The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Finds her Winter Home

  |  December 15, 2014
Sloop Clearwater

Photo by Anthony Pepitone.

Back in the 1980s Ronald Reagan was President, nuclear Euro-missiles were aimed at the Soviet Union, the protests of the ’60s were still fresh in mind, and the Russian words perestroika and glasnost were new words in our vocabulary.

But we were sailing a boat to save a river. We were giving school children an experience they would never forget as they hoisted tons of sail and spar aloft or pulled a hogchocker from the depths in a trawl net.

Hudson River Sloop Clearwater was challenging GE on PCBs and working to keep a highway from cutting off the west side of Manhattan from the river. At the core of it was the knowledge that if people got out there aboard a traditional wooden sailing vessel and experienced the river they would switch their thinking about it, learn to love it, and protect it. It didn’t hurt if good food and music were a part of the mix.

I was one of the captains who got to know the Hudson like the back of my hand but, after several years of exploring, picked out a river town to buy a house for a home base. Many of those that sailed the sloop over the years landed here in the Ulster County area. Today, many of us are here in Kingston.

It is no wonder that the Sloop Clearwater also found a home on the Rondout — best harbor between NYC and Albany. If you head down to the waterfront and over to the Hudson River Maritime Museum you will see that a new barn was recently raised — the old fashioned way — with lots of hands. Sloop Clearwater has moved in with us for winters to come, complete with boat shop, potluck dinners and plenty of the music that inspired her construction and keeps her sailing today.

About Gregg Swanzey

Gregg Swanzey, a longtime advocate for the Hudson River and the Mid-Hudson Region, first moved to the Rondout neighborhood in Kingston with his family in 1986 fresh off several years as Captain of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. Since then, he has crossed the Atlantic three times, served as Executive Director for a gubernatorially appointed Commission in Massachusetts, and traveled to far-flung places such as St. Petersburg, Russia; Reykjavik, Iceland; and the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. After four years in City Hall as Director of Economic Development and Strategic Partnerships for the City of Kingston, he has recently come aboard as Executive Director for the Winnakee Land Trust based in Rhinebeck in Northern Dutchess County. On any given day you might see him out jogging on one of several rail trails that converge in Kingston, kayaking the Hudson over to Rhinecliff, biking Uptown to the Farmer’s Market, climbing to the top of Burger Hill in Winnakee's Drayton Grant Park, or hanging out at home in a classic 1920's Dutch Colonial overlooking the Hudson with his wife, Emma. His two daughters live and work in New York City but are regularly up the River for the weekend.

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