Rick Kotalic, a Nantucket native, stood on the Packer Marine dock in Vineyard Haven last Thursday night and looked at the harbor beyond a forest of masts. ”It’s nice to see a working harbor. Feels like the way Nantucket was 40 years ago,” he said.
Mr. Kotalic was standing next to his pal Nathaniel Philbrick, a Nantucket resident, prodigious waterman and bigtime writer. Mr. Philbrick won the 2000 National Book Award for his maritime history, “In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex.” His book about the Mayflower and Pilgrim history was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. On Thursday night, he was attending the annual fundraiser auction and dinner for Sail Martha’s Vineyard, a program dedicated to teaching Island kids to sail.
Mr. Philbrick has been instrumental in developing a similar program for Nantucket’s young sailors, and was here to receive the Walter Cronkite Award from Sail Martha’s Vineyard. “Sail M.V. is a great model, and we used it to develop our program,” he said.
Mr. Kotalic operates Brant Point Marine in Nantucket Harbor. He was on the Island to watch Mr. Philbrick be honored with the Walter Cronkite Award and to celebrate Sail Martha’s Vineyard’s 25th year of teaching Island kids to sail. “We New Englanders don’t like change,” Mr. Kotalic opined in our conversation, “and Sail Martha’s Vineyard’s adherence to its original mission of teaching Island kids to sail safely is probably why the organization has rooted and grown over a quarter-century.”
In interviews with past and present Sail Martha’s Vineyard nurturers, their judgments were that the organization has stayed the course of its mission over time, although it is an organization that looks remarkably different than on the day 25 years ago when Liz Packer first took a bunch of fourth graders aboard tiny Periwinkle-design sailboats into Lagoon Pond to unlock the mystery of wind, water, and sail.
The Thursday-night festivities, featuring a silent auction, dinner, and music by the Beetlebung Steel Band, kicked off the Vineyard Cup Regatta weekend, which drew 86 entrants in 10 divisions, ranging from five-foot kiteboards to 90-foot sailing yachts, from the Island and the Northeast.
The Thursday shindig sold out its 350 tickets as it always does, but this year was special. “See that montage of photos behind the raw bar? That’s a compilation of pictures of the people and past events,” said Sail Martha’s Vineyard board president Peggy Schwier. “We wanted to recognize the people who have come before. That’s what this celebration is about. Not us but the people who came before us and for those who will come after us,” she said.
Indeed, Sail Martha’s Vineyard has prospered, it appears, because it has retained its identity as a community project with a specific mission since the day its founders, Nancy Haskell and Nancy Hoffman, began collaring Island sailors like Ms. Packer, Fred Murphy, and now executive director Brock Callen to teach kids to sail for free.
Today more than 400 kids, mostly Island kids between 8 and 18 years of age, learn to sail safely for two weeks every summer for free, with a nominal membership fee. While sailing has been a high-rent sport historically, tuition is only $300 for off-Islanders, and if you don’t have it, you can get a scholarship.
Last week before the 25th party, Fred Murphy, sailor and boatbuilder, talked about the early days. “We didn’t have much, a couple Periwinkles and Liz. As it grew, it was actually done in the fall with fifth graders from each of the four Island schools. We had to go to Edgartown Yacht Club, which provided the boats we needed,” he said.
Today, Sail Martha’s Vineyard has the resources to completely fund sailing as a Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School varsity sport that has produced an All-American collegiate sailor in Emily Reich and a team that competes successfully under Coach Andrew Burr with well-endowed private school programs, is ranked fourth in New England overall, and leads Massachusetts public school programs.
Under Mr. Callen, Sail Martha’s Vineyard has also set up a Marine Studies curriculum at the high school, and has added environmental sustainability pursuits as an integral part of its teaching and awareness programs.
Sail MV has a rowing club, teaches licensing courses, and as of Friday night, has Thor, a 55-foot yawl donated by Charles Dana III, a Vineyard summer kid, philanthropist (e.g. Boston’s Dana–Farber Cancer Institute), and owner of the Newport (R.I.) Shipyard.
Beth Larsen was there on Thursday night. Ms. Larsen has been in since the beginning, and ran the first dozen Sail Martha’s Vineyard auctions: “We’ve been lucky. We were probably one of two summer auctions on the Island. We’ve always sold out, and we’ve always had great donations of items and food, so we’ve been able to retain most of the auction income for our programs,” she said.
In an interview earlier in the week, Mr. Callen ruminated on the dynamics of summer fundraising here, and sketched a unique Sail Martha’s Vineyard outreach program that supplements a six-figure annual budget anchored by the auction, its single fundraising event.
“We’re no longer a backwater nonprofit; we have a clear idea of who we are and how to deliver safety, quality, training, and fun to everyone from 8-year-olds year to a guy trying for his captain’s license. We don’t discriminate.The mix is incredible. Island kids from limited financial resources mix with jet setters, and you watch the socioeconomics disappear,” he said.
Noting that the Sail Martha’s Vineyard auction is now one of more than an estimated 90 Island fundraising auctions a year, Mr. Callen said the board began to reach beyond the Island for support. It worked. Sponsors like Samuel Adams beer, Gosling’s rum, Men’s Journal, and other national brands are side by side with Tilton Towing and Vineyard Cash and Carry.
“We get support from ski areas like Sugarbush, for example, because we have a good reputation, and they know that sailors are also skiers,” he explained. “So our sponsors are proof positive that you can extend your appeal. Those sponsors provide us with huge exposure in 15 states and nine countries,” he said.
Certainly Sail Martha’s Vineyard’s authenticity and its commitment to its mission resonates in the community. Sail Martha’s Vineyard has attracted well-heeled sponsors and contributors, but the vast majority of its contributors are regular people sending in small donations.
So it’s an Island thing, this Sail Martha’s Vineyard, and if you’ll permit a moment of parochial joy, it was gratifying to see that Bill McCullough, winner of the catboat/Bella division race this weekend, won the division trophy in a boat designed by the Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway boatyard, just a few hundred yards down the road from race headquarters.