On Watch

An enthusiastic sailor from a very young age, Beth Fleisher leads the race committee at one of the friendliest clubs in the Northeast and co-chairs a uniquely challenging – and very fun! – distance race. “I grew up on the South Shore of Long Island, on the Great South Bay,” says Beth. “My parents took me sailing when I was five weeks old. I was born in September so this was fall sailing, which I still love….

If someone told you they were born in the shadow of the Mont Tremblant ski resort in Quebec, and in the next breath said they were in Newport, Rhode Island the following year watching the America’s Cup, you might scratch your head a bit. Stephanie McLennan was not properly “watching” the regatta, but she was there with her grandparents. There is a picture taken by her grandfather of Stephanie in a state of infant repose on the…

The first female Commodore of the Cruising Club of America (and recipient of the club’s prestigious Richard S. Nye Trophy), a New York Yacht Club Race Committee member, a member of the Fales Committee of the U.S. Naval Academy Sailing Program, a Maritime Studies Advisor to SUNY Maritime College, a past Director and Interim Executive Director of the Museum of Yachting, an executive committee member at Mystic Seaport Museum, longtime mainstay of US Sailing, an authorized Safety…

Most of us had childhood goals (visions really, at that young age), often ignited by something we experienced as kids. Griff Spinney’s first vision was from the lower spreaders on the R/P 66 Aurora, the fire-breathing race boat on which his dad, Latimer Spinney, was captain. T’was Block Island Race Week in 2007 and said yacht was competing so the Spinney family were on Block Island. When Aurora arrived back at the dock after racing one day,…

A graduate of the Shorthanded Offshore Acorn program at Oakcliff Sailing in Oyster Bay, New York, Catherine “Cat” Chimney is back at the high performance training center on Long Island Sound with one of the coolest jobs in the sport…and she may be a future Olympic medalist. “I’ve been a wharf rat since I was born,” says Cat, whose very first sailboat race was frostbiting at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club with her father Ed Chimney, a longtime…

As President and CEO of the New England Science & Sailing Foundation (NESS) in Stonington, Connecticut, Michael “Spike” Lobdell has the helm of a remarkable non-profit ocean adventure organization founded with the goal of building brighter futures. He’s also one of the nicest guys in sailing. “I grew up in Rumson, New Jersey and started sailing when I was seven years old,” says Spike, who lives on Mason’s Island in Mystic. The boat of choice for learning back then…

Readers of this magazine will recognize John K. Fulweiler, Jr. as the author of our informative and always entertaining monthly column, “The Boating Barrister.” Recognized by the Maritime Law Association as holding Proctor in Admiralty Law status, John is a licensed U.S. Coast Guard Master, an arbitrator with the Boat Owners Association of the United States (BoatU.S.) Salvage Arbitration Program, an adjunct professor at the Roger Williams Law School, and a published author. He also has the…

“There has never been a time in my life where boats were not part of it,” says Joy Sherman, the owner of Joyride Charters in Westbrook, CT. “I lived in Gales Ferry, CT until I was 8 years old. My father had a boat in the Bahamas, and we lived on her when I was 6 and 7. I did some schooling in the Bahamas, and with lessons sent by mail from my teacher at home there…

Novelist, maritime writer, photographer, artist, drummer and professional mariner Ger Tysk says reading the definitive book on the subject of whaling changed the course of her life. “I was born in the Chicago area and grew up in Texas,” says Ger (whose name is pronounced ‘jair’ like ‘chair’ and ‘tisk’ as in ‘Tsk, tsk’). “I wasn’t exposed to many on-the-water activities while growing up, and certainly not to maritime history. In school in Texas, we learned about…

Prescott Littlefield, Waterfront Programs Manager at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point Regional Campus in Groton, loves his work. “I grew up in Old Greenwich and started sailing at Riverside Yacht Club at age nine in Sunfish before moving into Blue Jays, then briefly a full-rig Laser (the 4.7 and Radial didn’t exist yet) and finally I420s, which replaced Fireballs,” says Prescott. “The first sailboat I owned was a JY15 that my life partner, Anne, gave me…