Nautical experts launch series

By Peg Regan
Published: April 16, 2009

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One by one, Sail Martha's Vineyard has gathered some of Martha's Vineyard's most extraordinary sailors to share their experiences and expertise with all who are interested.

Sail Martha's Vineyard, a non-profit organization founded in 1991, is dedicated to celebrating, promoting, and protecting Martha's Vineyard's maritime heritage. To that end, it will bring experienced Island seafarers to participate in its spring series of four classes. The four include a blue water sailor, a lobsterman, a boat builder and transatlantic sailor, and a nautical woodcarver. All the programs will encourage discussions and questions.

West Tisbury's Myles Thurlow, boat-builder and experienced sailor, will demonstrate techniques in working rope and wire in the art of marlinespike seamanship. Photo by Elizabeth Whelan

Everyone is welcome this evening, Thursday, April 16, when the series begins. It will get off to a great start with a program on coastal navigation conducted by Sail Martha's Vineyard's program director Brock Callen, an experienced blue-water sailor.

Mr. Callen, a Chilmark resident, will share tips about navigation and nautical instruments, and demonstrate how to use charts to navigate successfully when technology cannot help. Mr. Callen directs the Maritime Studies Program at the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School.

In his hands-on workshop, participants will learn essential paper and pencil navigation techniques and the life saving tools to navigate our coastal waters.

The class is just the first of the spring continuing education series to run from April through May to teach diesel engine repair, marlinspike seamanship, which includes knot tying, splicing, whipping and lastly, the technique of carving quarterboards.

On April 30, the series continues with lobsterman Mike Oliveira at the helm. Formerly employed by Martha's Vineyard Shipyard, Mr. Oliveira will teach the importance of understanding diesel engine repair. Participants can learn the tips to keep up their engines with proper maintenance for safer and more satisfying boating, and save time and money in the bargain.

And then comes West Tisbury resident Myles Thurlow, a boatbuilder who has been delivering boats to and from the Caribbean for about a decade, making more than a dozen transits. In 2004, he helped sail a boat from India to Israel, a voyage that took him across the Arabian Sea, above the Horn of Africa through the Gulf of Aden, and into the Red Sea.

Mr. Thurlow will demonstrate working rope and wire into both practical and decorative applications. Many boaters know the basics, but knowledge of rigging design and execution of those skills using rope or wire splicing techniques will make the job of skipper, mate, or deckhand easier and improve even a skilled sailor's technique on the water and at the dock.

Finally, on May 14, J.P. Uranker of Oak Bluffs will present a lecture and demonstration on carving quarterboards, the raised nameboards placed on the sides of vessels near the stern. Mr. Uranker has been carving on Martha's Vineyard for more than 25 years, as well as working as a sign maker. His nautical art, preserving a maritime tradition, adorns ships around the world. The workshop covers a series of topics including understanding the characteristics of wood, design, layout, and the proper techniques of carving.

Program director Brock Callen, a veteran blue-water sailor, opens Sail Martha's Vineyard's four-part series tonight, April 16, with a discussion about coastal navigation. Photo by Susan Safford

Sail Martha's Vineyard was established to promote the study, research, and education of all aspects of our centuries-old maritime heritage. It accomplishes its charter in many ways, including a free summer sailing school for children in grades five through eight, in which students are taught in Island-built skiffs.

This program operates all summer long at the Sailing Camp Park on the Lagoon in Oak Bluffs. The regional high school sailing team has also been sponsored and funded by Sail Martha's Vineyard since 1996. Adult sailing instruction, basic seamanship courses at the high school, captain's certification courses, a rowing club, "frostbiting" (winter racing in small sailboats), and an off-season lecture series at the Black Dog Tavern are all programs and events offered to Islanders for free or at minimal cost.

In addition to hands-on training and certifications, Sail Martha's Vineyard takes its educational mission seriously. Not all visitors to the center need to be accomplished sailors. In fact, the Vineyard's maritime heritage includes artisans, clockmakers, compass builders, boatbuilders, and sailmakers, among others.

"Other continuing education will be scheduled based upon interest of the community," explained Mr. Callen. "If groups are interested in specific topics, Sail Martha's Vineyard will arrange them by request."

The first of Sail Martha's Vineyard's four-week series of evening classes begins from 7-9 pm tonight, Thursday, April 16, at the Sail Martha's Vineyard office, 110 Main St., Vineyard Haven. $10/class. Pre-register: 508 696-7868.

Oak Bluffs resident, educator Peg Regan, is a frequent contributor to The Martha's Vineyard Times.