deliver $1.1 million to cover related costs to the city, such as security.

It never did and he never budged. It got personal. Rhodes bugs Menino. A lot of people bug him. He has the skin of onion paper and the memory of Rain Man.

Sail Boston’s last best offer was to deliver $750,000 up front with the rest to come later from the proceeds of tourist passports to have been sold for 10 bucks a pop. Maybe that would have worked, but I’ve always followed the advice of my father on this, particularly in this day and age: Don’t count on a penny until it’s in your pocket. Show me the money. In any case, Menino said nyet, I want it all now.

I don’t blame him. Sail Boston has never repaid its $1.2 million debt to the city for expenses it ate from the last Tall Ships rodeo in 2000, which explains Menino’s ire toward Rhodes. She maintains that the fault belongs to Jane Swift, the acting governor who succeeded Paul Cellucci, who had agreed to pick up the extra expenses. I’ve heard that too.

“The governor had changed,’’ says Rhodes, “And Swift said, ‘That’s not my obligation.’ ’’

The assignment of blame misses the point. Menino is simply practicing what you learn in kindergarten - burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice, shame on me. He doesn’t care who didn’t pay. All he knows is that the city is still out $1.2 million. It is extremely doubtful at this point that he would buy a used car from Sail Boston.

But the event will happen on schedule because staff members of Menino and Governor Deval Patrick arranged a meeting between the two pols at the Gay Pride Parade last Saturday, where Patrick pledged a million state dollars to the city to save the day. Both had a lot at stake here.

You knew something like this would happen. At the end of the day, Menino was not going to take the hit for shutting down the Tall Ships and damage his reputation and that of his city around the world. Nor did Patrick have any intention of sullying the name of the state. So in 2009, Rhodes gets what she wants. Menino can say he never wavered, and the state is left holding the bag. Call it another Boston standoff.

But you do wonder why Sail Boston didn’t have the money issue wrapped up early in the game. It had to know this was going to be a big deal given its last performance. The city has been in tough financial shape for years, and along with cities across the country, went down the disposal after the market meltdown that began last fall.

So the mere idea of the city using its dough for some tall ships as Menino is losing teachers tries our souls. Also, why did Sail Boston have such a hard time raising money if the Tall Ships are so popular?

This year’s iteration will not be a varsity production. There will be neither the Parade of Sails, the marquee event where the ships sail majestically through the harbor, nor fireworks.

And some of the “tall’’ sails are relative peewees. Included this year, for example are a 35-foot ketch and a 36-foot fiberglass sloop, both out of Maine, along with a 45-foot gaff-headed cutter from this state and a 52-foot yawl from Connecticut. Beautiful boats all, but hardly appropriate company for the 376-foot, four-masted Russian barque. So I think of this year’s crop as The Sort of Tall Ships.

Then there’s the delicious disagreement over compensation for Rhodes. She vehemently denies Menino’s understanding that she profited from Tall Ships event in 2000. “God no. I’ve lost money,’’ she says. “Twenty years ago, this was a labor of love. The mayor was not advised correctly.’’ (There’s a whole other story here.)

At some point, I ask myself why Boston is hosting this thing at all. It has already done so three times, including the original Big Daddy in 1976 for our bicentennial. I know this year’s event will draw thousands of people, and it’s good for hotel and restaurant owners, but I haven’t heard one person mention the Tall Ships except to express their delight at the Rhodes-Menino bout. The 2009 version has become a sideshow. The event feels tired and its marketing precious. Do we really need this?

It’s not as if we’re talking about the massive parades honoring the Patriots and the Red Sox whenever they conquer the world. Corporate sponsors cover almost all of those attendant costs. Tall Ships can’t compare with the emotion and meaning of those demonstrations to Boston, so remind me again why the city should cover the Tall Ships in the first place?

Sam Allis’s e-mail address is allis@globe.com.
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