rocking the boat sets sail from hunts point

Rocking the Boat has launched an exciting new program this spring: we are teaching our students to sail. The initiative was spearheaded by On-Water Program Director for Maritime Skills Jim Bender, a veteran sailor who has traveled the world by boat. "Sailing is a tremendous educational tool," states Jim, who served as Expedition Leader for a 22,000-mile, two-year voyage from Australia to New York for Reach the World, an educational non-profit based in Manhattan. "The students really have to think about what they're doing and how it relates to what the rest of the crew is doing every minute."

Rocking the Boat students have sailed before, on day trips aboard the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and on the Bull and the Bear, a pair of racing boats known as Sandbaggers built by Rocking the Boat Advisory Board member John Brady and owned by businessman Peter Kellogg. But inspired in part by last summer's enormously successful week-long journey on the 130-foot schooner Harvey Gamage, Rocking the Boat decided to start its own full-fledged sailing program. After a period of classroom study to increase their familiarity with sailing terminology and theory, students in the On-Water after school program are now going out sailing once every other week aboard a fleet of J24s and Colgate 26s (24-and 26-foot sailboats) owned by SUNY Maritime College. The partnership with SUNY Maritime has been a terrific opportunity for On-Water students to jump right into sailing while Rocking the Boat's Boatbuilders work on increasing the organization's fleet of sailboats. The Boatbuilding Job Skills Apprentices are currently retrofitting one 17-foot Whitehall rowing boat for sail and are collaborating with the after-school Boatbuilders on building a new 19-foot hybrid rowing and sailing boat from scratch. The complex design for this boat was created especially for Rocking the Boat by the same John Brady who built the Bull and the Bear (the Boatbuilders visited John's shop at Philadelphia's Independent Seaport Museum earlier this spring) and is among the biggest and most ambitious building projects ever undertaken by Rocking the Boat students. By the end of the semester, Rocking the Boat will be proud to operate a fleet of five hand built sailing boats.

All of this building is leading up to the students' next big sailing adventure this summer when the Boatbuilding and On-Water classes each spend a week sailing down the Hudson River. The trip is currently planned to extend over 30 miles from Beacon through the Hudson Highlands, to Croton-on-Hudson, and will involve camping, sailing, rowing (when there is no wind) and most of all, working together. The trips will be a wonderful challenge and affirmation of Rocking the Boat's newest program.




rocking the boat anchors at hunts point

Rocking the Boat is creating a new home! For six years, Rocking the Boat's Bronx River programs were nomadic, landing wherever access to the water allowed for rowing and sailing the fleet of handmade wooden boats. With the opening of Hunt Point Riverside Park in Fall 2006, Rocking the Boat moved all On-Water and Job Skills programs to a piece of land owned by The Point CDC that borders the park. Now, having just signed a 10-year lease on a 6,000 square foot warehouse immediately adjacent to The Point's property, Rocking the Boat is ready for all boatbuilding and administrative operations to move down to the River, resulting in a permanent, unified, and spacious home in Hunts Point.

The new facility to be created at 812 Edgewater Road balances the unique characteristics of community accessibility, lots of open indoor space, and direct access to open outdoor space leading to the Bronx River. This is a perfect combination for the future of Rocking the Boat. Renovations, designed by Weisz + Yoes Architecture, will transform the currently empty building into a dynamic space complete with two boatbuilding shops, environmental education classrooms, administrative offices, a library and computer room, and a comfortable space for students to call their own. Moving all of its operations to a permanent building at this site will allow Rocking the Boat to unify its powerful boatbuilding and on-water youth development programming, significantly increase the efficiency and capacity of the entire organization, and permanently anchor its place in the Hunts Point community.

A $1 million capital campaign is well underway, with commitments already in-hand from the Federal government's Department of Housing and Urban Development, thanks to an appropriation through Congressman Serrano ($220,500), the Booth Ferris Foundation ($75,000), the Pinkerton Foundation ($50,000), and the J.E. & Z.B. Butler Foundation ($50,000). Rocking the Boat looks forward to reaching its fundraising goals, completing construction by the end of 2008, and inviting all of our friends and supporters to a big ribbon-cutting event in January 2009. We can't wait!