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FREE Livestream New York Harbor Tours

a man interviewing a couple, on a sailboat Join Classic Harbor Line in New York Harbor during one of our free livestream tours! Anyone, anywhere can experience our grand New York waterways, classic boats, historic landmarks and top NYC sightseeing tours through our newly launched Livestream Boat Tour Series! These livestream events will feature a sampling of some of our most unique New York harbor tours offered to the public, plus a mini-series of tours offered only to our live-stream audience- co-hosted by a number local waterfront nonprofits.

This livestream series is packed with rich New York experiences, in real time, unedited and free!

In collaboration with our talented tour guide & livestream host, Ariel Viera, we’ll be sharing a variety of New York experiences from our classic boats that viewers can access through the Classic Harbor Line YouTube Channel! Our free livestream events will greatly vary in length and topics, including an exploration of the John J Harvey Fireboat and her heroic acts on September 11th, a journey to the Bronx River where local teens are building and operating their own boats, and a real-time experience of what it’s like to see the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Show in New York Harbor from a classic boat, just to name a few.

Support Local Waterfront Nonprofits

Interested in supporting our local New York waterfront nonprofit organizations? Purchase a Classic Harbor Line gift card on the day of your preferred nonprofit’s livestream event and we’ll allocate 100% of your purchase in a dollar for dollar donation to them. Sign up for the date of your preferred livestream event below to get detailed access information and updates from us as your tour approaches. To stay in the know on all our live events and YouTube videos please Like, follow and subscribe to the Classic Harbor Line YouTube channel!

Check out our 2023 Livestream Tour Schedule below:


the industrial waterways tour

8 OCTOBER: AIANY Industrial Waterways Tour to Freshkills Park at 9:45am EST

Go to where few have gone before! We’ll pass by the Statue of Liberty, then under the Bayonne Bridge, threading the NJ & Staten Island border through the Arthur Kill. We’ll see the industrial waterfront alive and thriving in Newark Bay, before we reach the world’s largest Land Reclamation Project – Freshkills Park. This 30-year project will result in the City’s largest public park. We will literally navigate into the Kill between the four capped giant mounds – home to 53 years of NYC garbage. Learn about how this environment is being recovered, reclaimed, and repurposed into a world renowned public park! Interested in joining the tour onboard in person? Click here for tickets

  Duration: Virtual Event (2 hours)   Boat: Yacht Manhattan or Manhattan II   Cost: FREE

a military battleship sailing down the New York harbor

29 MAY: Memorial Day Military History Tour of New York Harbor at 10:00AM EST

It’s Fleet Week in NYC! New York Harbor hosts a number of special Navy Ships and sailors during the week leading up to Memorial Day. Join this livestream tour in honor of our veterans!  Learn about New York City’s extensive military history on this fully narrated tour by Turnstiles Tour Guide Andrew Gustafson. We’ll cruise by visiting ships, historic military sites, monuments and fortifications including Staten Island Navy Pier, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn Army terminal and the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum along with the Statue of Liberty. Questions and stories are welcome and we look forward to hearing from our Vets onboard and through the livestream event. Interested in joining the tour onboard in person? Click here for tickets

  Duration: Virtual Event - 2.5 hrs   Boat: Yacht Manhattan II   Cost: FREE

Hudson River Maritime Museum

6 JUNE: Hudson River Maritime Museum Harbor Tour at 4:00PM EST

HRMM Executive Director Lisa Cline and fellow Hudson River historians, Ann Loeding and Gary Matthews co-host a tour. For nearly 400 years the Hudson River has served as a major commercial thoroughfare. We’ll be focusing this tour on the history of commercial towing and industrial transportation as we cruise from the Erie Basin to the Kill Van Kull. We’ll discuss the impact of the Erie Canal and why New York Harbor has been central to the global economy for centuries.

  Duration: Virtual Event (about 1.5 hours)   Boat: Yacht Kingston   Cost: FREE

group of people on a small sailboat floating down a river

9 JUNE: Rocking the Boat Tour at 4:00PM EST

POSTPONED – DETAILS TO COME – This adventurous livestream will take us to the Bronx River with Rocking the Boat! Take to the water with Rocking the Boat Founder and Executive Director, Adam Green, and learn about their hands-on student programs including boatbuilding, sailing and environmental science, along with their immersive summer boat camp for all school age groups! Weather permitting, see middle school students in action as they row boats, constructed and assembled by students in their wooden boatbuilding program, out to meet us at the mouth of the Bronx River. Rocking the Boat is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year!

  Duration: Virtual Event (about 1.5 hours)   Boat: Yacht Kingston   Cost: FREE

painting of several sailboats sailing down a river

12 JUNE: National Maritime Historical Society Tour at 4:00PM EST

Join the National Maritime Historical Society (NMHS) on a cruise down the Hudson River and learn about NY Harbor’s past and future in an exciting tour of important historical sites including Little Island and Pier 57, notable for its submerged concrete caissons and long steel girders resembling structures similar to those built as a part of the American military effort in World War II. Dennis Maika, Senior Historian at the New Netherland Institute will discuss how the Dutch shaped NY’s waterfront today. Architect Susannah Drake of Sasaki International, will discuss the New Urban Ground MoMA project that addresses how the city can cope with increased flooding due to climate change. Hear from Rick Scarano of Scarano Boat Building, designer and boat builder of the Classic Harbor Line fleet, and learn about 1920s commuter yacht history.

  Duration: Virtual Event (about 1.5 hours)   Boat: Yacht Kingston   Cost: FREE

groups of people around Brooklyn Boatworks sail boats

13 JUNE: Brooklyn Boatworks Tour at 11:30AM EST

It’s launch day! Today’s harbor tour is co-hosted by the founders of Brooklyn Boatworks, local naval architects Carl Persak and Jeremy Wurmfeld.  We are cruising with them to Pier 2 in Brooklyn Bridge Park for one of their biggest days of the year! Join us alongside more than 100 middle school students in the Brooklyn Boatworks boatbuilding program and watch as they launch 12 handcrafted Optimist sailing dinghies for the ultimate sea-worthy test!

  Duration: Virtual Event (about 1.5 hours)   Boat: Yacht Kingston   Cost: FREE

the John J Harvey fireboat sailing down the New York river, shooting water from its cannons

13 JUNE: John J Harvey – Save Our Ships Tour at 4:00PM EST

Join us alongside the John J Harvey Fireboat team as we cruise around lower Manhattan. Hear stories about their heroic efforts on September 11, 2001. Now a museum and education center, the Harvey previously served 6 decades as an active FDNY steam fireboat since she was built in 1931. The boat is history afloat in NY Harbor playing an integral role in protecting our waterways throughout her active years, and also since then when she was called back into service to aid FDNY fireboats on 9/11. Weather permitting, we’ll cruise to meet the boat docked at Pier 66 and climb aboard for an exciting behind the scenes tour with Captain Huntley Gill. If time allows, we’ll watch as Harvey starts her engines and prepares for a truly spectacular full water cannon display from the Hudson River.

  Duration: Virtual Event (about 1.5 hours)   Boat: Yacht Kingston   Cost: FREE

two boats floating next to each other, in a river, with several people exchanging freight goods

14 JUNE: Schooner Apollonia Sail Freight Tour at 4:00PM EST

Meet the modern sail freight company delivering goods from the Hudson River Valley to New York City while netting zero emissions.  Engage with Apollonia team members Brad Vogel, Supercargo, and Climate Strategist, Pat Nason, and learn about the team’s vision for a sustainable, resilient waterfront. Be inspired by Apollonia’s history and future. Hear from Brad and Pat about how climate resilience, green jobs, equity and justice are interrelated through Sail Freight operations as we tour NY Harbor passing by South Street Seaport, Governors Island and the entrance to the Gowanus Canal.

  Duration: Virtual Event (about 1.5 hours)   Boat: Yacht Kingston   Cost: FREE

group of four people on a sailboat, smiling for a photo

15 JUNE: Hudson River Community Sailing Tour at 4:00PM EST

As we cruise along Manhattan’s West Side to the Hudson River Community Sailing docks, we’ll learn about the history of HRCS as they celebrate their 15th year! Meet Executive Director, Robert Burke along with Program Directors Don Rotzien,  Mwenye Seville and Maeve Gately, and learn about their youth and adaptive sailing programs. We’ll also meet with student participants and learn first-hand what it’s like sailing in NYC as we embark on a sailing adventure aboard a J/80 sailboat. Launched in 2021, the HRCS Adaptive Sailing Program provides sailing education and recreation for youth and adults with disabilities.

  Duration: Virtual Event (about 1.5 hours)   Boat: Yacht Kingston   Cost: FREE

a woman fisher reeling up a cage of oysters

JUNE 16: Billion Oyster Project on behalf of NY Harbor School Tour 11:15AM EST

Join us alongside the Billion Oyster Project and learn about their vision for NY Waterways! Meet BOP Executive Director Pete Malinowski along with faculty including Katie Mosher, Anna Weiss, Charlotte Boesch and Ann Fraioli. Cruise past the Statue of Liberty and around the south end of Governors Island to the Buttermilk Channel to see BOP setting tanks in action at Atlantic Basin and discuss their restoration work with re-establishing our oyster reefs. We’ll end the tour at One 15 Brooklyn Marina where we’ll pull up oyster baskets alongside New York Harbor School students.

  Duration: Virtual Event (about 1.5 hours)   Boat: Yacht Kingston   Cost: FREE

the Coast Guard Cutter, LILAC, sitting in a harbor

16 JUNE: LILAC Preservation Project Tour at 4:00PM EST

We’re celebrating the Coast Guard cutter, LILAC, in her 90th year! Learn about this historic steam-powered lighthouse tender that once carried supplies to lighthouses and maintained buoys from the 1930s to early 1970s. LILAC is now a museum ship owned and operated by the LILAC Preservation Project, celebrating its 20th year. Cruise from Chelsea Piers out to a channel marker in NY Harbor with LILAC founder Gerald Weinstein and Museum Director Mary Habstritt. We’ll then cruise to Pier 25 at Hudson River Park to board LILAC for storytelling and a tour on the buoy deck.

  Duration: Virtual Event (about 1.5 hours)   Boat: Yacht Kingston   Cost: FREE

a pride flag waving from a sail boat

24 JUNE: PRIDE Sailing benefitting Hetrick-Martin Institute Youth Programs at 10:30AM EST

This livestream sailing event benefits transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming youth programs of the Hetrick-Martin Institute as they seek to provide healthy youth development for the LGBTQIA+ community for ages 13 to 24 and their families. Join us on this day during PRIDE month for an exciting 2-hour sail around New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty with fellow members and supporters of the community. We’ll raise our 400 square foot PRIDE flag from our mainsail on Schooner America 2.0. Interested in joining the tour onboard in person? Click here for tickets

  Duration: Virtual Event (2 hours)   Boat: Schooner America 2.0   Cost: FREE

the Yacht Manhattan Two sailing down a river full of boats, and fireworks shooting off in the distance

4 JULY: Macy’s Fireworks Show from NY Harbor at ~8:00PM EST

Join us live from Yacht Manhattan II on the busiest and most exciting night in New York Harbor: The Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Show! Gain an exciting firsthand look at what it’s like being a captain and crew working on board, learn about Coast Guard security zones, safety on the water and city planning that goes into organizing such a grand event. Then as the sky darkens and the city skyline lights up, enjoy the best views of the Macy’s Fireworks Show! Interested in joining the tour onboard in person? Click here for tickets

  Duration: Virtual Event (2.5 hours)   Boat: Yacht Manhattan II   Cost: FREE

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