HSC SAILING WRAPPING UP! LAST PROGRAMMING OCT 3TH AND 4TH!

We have had an incredible first season and are going to wrap it up the first weekend in October. Come Sailing with the Hudson Sloop Club! 

The Sloop Club's sailing program comes to a close for the season with community sailing classes on Saturday the 3rd and FREE Community Sailing on Sunday the 4th! 

Classes are open to anyone aged 14 and up, and sliding scale pricing is available! Sunday's one hour sails are FREE, first sail leaves the docks promptly at 2pm and last sail is at 5pm at the public docks at the Hudson Waterfront, open to all ages you just have to be over 50lbs fit our PFDs!

Class descriptions:

Saturday, October 3th:

Saturday Sails, 

2:00-4:00, $40.00: Cruise by the Hudson Lighthouse, Middle Ground Flats and Athens, get a feel for sailing on the Hudson River in this 2-hour sail.

4:30-6:30, $40.00: Cruise by the Hudson Lighthouse, Middle Ground Flats and Athens, get a feel for sailing on the Hudson River in this 2-hour sail.

 

Sunday, October 4th:


Community Sails 2pm - 6pm, Free!! Want access to the Hudson! Join the Hudson Sloop Club for a Free sail at the Hudson waterfront this Sunday. Sails leave the dock at 2:00, 3:30 and 5:00. Donations not mandatory, but accepted.

Email: sloopclubsailing@gmail.com to sign up, or find out more!

www.hudsonsloopclub.org

HSC SAILING CONTINUES! THIS WEEK, TUESDAY SEP 1ST AND FRI SEP 4TH-SUN SEP 6TH!

Looking for something fun to do this week? Come Sailing with the Hudson Sloop Club! 

See flyer below.

The Sloop Club's sailing program comes to a close this month with Intro to Navigating the Hudson and a Two-Hour Sail on Tuesday the 1st and with community sailing classes on Saturday the 5th and FREE Community Sailing on Sunday the 6th! 

Classes are open to anyone aged 14 and up, and sliding scale pricing is available! Sunday's sails are FREE, show up between 2pm and 7pm at the public docks at the Hudson Waterfront!

Class descriptions:

Tuesday, September 1st
Intro to Navigating the Hudson, 5:30pm - Sunset, $20.00** Learn about the characteristics of the Hudson River, and how to safely navigate your boat. Learn how to predict tides and currents, clouds and weather; learn local shallows and bottom substrates and “Rules of the Road” for your boat and commercial traffic on our area of the Hudson River.

Tuesday Sail, 5:30pm - Sunset, $20.00** Cruise by the Hudson Lighthouse, Middle Ground Flats and Athens, get a feel for sailing on the Hudson River in this 2-hour sail.

Saturday, September 5th:
Saturday Sail, 5:30pm - Sunset, $20.00** Cruise by the Hudson Lighthouse, Middle Ground Flats and Athens, get a feel for sailing on the Hudson River in this 2-hour sail.

Four Hour Sailing Basics, 4pm - 8pm, $90.00** Catch the sailing bug? Got the itch to learn more? This four hour sail will show you how to rig a boat, sail at different angles to the wind, maneuver, and introduce you to basic terminology.

Sunday, September 6th:
Community Sails 2pm - 7pm, Free!! Want access to the Hudson! Join the Hudson Sloop Club for a Free sail at the Hudson waterfront the this Sunday. Sails are 2 hours or less. Donations not mandatory, but accepted.

Email: sloopclubsailing@gmail.com to sign up, or find out more!

www.hudsonsloopclub.org

SATURDAY, MAY 9, 2015. 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Hudson City Dock

Join the Hudson Sloop Club, Riverkeeper and the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society on May 9th for a cleanup of Middle Ground Flats! 

 

 

Volunteers have two options to reach the Flats by boat: 

  • RIDE OVER IN A POWER BOAT: If you plan on riding over in a power boat, meet at the Hudson City Dock at 9:00 AM for transportation to Middle Ground Flats OR 

  • BRING YOUR OWN CANOE OR KAYAK: If bringing your own kayak or canoe, meet fellow volunteers at the Stockport Creek boat launch at the end of Station Road at 8:30 AM. PFDs are required.  

We ask all Sweep volunteers to wear sturdy shoes or boots, clothing that they can get dirty, and to bring a hat, sunscreen, a reusable water bottle and snacks. This site is suitable for elementary-aged children with proper adult supervision. 

Contact us with any questions!

Please Donate To The Hudson Sloop Club's After-School Program! #givingtuesday

We are raising money to fund our after-school programming at the Hudson Intermediary School. We just finished another wonderful semester building and designing boats, learning woodworking skills and collaborating with the students at the Hudson Intermediary School.

We need to raise $3000 by January 1st so that we can continue this programming in the spring. Please help us reach this goal by donating today! #givingtuesday

http://www.gofundme.com/hscafterschool

After-school Programming at the Hudson Intermediary School

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Check out some of the educational programming we've been up to at the Hudson Intermediary School. Last Spring a group of 6th graders build this wooden punt and launched it at Oakdale (see video!). This Fall, a group of younger students, aged 7-10 have been developing their woodworking skills, learning about boats, buoyancy and hydrodynamics. 

http://youtu.be/tgJQJvXTvLw

(the 6th graders and their boat!) 

(the 6th graders and their boat!)

 

Sloop club offers program at M.C. Smith Intermediate School

Check out the full Register Star article here: http://www.registerstar.com/news/article_3d34db8a-becf-11e3-9a05-0019bb2963f4.html

David Lee/Columbia-Greene Media  :  The Hudson Sloop Club, led by Nick Zachos (standing on the raft on the right), brought their various boats to Oakdale Lake last summer to see how they would float.

David Lee/Columbia-Greene Media  :  The Hudson Sloop Club, led by Nick Zachos (standing on the raft on the right), brought their various boats to Oakdale Lake last summer to see how they would float.

Sixth-graders to build boat

Sloop club offers program at M.C. Smith Intermediate School

Posted: Tuesday, April 8, 2014 12:30 am

By John Mason Columbia-Greene Media |1 comment

Practical skill-building and a connection to Hudson’s river-going heritage will be fostered in a new program at M.C. Smith Intermediate School. Over the next nine weeks, a group of sixth-graders will build a traditional wooden boat, and, if all goes well, take it out on Oakdale Lake.

The class, which starts Wednesday, is being taught by members of the Hudson Sloop Club, led by Nick Zachos and Ed Csukas.

The dozen sixth-graders enrolled in the class will develop carpentry and construction skills, while learning about the cultures and histories of the Hudson River Valley, Csukas stated in an email, “from the Native Americans that first set out in dugout canoes to Hudson’s rich history as a maritime port and whaling center to the modern uses of the river.”

The class will meet for a half-hour lunch and hear stories about the history and ecology of the river, Zachos said. Then after school they’ll meet again, for two hours, “to dig into some hands-on construction.”

There will be three volunteers from the sloop club and one volunteer from the Hudson Afterschool Program, making four educators for 12 kids, he said.

The end-product may be a rowboat, or some other type of boat, Zachos said, depending on what the kids want to do. There will probably be “some messing around with materials, doing something new from scratch,” he said.

“Boat-building is a great way of doing educational projects,” he said. Participants get natural lessons in geometry, physics, chemistry and ecology, Csukas stated.

Making a traditional rowboat would be exciting for Zachos because it would involve soaking the wood to curve it, and would bring in some of the geometrical aspects of boat-making.

Another kind of boat that could emerge from the workshop is a flat-bottomed sailboat with a square sail and no keel. These were the boats used by the Vikings and the ancient Greeks, Zachos said; the more flexible Marconi or Bermuda rig sail, most familiar today, wasn’t popularized until the 17th century.

The class will also learn about the four archetypal boats common to every water-going culture: dugout canoes, reed boats, birchbark canoes, and skin boats.

Once the boat, whatever kind it is, is constructed, participants will carry it down the path that leads from M.C. Smith to Oakdale Lake, where it will be tested by adults for seaworthiness before being tested by students. All will be wearing life preservers.

The class got its start at Kite’s Nest last year.

“They gave us an amazing opportunity to teach a class in wooden boat-building,” Zachos said. “We taught the kids in the daytime and the adults in the evening, but we were all working on the same boat.”

A carpenter by trade, Zachos is also a sixth-generation boat builder. His Norwegian ancestors were building boats at least as long ago as the early 1800s.

Eventually the boats, made in Annapolis, Md., became known as Trumpy Yachts. Zachos’ uncle was the last family member to work there. The company is known for its pleasure yachts, but also for wartime vessels like PT boats — John F. Kennedy’s PT 109 may have been one of them.

It was only in the last few years that Zachos, after a boat-building workshop in Maine, turned to the family obsession.

Zachos and Csukas are founding members of the sloop club, a community-based boating organization dedicated to getting people out on the river and educating them about the river.

Although Hudson has a maritime history, there’s not a lot of connection to the river in its daily life, Zachos said. “You don’t see a lot of people out on the river,” he said. “Our idea is to bridge that gap, provide education and access to the river.”

The club is fundraising to restore boats it owns and to support educational programs, including summer camps and adult classes.

Go to http://hudsonsloopclub.org/how-to-get-involved/ to help fund this program and others planned for this year and learn more about the Hudson Sloop Club.

***

To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2500, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.

A Sloop Club Dream of the Waterfront!

A beautiful new rendering by our own Cara Turrett incorporating many of our ideas for a community oriented Hudson waterfront .Some features to note are.... Kayak shack for secure public boat storage on Ricks point.A gently graded pea gravel sma…

A beautiful new rendering by our own Cara Turrett incorporating many of our ideas for a community oriented Hudson waterfront .

Some features to note are.... 

Kayak shack for secure public boat storage on Ricks point.

A gently graded pea gravel small boat launch for kayaks, canoes, paddle boards etc... in Slip #2

A river based educational center and boat shop with a restored public pier between slips  #1 and #2

The Hudson Museum occupying the former Dunn building

The Vermont Freight Sail Project docked and unloading cargo

And much more...