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Historic Tall Ship Bringing Drinks and Oysters to TriBeCa's Pier 25

 The Sherman Zwicker is slated to open to the public in June, docked at Pier 25.
The Sherman Zwicker is slated to open to the public in June, docked at Pier 25.
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Grand Banks Presentation

TRIBECA — A historic ship serving drinks and seafood by a popular Williamsburg restaurateur is sailing into TriBeCa this June.

The owners of Atlantic Yachting, an Upper West Side-based sailing school and boat charter company, plan to dock a 1942 wooden tall ship, the Sherman Zwicker, at Pier 25 for the summer.

The 142-foot-long ship, the largest wooden vessel in New York, has been converted into a traveling museum, said Alexander Pincus, an owner of Atlantic Yachting, at a CB1 meeting Wednesday.

“We think it’s a beautiful vessel, and we want to share this with [the] community,” said Pincus, who is an avid sailor along with his brother and business partner Miles Pincus.

Selling drinks, oysters and a few small side dishes would offset the cost of maintaining free public access to the boat, which will offer tours and lectures, Pincus said. Menu items include olive oil-poached salt cod on toast, hush puppies, and kale salad with shaved fennel, olive and citrus. Prices have not yet been set.

The raw bar, called Grand Banks, will be based on the boat's deck and will be run by Brooklyn restaurateur Mark Firth, owner of Williamsburg's Diner and Marlow & Sons. This would be Firth’s first venture in Manhattan.

CB1 gave unanimous advisory support to the 62-seat dining area’s liquor license, which will be open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. If late-night noise isn’t an issue, CB1 will consider extending the hours to midnight through Sunday as well, the board said.

Nicolette Witcher, vice president of environment and education for the Hudson River Park Trust, said the trust is still finalizing the deal to bring the boat to Pier 25. The historic vessel would be a "trial run" and if it went well, the trust would open the spot to a full request for proposals next year, said Witcher, who attended the CB1 meeting to support the boat plans.

The Sherman Swicker is the last original saltbank fishing vessel that exists in the world. The ship was once one of a fleet of hundreds of large wooden schooners that fished the Grand Banks — an area of the Atlantic south of Newfoundland — and moving cargo of fish and salt along the Atlantic down to South America.

The ship's season is set to run from June 1 to Oct. 31 at Pier 25, Pincus said.