Sailors are making waves to build a $3 million Bermuda sailing ship in time for the Tall Ships Race in 2000.

A special steering committee is applying to set up a registered charity to build a replica of an 1830s sloop.

The 73-foot ship would be used as a sail training vessel for sea cadets, scouts, guides and Outward Bound youngsters.

It could even be used on sea voyages to the US to promote Bermuda to tourism and business leaders.

And project leaders want to see it paraded on the Bermuda-bound leg of the 2000 Tall Ships Race.

Committee members are about to canvass top Island businesses to find a $1 million deposit to build the ship.

And backers could even try to save money by salvaging lead ballast from the wreck of the steel schooner Ramona , which sunk off Bermuda in the 1960s.

Malcolm Kirkland, spokesman for the Bermuda Sloop Steering Committee, said: "The Ramona has 30,000 pounds of lead in its hull. It sunk off the north west of Bermuda and we believe we could send divers down to get the lead.

"That could then be used as ballast for the ship we hope to build.'' Mr. Kirkland, launching the initiative at the Number Six shed on Front Street, said the sloop would be built in Dockyard using local and foreign shipwrights.

He added that the committee, which has already spent $10,000 of its own money on a feasibility study, would now begin grand-scale fundraising efforts to find around $3 million.

"The next step is to prepare the preliminary design of the sloop which will cost around $11,000,'' he said.

"Hopefully, fundraising efforts will get underway in earnest early in the New Year.'' He said modifications would be made to improve safety on board the cedar-built sloop, a ship which laid the foundations for the Bermudian maritime industry.

But Mr. Kirkland, speaking to a 50-strong audience of descendants of 19th Century sailors, added: "This vessel must be seaworthy and the emphasis must be on safety.

"We will drop this project like a hot cake if it is not safe.'' He said the modern-day Bermudian sloop would carry much heavier ballast and other changes would be made to the original design.

"We have an idea we are working on and it's early days,'' he added. "We are spending most of our time on coming up with a design that's historically accurate and safe.

"We are looking at business plans and we need more people on board. But we have got a project that we want the whole of Bermuda to embrace.'' Mr. Kirkland said the ship would be built "as a public event'' at Dockyard, if enough funding could be secured.

Backers also hoped to open a shop and coffee house during the two-and-a-half year building period.

Mr. Kirkland added: "We want to create a charity trust committed to outdoor leadership and teaching skills to young people.

"Bermuda definitely needs an outlet like this and we want it to be a lively educational tool to get kids on board.'' The ship could then sail to Atlantic coast cities in the US on missions to promote business and tourism, he added.

Fellow committee member Alan Burland said the sloop would help develop "a truly inter-racial community event'' in Bermuda.

He added: "It would be to the benefit of all Bermuda and especially young Bermudians.

"We are a muti-racial society and there is a need to come together more.'' SETTING SAIL -- Bermuda could soon have its own sail training ship -- a replica 19th century sloop -- as part of a $3 million plan launched last week.