The Moorings, a leading charter company, has announced a partnership with US Sailing, the national governing body for sailing in the United States. The collaboration aims to bolster support for sailors and sailing organizations across the country.

As part of their commitment to promoting cruising and sailing worldwide, The Moorings will provide discounted rates on charters exclusively for US Sailing members. In addition, US Sailing Keelboat schools and students will receive an extra discount on their charters. To encourage more people to experience the thrill of sailing, US Sailing will offer four opportunities throughout the year for sailing community members to win their own charter.

US Sailing, also known as the United States Sailing Association, plays a vital role in leading, advancing, and maintaining the integrity of the sport in the United States. They offer comprehensive training and education programs for instructors and race officials, support various sailing organizations and communities, issue offshore rating certificates, and oversee competitive sailing events nationwide, including the prestigious National Championships and the US Sailing Team.

Alan Ostfield, CEO of US Sailing, expressed his enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, “US Sailing is proud to welcome The Moorings to our family of partners. Our primary goal is to introduce more people to the joy of being out on the water. With The Moorings’ exceptional charter services, both seasoned and inexperienced sailors can expect an unforgettable sailing adventure. We are thrilled to facilitate this opportunity for our members and the broader sailing community.”

Ian Pedersen, Senior Marketing Manager of The Moorings, shared his excitement about the collaboration, saying, “The Moorings is thrilled to partner with US Sailing and expand our efforts to promote sailing in the United States. Through this partnership, we aim to attract new audiences to the sailing community while strengthening the skills and confidence of existing sailors across the country. This will make charter vacations worldwide more accessible than ever. US Sailing is the perfect partner for this worthwhile mission.”

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In a statement posted March 1, US Sailing announced that it stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian Sailing Community.

“Our hearts go out to all who have been affected by this senseless violence. US Sailing joins many international sports organizations, the International Olympic Committee, and World Sailing in calling for an immediate end to all hostilities and a resumption of dialogue for a peaceful resolution in place of military action. 

In support of policies issued and actions taken by the International Olympic Committee and World Sailing, US Sailing has moved to suspend the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes, teams and Race Officials at US Sailing events.  

US Sailing will be monitoring the situation and may adapt its recommendations and measures according to future developments. Both on and off the water, our sport is united by the values of equality, inclusion, respect and fairness.”  

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The US Sailing Safety at Sea Committee awarded the Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medals to a competing Lightning sailboat and two mark-set boats at the 2016 Ford Yacht Club Regatta for the rescue of two Lightning sailors, and the recovery and the attempted resuscitation of the third Lightning sailor.

US Sailing Treasurer Steven Freitas made the presentation during the Bayview Yacht Club’s Bayview One-Design Regatta in Detroit, Mich. on June 3, 2017 during the daily prize awards.

On August 21, 2016, the Ford Yacht Club Lightning Regatta, held in Grosse Ile, Mich., experienced wind gusts up to 30 mph and a temperature high of 78 degrees. Emilia capsized momentarily, re-righted and rounded-up; but the boat flipped over again, putting skipper Michael Read and fellow crew members David Sakowicz and Roy Salisbury into the water.

Aboard a nearby mark-set boat, Dick Synowiec and Matt Jablonski witnessed the accident, motored over, and told by Sakowicz and Reed that Salisbury couldn’t be found. Synowiec and Jablonski made a Mayday call on the radio and then lifted the mainsail, having to cut the spinnaker away to reach Salisbury who had been trapped with one arm in the port stays and the other arm in the starboard stays with his PFD inflated. They freed the unconscious Salisbury from the rigging and attempted to lift him onboard.

Equipped with a swim platform, the second mark-set boat, Polar Bear, arrived on the scene with Ted and Denise Wagner onboard. Denise held the two powerboats together while Ted, Synowiec and Jablonski muscled Salisbury onto Polar Bear. Polar Bear sped to shore to Huron Metro Park and waived down two police officers. Police took over and performed CPR, including the use of a defibrillator. The ambulance arrived and rushed Salisbury to the hospital. Salisbury did not survive.

Also witnessing the accident, competitors Trey Rose, David Corcoran and Duane Rose, onboard Spinnaker Ninja, dropped out of the race and came to assist. They spotted Sakowicz and Reed, with Sakowicz telling them to get Reed first. They sailed to Reed and pulled him onboard their Lightning. Then they sailed to Sakowicz and pulled him onboard.

Sakowicz shook violently from hypothermia, and Spinnaker Ninja put a foul weather jacket over him to hold in the remaining heat. Others came to recover the abandoned Emilia to clear the waterway of a navigational hazard.

US Sailing is honored to award the Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal to Dick Synowieck and Matt Jablonski for locating and recovering their fellow mariners, as well as providing CPR in very trying circumstances.

US Sailing is pleased to award the Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal to Ted and Denise Wagner for recovering their fellow mariner, as well as providing CPR and bringing the victim to professional medical services in very trying circumstances.

The Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal is awarded to any person who rescues or endeavors to rescue any other person from drowning, shipwreck, or other perils at sea within the territorial waters of the United States, or as part of a sailboat race or voyage that originated or stopped in the U.S. The medal was established in 1990 by friends of the late Mr. Hanson, an ocean-racing sailor from the Chesapeake Bay, with the purpose of recognizing significant accomplishments in seamanship and collecting case studies of rescues for analysis by the Safety at Sea Committee of US Sailing for use in educational and training programs. Any individual or organization may submit a nomination for a Hanson Rescue Medal.

Visit the US Sailing Hanson Rescue Medal website for more information about these awards, including nomination form instructions and guidelines.

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Nominate an Unsung Hero in the Sailing Community

Old Pulteney and US Sailing have teamed up once again to honor men and women in sailing communities around the country for their outstanding humanitarian achievements. The Maritime Heroes Award recognizes those who are making significant contributions to volunteer, educate, advocate or simply encourage others to explore the sport.

This year, for the first time ever, the winner will receive a five thousand dollar grant to continue their efforts within the sailing community in addition to being honored at the US Sailing Leadership Forum in 2016.

Nominations will be accepted from November 5, 2015 through through November 20, 2015. There is no feat too small to qualify for nomination. Finalists will be selected by Old Pulteney and US Sailing and announced shortly afterwards using the information provided in the nomination form at www.oldpulteney.com/maritime-heroes.

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The program is designed to help schools with their science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curriculum. During 2014’s Charleston Race Week, teachers attending the program’s educator course set the grounds for big changes in a South Carolina school district.

Marion County, South Carolina, has suffered an economic downturn, and the education system is feeling the effects. Wayne Burdick, president of Beneteau America, brought 10 teachers from Marion County to Charleston to participate in the Reach Educator Course. The plan was to initiate a STEM learning program within the district to help revitalize student interest in these subjects. For Burdick, Marion County’s struggles hit close to home, as the town of Marion is home to a Beneteau factory that is a large part of the region’s economy.

With the help of Nathan Indeegard, a representative for the Marion school district, a new Reach club was set up at Creek Bridge Middle-High School. Both teachers and students learned about wind speed, buoyancy and sailing, and built anemometers and clay boats to put their newly learned skills into action.

This past March, the students toured the Beneteau factory in Marion. Armed with the new information they had gained through the Reach club, students were enthralled by the boatbuilding process and excited to see what they’d learned in the classroom applied in the real world.

Students were overjoyed when they learned that the same math they had been learning was used to help measure the wood to be cut while constructing the boats.

“Having that connection for these kids is life changing,”said Windy Key, the training communications administrator for US Sailing and a South Carolina native.

Greg Fisher, director of sailing at the College of Charleston, then invited 27 students and six teachers from Marion to visit Charleston and spend a day on the water with the varsity sailing team.

Though only two students had prior experience with sailing, by the end of the day, all 27 students were comfortable with their newly found sea legs and excited about the future of sailing.

The program is ongoing, and the initial success is promising as an example for similar school districts. Burdick has mentioned plans to implement the Reach Program in five more local schools, with the hopes of garnering a similar response and teaching students skills while building awareness of environmental and ocean stewardship.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to expand it long term over more schools in Marion and throughout South Carolina,” Burdick told NPR’s South Carolina Business Review last week in an interview to discuss the US Sailing Reach initiative.

Wayne Burdick and Windy Key discussed the program and the plans for the future to spread the STEM education program to other regions of the South Carolina school system. You can listen to the entire interview here.

The US Sailing Reach program has been For more information on the US Sailing Reach Program, visit their website at www.reach.ussailing.org.

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US Sailing will award a Hanson Rescue Medal to six sailors who risked their lives in an attempt to rescue a woman from a minivan that drove into San Francisco Bay on June 21, 2013.The six sailors being honored are members of the American Youth Sailing Force, the Bay Area’s entry in the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup that will be raced in San Francisco this September.

The team was attending a fundraiser at the Golden Gate Yacht Club when the minivan drove off the nearby Marina Green parking lot and into the Bay at a speed estimated at 20 mph.

“We were getting ready for a party when we heard some yelling from over the seawall,” said team supporter Vince Casalaina. “We didn’t know what was going on at first, but then we saw the van as it started to float out away from shore, at which point my team got into our boat.”

The van was settling lower into the water when the six sailors got into their team powerboat. Team captain Ian Andrewes (23, Seattle, Wash.) was steering. “The van was going down at the nose, and the roof was just submerging when we got to it,” said Andrewes. “Before we even slowed down, three of our guys were in the water with tools. They were able to get on the car and start smashing the window, but unfortunately they couldn’t get the window to break completely. They were pounding the windows as hard as they could.”

Team members David Liebenberg (21, Livermore, Calif.), Tommy Pastalka (22, Belvedere, Calif.), and Evan Sjostedt (20, Long Beach, Calif.) jumped off the boat, swam to the van, and attempted to break its rear window and open a door. Mikey Radziekowski (21, Berkeley, Calif.) served as spotter on the Protector and team videographer Nick Andrewes (27, Seattle, Wash.) served as deckhand.

The driver in the van was pleading for help as the van sank. Divers later located the van in approximately 20 feet of water about 150 feet off shore. The driver did not survive the accident. San Francisco police recovered the van and the body the next day.

The only injury to the rescuers during the incident was suffered by Tommy Pastalka, whose hands were cut while he tried to break through the windshield.

The Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal is awarded by US Sailing’s Safety-at-Sea Committee to any person who rescues or endeavors to rescue any other person from drowning, shipwreck, or other perils at sea within the territorial waters of the United States, or as part of a sailboat race or voyage that originated or stopped in the U.S. Since it was established in 1990 by friends of the late Mr. Hanson, an ocean-racing sailor from the Chesapeake Bay, the Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal has been presented to more than 170 boats. Any individual or organization may submit a nomination for a Hanson Rescue Medal.

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US Sailing

US Sailing is awarding an Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal to Jodee Carvalho and Adam Carper for rescuing the pilot of a crashed airplane from a river in Edgewater, Maryland, on March 26, 2010.

The pilot, 76-year-old Richard Dreyer, was flying his recently restored vintage single-engine airplane to the Eastern Shore when a mechanical problem forced him to try to land at a small airport. He ended up making a crash landing in the South River. The crash was observed by many local people who flooded telephone lines with 911 calls. 

As emergency responders were summoned, local residents Carvalho and Carper were already on the way to the crash site from Liberty Marina in Carvalho’s outboard-powered inflatable dinghy.

“Thankfully, I had my raft handy and the motor started quickly,” said Carvalho. 

By the time they reached the accident scene, the plane was almost completely submerged in the 42-degree water, with no survivors visible. Carvallo recalled seeing a piece of debris and the pilot’s head. 

”He knew what he was doing. He got the plane down safely, and he was already out of the plane by the time we got there,” said Carper. 

Carvalho and Carper pulled him into the raft. Carvalho returned to the site of the accident and rescue and tied a rope and a marker to the plane so officials could locate it under water.

“Training on the job as a commercial fisherman for 20 years taught me a lot,” said Carvalho. “It’s important to be aware of your surroundings, quick on your feet and sharp in your mind. You never know what can happen at sea.”

The Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal is awarded by US Sailing’s Safety-at-Sea Committee to any person who rescues or endeavors to rescue any other person from drowning, shipwreck, or other perils at sea within the territorial waters of the United States, or as part of a sailboat race or voyage that originated or stopped in the U.S. Since it was established in 1990 by friends of the late Mr. Hanson, an ocean-racing sailor from the Chesapeake Bay, the Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal has been presented to more than 170 boats. Any individual or organization may submit a nomination for a Hanson Rescue Medal.

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