Does the Tall Ships Festival need a captain at city hall?

Yes, that's what success looks like. And sounds like. And feels like.

And Brockville has a right to enjoy it.

With the exception of a cranky few, the weekend's Tall Ships Festival left Brockville feeling proud and puffed like one of those majestic sails on the Peacemaker or the Pride of Baltimore II.

Like I said before, it felt good to cover something successful for a change.

And it's OK to continue basking in that glory, maybe, for a few more days.

But those mighty vessels are on their way to Toronto now. Sooner or later, we will have to begin a serious civic discussion about how to continue this success into the future.

As Brian Burns says in our recap story, it'll be “very, very difficult” to replicate this past weekend. The Tall Ships Festival faces the challenge of having made its inaugural edition its most difficult act to follow.

There's a difference, however, between replicating this past weekend and success.

It's clear that, if there is to be another Tall Ships Festival next year, it will be much smaller in scale, with fewer ships, fewer people and less grant money, if any.

Still, something smaller can still be successful.

Before we get there, we need to have that debate on the business model to follow.

The current, and likely outgoing, Tall Ships Festival committee plans to meet in mid-July to do its post-event analysis and look-ahead.

“I think it's probably best that the committee recommends one or two options at that time,” said Burns, one of those committee members.

His more controversial claim is that this year's business model – one in which the city is fully involved – is the right one to carry forward.

“I think the proper business model might be to have a city employee at a desk 35 hours a week,” added Burns.

He does, of course, have negative experiences under his belt – namely the near-financial-collapse of Riverfest last decade – to fuel this pointed suggestion.

But one doubts it's an idea that will sit very well on a city council bracing itself for provincial and federal austerity. The glow of this past weekend's success will be long forgotten by the time that discussion begins.

Still, it's a discussion we must have.

Can a case be made for hiring a full-time festival co-ordinator if the payback is a tourism boost, albeit a smaller one than we got on the weekend?

Is it an option to have someone sitting at a desk 35 hours a week, booking ships and presumably running other events, if it means ending the day with a surplus, as Burns and Dave Paul expect will happen from the Tall Ships weekend?

My instinct is these things won't be enough to sell the city on the idea.

Still, the advantage of having the debate is where it leads us – to other options, one hopes, for ensuring the Tall Ships Festival becomes a yearly event, and Brockville's new signature draw.

While we're mulling all this over, why not listen to some great music? Let's not forget the jazz and blues festival.