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Tuesdays & Thursdays February 7th – May 4th 3:30PM–5:30PM At the start of each year the students ask “When will we be finished?” Months later when they launch a boat they created themselves, they experience first hand how a long term investment in a physical process, can culminate into something of value. If you are looking for the perfect after-school activity for the hands-on learner, YouthBoat may be just the thing! Students ages 11-17 work alongside shipwrights to follow building plans, use tools and materials, and put STEM skills to work as they build a boat in the school’s wood shop under the guidance of skilled shipwrights and craftspeople. YouthBoat is designed to empower youth from diverse backgrounds, build character, and foster teamwork through the traditional craft of wooden boatbuilding and on-the-water activities.    
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If you are looking for a holiday gift that will create lasting memories, treat your loved one to a class in woodworking! Sign yourself up to share the experience! Wood and Resin Jewelry Making Date: January 10th, 12th, 17th, and 19th Time: 6PM-9PM Instructor Kathy Prisco will be giving a multifaceted class on making jewelry using a variety of techniques over the course of four evenings. The first week Kathy will give demonstrations and students have an opportunity to experiment with a scroll saw, mixing and pouring epoxy resin, and gluing up thin pieces of wood and hand turning wooden rings and bracelets. Students will also learn some rudimentary techniques for assembling jewelry. The object of the class is that students will be exposed to enough processes that during the second week, they will be able to design and create a piece of jewelry of their choosing.    Make Your Own Ukulele Friday, January 20, 6PM–9PM Saturday, January 21, 10AM–5PM Sunday, January 22, 10AM–5PM Guitar Maker and woodworker Bill Sterling will lead this exciting new class. Students will build their own Ukulele from start to finish, and leave with an instrument they can play for years to come. This is a great chance for students to try making musical instruments while learning fundamental woodworking skills in the shop. This opportunity can be a great holiday gift for a recipient who is passionate about music or for someone looking to pick up a new hobby. Have fun, make stuff, and play music. What could be better? This class will take place in the classroom at the HRMM Wooden Boat School located at 86 Rondout Landing in Kingston.    The aphorism "A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats" was first popularized by John F. Kennedy in a speech 1963 and is usually applied to economics. However, let's imagine applications for the concept of a rising tide lifting all boats, or people, in the maritime universe. If we welcome more boats into our racing fleet, doesn’t that improve the level of competition? If we invite more people from different backgrounds to come sailing with us, doesn’t that suggest the probability that we'll have a wider range of talents and gifts among sailors on the boat? If we welcome sailors from previously underrepresented communities into sailing, might we discover previously untapped talent? Might all participants grow by learning about diverse cultures? Might we begin to heal the divisions that exist in our society today? This concept is the motivation behind our work with the Women on the Water sailing program, AdventureSail, sailing program scholarships and other initiatives. The concept also underlies our sixth annual Riverport Women's Sailing Conference, which is a joint program with The Sailing School at HRMM and Kingston Sailing Club. We pivoted to virtual events in 2020 and 2021, but we are excited to return to an in-person format for the sixth annual conference on Saturday, March 25, 2023. Please mark your calendars! All presenters will be expert women mariners, and the thrust of the conference is to introduce women to sailing, build people's sailing skills, and boost sailors' confidence in a woman-centric environment. All women are encouraged to attend, and we are open to male participants joining us as well.
Let’s inspire each other. Let’s work together to solve problems, bridge gaps and learn from each other. We hope you will join us on March 25, 2023.
For more information, please go to https://www.hrmm.org/riverport-womens-sailing-conference.html.
During the past month, the support of HRMM staff and volunteers who have come out to help the Sailing School with Fall boat work has been inspiring! Volunteers have cleaned boats and sails, organized equipment, repaired boats, and put away boats for winter.  Our fleet consists of two keel boats, two Capri centerboard boats, One Snipe centerboard boat, three 420 centerboard boats, one Catboat (Tidbit), and eight Optimist Pram centerboard boats. That is a lot of boats to care for! The boats all get a lot of use during the sailing season, with many of the boats being sailed up to seven days a week during our four month season. Normal wear and tear is intensified by the high number of sailing students and classes aboard our boats, and there are a LOT of repairs needed at the end of this season.  Thanks to our wonderful sailing instructors (Instructor Betsy in witch costume is pictured above) and HRMM staff, we have created a robust list of work tasks to be done, and we have accomplished some of these tasks, but we have many remaining over the winter and into the spring of 2023 in order to be ready for next season. All sailboat owners know (new boat owners will learn this quickly) that part of owning a sailboat means doing maintenance and repairs. If you are interested in learning more about how to care for sailboats, want to meet some really cool people, and have fun working on projects with staff and other volunteers, please let us know by going to https://www.hrmm.org/volunteer.html to let us know you’d like to volunteer! If you are not able to physically volunteer but would like to support the maintenance of our sailing school fleet, please check out our wish list and donate here if you are able: https://www.hrmm.org/wish-list.html .  We love our volunteers, and we look forward to continuing to work together to ready our boats for the 2023 season and bring sailing to many more people in the future. Thank you!
 Photo Above: The Author's son Joshua at the helm in New Foundland Article by Jonathan Harkness I joined the Hudson River Maritime Museum after seeing the focus on women in the Sailing School. My earlier experiences on sailboats were with obnoxious, privileged, and often drunk, white men. I was more into adventure and not drinking on boats and instead ventured off to do other things over the years. However, I purchased our family’s keel boat in the spring of 2021, in an effort to find a family activity in which we could all participate and hopefully inspire some new adventures and acquisition of additional skills. Your WOW activities were great for Vicki, and the three of us took an adult sailing class together in the summer of 2021, which was a great family bonding and learning experience. Vicki and I enjoyed attending the Riverport Women’s Sailing Conference remotely in November, 2021. As a matter of fact, our son Joshua’s college, The College of the Atlantic, also joined the conference, and he was able to participate from Maine as well. Then I attended the Captain’s License course at HRMM in March, 2022. Later in the spring of 2022, we joined the HRMM remote lecture with Tracy Edwards, and we were able to tour Maiden when the famous vessel came to Kingston in June, we met Tracy Edwards and participated in the Kingston Sailing Club Welcomes Maiden barbecue. These were all amazing experiences. Since building our skills through The Sailing School at HRMM, Joshua and I crewed on a friend’s 28 foot Bristol Channel Cutter doing coastal cruising from Glovertown, NewFoundland to St. Johns, Newfoundland this summer. Our adventure included one all night sail, at 20 knots of wind, begun at 2 am, to avoid an impending storm. Joshua and I were on watch by ourselves, all night, with just a brief check-in, by the captain. Since that trip, Joshua and I have been asked to consider being crew members on a trip to Greenland with a friend who has sailed to northern Labrador. We are so glad that Vicki and I created these opportunities for Joshua who said that he and his girlfriend now have a goal of completing a transatlantic crossing to Scotland and Ireland after college graduation. The Sailing School at HRMM’s enthusiasm for sailing and focus on inclusivity have thoroughly inspired Vicki, Joshua, and me. Thank you! By Jonathan Harkness  Photo Above: The author's son Joshua fishing in New Foundland
Dates: November 1–January 12 on certain Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30PM–5:30PM  We are now enrolling for our Fall YouthBoat Program. YouthBoat is an after-school program for students ages 11-18 that is designed to empower youth, build character, and foster teamwork through the traditional craft of wooden boatbuilding and on-the-water activities. Students from diverse backgrounds put STEM skills to work as they learn alongside skilled shipwrights and craftspeople throughout the boat building process. Students will start the course by building basic skills as they craft their own kayak paddle. Participants will cut, shape, and finish their piece with varnish. Following this introductory project they begin working collectively to construct a fully functional wooden skiff boat. Dates: November 1–January 12 on certain Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30PM–5:30PM   Reposted from August 23rd, 2022.  Thanks to community partnerships, a wonderful event unfolded at the Hudson River Maritime Museum (HRMM) in Kingston, New York and on the Hudson River on Saturday, August 13, 2022. Fourteen middle school age girls from underserved communities that usually do not have access to waterfront activities and sailing, along with eight adult women mentors, spent a day at the Rondout Creek waterfront and sailing on the Hudson River as part of the National AdventureSail Program, organized by the National Women’s Sailing Association. Participants experienced the world of sailing for the first time: the beauty of the Hudson River, the tranquility and peace of sailing, the focus and skill required by sailing well, the ability to stay calm despite challenges, the teamwork required and the connections built as part of a crew. Girls and mentors met their skippers and crew members, everyone suited up with life jackets, boarded their boats, and eight sailboats headed out the Rondout Creek to the Hudson River. The day was spectacularly beautiful with fluffy clouds, sun and blue skies, warm temperatures that were not too hot, and a brisk 12-15 knot breeze over sparkling water. Many of the boats opted to sail under mainsail alone (in contrast to the usual jib and mainsail configuration) to ensure the new sailors were comfortable. Everyone enjoyed a beautiful sail on the River, South of the Kingston/Rhinecliff Bridge and North of the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse, until 1:00 pm, when they returned to the dock at HRMM.
It took a village to create this memorable event: The National Women’s Sailing Association provided guidance and information as well as donating backpacks for the girls. Kati Haynes of HAYNES MARKETING + MEDIA documented the day with her beautiful photographs. MentorMe of Ulster County identified interested girls and mentors, explained to parents (many of whom do not speak English) what the day would entail, got permission from parents and transported the girls to the waterfront. The Hudson River Maritime Museum provided the venue, and The Sailing School at the HRMM provided three sailboats along with skilled, certified sailing instructors who volunteered as skippers, and Kingston Sailing Club members provided five sailboats with volunteer skilled skippers and crew. Kingston Sailing Club members also donated breakfast foods, water bottles for each girl, and an ice cream cake, the Bruderhof Community donated lunch for everyone, Mother Earth Storehouse donated snacks for the girls, Adams Fairacre Farms donated a beautiful fruit tray for breakfast, and the National Women’s Sailing Association provided string backpacks for all the girls.   Thanks to community partnerships, a wonderful event unfolded at the Hudson River Maritime Museum (HRMM) in Kingston, New York and on the Hudson River on Saturday, August 13, 2022. Fourteen middle school age girls from underserved communities that usually do not have access to waterfront activities and sailing, along with eight adult women mentors, spent a day at the Rondout Creek waterfront and sailing on the Hudson River as part of the National AdventureSail Program, organized by the National Women’s Sailing Association. Participants experienced the world of sailing for the first time: the beauty of the Hudson River, the tranquility and peace of sailing, the focus and skill required by sailing well, the ability to stay calm despite challenges, the teamwork required and the connections built as part of a crew. Girls and mentors met their skippers and crew members, everyone suited up with life jackets, boarded their boats, and eight sailboats headed out the Rondout Creek to the Hudson River. The day was spectacularly beautiful with fluffy clouds, sun and blue skies, warm temperatures that were not too hot, and a brisk 12-15 knot breeze over sparkling water. Many of the boats opted to sail under mainsail alone (in contrast to the usual jib and mainsail configuration) to ensure the new sailors were comfortable. Everyone enjoyed a beautiful sail on the River, South of the Kingston/Rhinecliff Bridge and North of the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse, until 1:00 pm, when they returned to the dock at HRMM.
It took a village to create this memorable event: The National Women’s Sailing Association provided guidance and information as well as donating backpacks for the girls. Kati Haynes of HAYNES MARKETING + MEDIA documented the day with her beautiful photographs. MentorMe of Ulster County identified interested girls and mentors, explained to parents (many of whom do not speak English) what the day would entail, got permission from parents and transported the girls to the waterfront. The Hudson River Maritime Museum provided the venue, and The Sailing School at the HRMM provided three sailboats along with skilled, certified sailing instructors who volunteered as skippers, and Kingston Sailing Club members provided five sailboats with volunteer skilled skippers and crew. Kingston Sailing Club members also donated breakfast foods, water bottles for each girl, and an ice cream cake, the Bruderhof Community donated lunch for everyone, Mother Earth Storehouse donated snacks for the girls, Adams Fairacre Farms donated a beautiful fruit tray for breakfast, and the National Women’s Sailing Association provided string backpacks for all the girls.  We are thrilled to be hosting the 2022 Kingston Boat Building Challenge again this year! As part of the Hudson River Maritime Museum’s semi-annual Celebration of Woodworking Festival, woodworking adult and youth teams will compete to build rowing boats in a single afternoon. This event takes place October 1st, 2022, on the Kingston waterfront. And we want YOU to join us in the competition! In 2017, the Hudson River Maritime Museum hosted its first annual National Boatbuilding Challenge, where teams of two compete to build a boat from scratch in just four hours, and then compete in a rowing race on the Rondout with cash prizes for the team with the best score in all three categories: speed, quality, and rowing race. HRMM's event is a qualifying challenge, one of just a few competitions around the country. Held only on Saturday, October 1, this thrilling competition draws national and local competitors alike and the 4:00 PM rowing race is the highlight of Saturday's events.  Competitors are invited and encourage to watch professional builders build the entire boat from start to finish to observe tips and tricks on our pre-competition demonstration day Saturday, September 3rd. Entry Fee is $250; each team will receive which $500 worth of material from HRMM. Teams must provide their own tools. You can see example of past boat builders challenges here: https://youtu.be/uDqQWWeSizU Judge's Meeting - 9:30 AM Builder's Meeting - 10:00 AM Challenge Begins - 11:00 AM Challenge Ends - 3:00 PM Judging of Boats for Quality - 3:15 PM Rowing Relay Race - 4:00 PM Awards Ceremony - 5:00 PM   The Sailing School at the Hudson River Maritime Museum has been blessed with a generous number of boat donations which have allowed us to run our programs for children and adults. We have many classes for beginners to more experienced sailors on a variety of types of sailboats. Take a look at the photos below - perhaps you will inspired to take a sailing class and try out some of our boats.
Local sailors from the Sailing School at the Hudson River Maritime Museum and the Kingston Sailing Club (www.kingstonsailingclub.org) hope to see you on the water soon!
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AuthorStaff and volunteers of the Hudson River Maritime Museum's Wooden Boat School and Sailing & Rowing School. Archives
August 2023
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