Community

By Dave Hemenway As the Northeast fleet captain of the Cape Dory Sailboat Owners Association (CDSOA), I conducted four regional meetings in Fall 2024 around the Northeast USA to determine what the members of our fleet wanted to do in the 2025 season. One major desire was to improve communication between Typhoon owners individually and between fleets. I discovered a great Typhoon-based newsletter edited by Noel Peattie of the California Typhoon Association called The Typhooner. Noel periodically…

This year marks two decades of operation for Brooklyn Boatworks in Brooklyn, NY, and this remarkable organization is just getting started. “Founded in 2005 by Carl Persak and Jeremy Wurmfeld, Brooklyn Boatworks began as a small volunteer program with a heartfelt purpose – to engage New York City youth in their environment while developing critical thinking skills,” said Executive Director Maggie McNicholas. “Fast forward to today, our programs serve over 375 students per year, inspiring them through the craft of…

By Tom Darling, Conversations with Classic Boats     Go back and look at your favorite James Bond movie, preferably with Sean Connery. Chances are there’s a glamorous wooden inboard boat involved. She’s an elegant mahogany-sided speedboat with a unique back seat, a sunning platform, that bobs at the waterside. Most likely she’s a Riva, the motorboat that hearkens back to the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita. Riva powers on today, with many owners also…

By Dave Hemenway The fall of 2024 was not the kindest season to me, even though I had hoped it would be as it’s my favorite time to sail. The winds were good, the water was warm and the weather was more temperate than the hot, humid summer. Freedom, my Greenwich 24 sloop, waited patiently on her Thames River mooring in New London, Connecticut. I was expecting a great fall when I came down with the dreaded…

Celebrating 25 years this fall, RACE Coastal Engineering (RACE), headquartered in Stratford, CT, has a long history of working with shoreline communities to improve their coastlines and waterways. “Our focused experience working on waterfront infrastructure improvements and shoreline protection has enabled us to design innovative, cost effective and resilient solutions for the coastal environment,” said RACE President Devin Santa. RACE was founded in Guilford, CT in 1999 by John Roberge, P.E. (“JR”), a Coastal and Oceanographic Engineer…

Story & photos by Dave Hemenway In the mid-1980s, I fell in love with a Cape Dory ten-foot sailing dinghy that just had to become the tender to my Dickerson 36 yawl Tenacity. They were simply a perfect match of traditional boats. My Cape Dory 10 was built in 1966 and needed to be restored – just like most of my boats. I modified her over the years and she has served our family very well as…

By Anne Kolker, Cruising Club of America New York Station     I was lucky to grow up in a family of strong, motivated women. My grandmother was the force behind my grandfather’s successful business. My mother went to medical school and became a pediatrician in the early 1930s when women in medicine were unusual. One of my aunts became the alternate delegate to the United Nations. I was always told that I could become whatever I…

By Marion Bartholomew August 18, 2024 dawned in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey looking like it would be a fine day for sailing in Sandy Hook Bay, a body of water with a spectacular view of New York City to the north. While Sandy Hook Bay remains somewhat obscure to most, it does have an imprimatur as the site of thirteen America’s Cup matches from 1870 to 1920.   When the 20th Ms. Race, a pursuit race for…

By R.J. Rubadeau, Cruising Club of America Boston Station My formative sailing years were spent on a short list of state-of-the-art sailboats in major ocean races along the Eastern Seaboard when Nixon was president. My journey to becoming a professional offshore sailor began with an 8,000-mile Pacific Ocean crossing from Sydney to San Diego as captain of the Maxi Ondine. This life-forming event crystalized my core belief that those scalawags you are lucky enough by design or…

By Dorothy Wadlow, Cruising Club of America Essex Station As an enthusiastic birdwatcher, I’ve gained a reputation as the “Bird Lady.” Friends often share stories of birds they’ve seen or pictures of birds they want to identify. My sailing friends tell me about birds that landed on their boat. I can see why. It’s very exciting to be alone at sea on your little “floating island” when an avian fellow traveler pays a visit far from its…