The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Finds her Winter Home
Gregg Swanzey | December 15, 2014Back 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.
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