If you’re wondering what the heck Annapolis Community Boating is, well, in some ways so are we. It’s a fledgling organization; all we know for sure is we have good people and good intentions. Our aim is to make it easy and affordable for people in Anne Arundel County to get into boats and boating.
Who are we? The board includes some well-known local people: America’s Cup sailor and TV commentator Gary Jobson; ocean racer Jim Muldoon of Donnybrook fame; former Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Susan Dierdorff Taylor; marine lawyer Todd Lochner; Washington Post boating writer Angus Phillips; Lee Tawney of the National Sailing Hall of Fame; Don Backe, founder of Chesapeake Regional Accessible Boating (CRAB).
We share a love of boats and the Chesapeake and want as many county people as possible to experience it. To that end, in our first full season we’re running free boating sessions at City Dock on Sundays from April to June; we’re producing a video and lecture to take to schools and clubs, we’re running week-long, on-the-water introductory sessions for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Annapolis, the YWCA and school groups, and we’re looking for boats and a place by the water to call our own.
Our goal is to create a program like the Downtown Sailing Club’s in Baltimore, where local folks who don’t own boats and don’t belong to yacht clubs can join up and inexpensively enjoy boats and boating.
We’re always looking for ideas, sponsors, donors and volunteers, and we’re always looking for people and groups to take out on the water. If you have an interest, e-mail us at info@annapolisboating.org.
Fair winds. We’ll see you on the water.
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Annapolis Family Boatbuilding will be building six small sailboats over the July 4 weekend at the old Trumpy Yard, 222 Severn Ave. in Annapolis. Families or groups interested in buying a kit, then building a Bevins Skiff can check the website www.Annapolisfamilyboatbuilding.org or call 410-626-1413.
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Annapolis sailor Terry Hutchinson was named U.S. Sailing’s Rolex Yachtsman of the Year in a ceremony in New York last month. A video of the proceedings is online at the National Sailing Hall of Fame’s website, www.nshof.org.
