News Flash: Sail MV is hiring a full-time Waterfront Director!
Since its inception in 1992, Sail Martha’s Vineyard has focused on connecting the Island’s school children and the community at large with the traditions and experiences of the Island’s maritime heritage. It offers a summer sailing program to over 400 young sailors. Projects within the community have included; wooden boat building in the schools, scholarship funds to pursue time on sail training vessels and educational programs. It also seeks to attract and welcome historic sailing vessels to the Island so the community can experience first hand the sailing ships of the past.
The Summer sailing program is offered to 8 to 18 year olds. Students, Islander and seasonal visitors alike, are taught basic rowing and seamanship in small Island built wooden skiffs, as well as in more contemporary designs. The program operates out of the Sailing Camp Park on the Lagoon in Oak Bluffs. The Lagoon offers an ideal location for sailing instruction with sheltered waters, sandy beach and minimal marine traffic.
In 2007, the Maritime Studies program was developed to offer a Vocational track class at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.This program, the first in the state of Massachusetts, provides students with the skills and practical experience in order to gain employment on and around the water. This year a more advanced level of the course is being offered as well.
The High School Sailing team, which is sponsored and funded by Sail MV, has developed as the graduates of the summer program have aged. This need for a next step was recognized and a sailing club was formed in 1996. Because of its popularity and success, in 1999 it gained varsity status and began to compete in regional regattas. A Junior High After-School Advanced Fall Program was instituted in 2000 to provide a bridge between the Summer program and the High School Team.
News Flash: Sail MV is hiring a full-time Waterfront Director!
Sail MV continues to expand its activities to include Captain’s Licensing courses, adult sailing instruction, rowing and continuing education courses.
Sail MV is largely supported by small local grants and individual donations. All of its introductory sailing programs for Island children provided at a modest $50 membership fee.
Sail Martha’s Vineyard is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and perpetuating our Island’s maritime heritage and culture. Toward that end, we:
- Encourage Island residents to be comfortable in and around the water through such programs as our free boat handling and sailing instruction for children, adult sailing instruction and support for the high school sailing club for competitive sailors;
- Support educational programs in our public schools that familiarize Island children with the maritime traditions of Martha’s Vineyard;
- Attract interesting and historic vessels to the Island and support such local vessels;
- Sponsor programs that in other ways explore the maritime heritage of the island; and
- Serve as a clearinghouse for other maritime-related organizations and initiatives on the Island.
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- Winter Dinner/Lecture Series
- USCG approved 100 Gross Ton captain’s course
- Certified USCG Testing Center
- Advisory services to Islanders renewing or applying for USCG masters or OUPV licenses
- Coastal Navigation course
- Coxswain training course
- Cornish Pilot Gig Rowing Club
- Varsity and Junior Varsity MVRHS Sailing Teams
- Children’s summer Learn-to-Sail program
- Adult summer Learn-to-Sail program
- Boat building, maintaining, repairing apprenticeships
- Administer one of the largest PHRF fleets in New England
- Maritime Studies academic courses at MVRHS
- Fall racing clinics
- Big boat programs on board our 41′ Concordia yawl
The International Etchells Class concluded its 
Max Kurland is in his second season as the head coach of 
moved on, my old skipper Conner Blouin came on as head coach for two years and really kick started the program and reinvigorated the team with a new culture of sailing. After coaching for two years, he got an offer from Saint Mary’s College of Maryland, so I applied to be head coach and got it!
With the fall sailing season already beginning for high school and college sailing, athletes have been preparing all summer with preseason activities to give them an edge on the course this year. Recently, I had the experience of travelling down to the College of Charleston to participate in their Advanced Racing Clinic for high school sailors. The clinic is geared towards providing sailors with coaching necessary to bring their sailing to the next level in high school or collegiate fleet and team racing. I’m very pleased to say I had an extremely beneficial experience in South Carolina, and that I would highly recommend the clinic to other sailors looking to enhance their performance on the course.
College of Charleston head coach Ward Cromwell, who has led the team to countless national championships, coached the clinic, which took place at the college’s own sailing center, the J. Stewart Walker Sailing Complex. Sailors from all over the country attended, coming from states including Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Texas and California. Day one of the clinic began with introductions between the sailors and coaches and a detailed review on z420 and FJ tuning.
The early stages of the clinic focused extensively on specific rig tuning techniques and adjustments. That evening, after a productive day on the water, clinic attendees were invited to participate in a weekly informal fleet race hosted at the sailing complex With twenty one of the college’s FJs and 420s participating, it was very well attended, and the racing was quite exciting. Nights were spent aboard the USS Yorktown, an aircraft carrier from the Second World War. That in itself made the experience unlike any other I have ever had sailing, working with some of college sailing’s best coaches while also exploring the historical side of the city I was sailing in.
Days two and three went by far too fast. Focusing mainly on team racing, sailors started off doing mostly combo drills, followed by starting drills and racing. Time on the water was followed by a lunch on land and video debriefs. These on-land sessions helped the sailors unwind while focusing on key areas of improvement before heading back out to sail. No time was wasted, with almost the entire day being spent exclusively at the sailing center. Extra curricular activities, like visiting College of Charleston’s campus, were arranged by sailors from the college who had volunteered to help. Before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye to my newfound love of Charleston and head back to Massachusetts.
Sailors don’t have the benefit of playing a game on a field that never moves or changes. By participating in this clinic, I took myself out of my comfort zone of sailing with familiar people in familiar places completely. As athletes, thinking of ways to challenge ourselves on and off the water is part of what we do, and I am so glad to say that this summer, I was able to do just that and gain a tremendous understanding of how diverse sailing can be in the process.