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T

he effort to teach sailing to a new generation in Oriental got a boost in late January as 18 Flying Junior sailboats arrived by the truckload. It was actually two truckloads that volunteers helped unload over the course of two days.

One of the Flying Junior hulls is passed from the truck to other waiting volunteers on the ground near the Wildlife Ramp.

The boats were destined for the Bow To Stern Boating Center, where Jim Edwards has run the youth sailing camp school for the past 7 summers. While the students there generally start out on Optis, they eventually move up to the 13-foot long FJ’s. Edwards had a small fleet of them there that were a few decades old.

Then he heard that Georgetown University was buying brand new FJ’s and their existing fleet of 2008 models needed a new home. He jumped at the chance.

The unloading scene on Day 1, Friday. The boats came with trailers.

The brand new FJ’s were to be delivered to the Washington DC school from a warehouse in Rhode Island in late January. Jim arranged for the trucks to then bring Georgetown’s 7-year old boats to Oriental. After a day or two delay due to the blizzard in New England, the first truckload of boats arrived on Friday, January 30.

Mark Crowder secured boats at the Wildlife Ramp before their tow up to the Bow To Stern Boating Center on Smith Creek. They’ll be used in the youth sailing school camp program at Bow To Stern. In background is the trailer truck that brought the FJ’s to Oriental.

The road to Bow to Stern couldn’t handle the 18-wheelers so they instead delivered them to the Wildlife Ramp at the end of Midyette Street. That would mean unloading them from truck and into the water to be towed to Bow To Stern. A few dozen volunteers responded to a call-out on TownDock.net and were there for the Friday and Saturday morning delivery.

The volunteers on Saturday morning after offloading the last of the 18 FJs’. Behind them were the nine hulls that were splashed that morning at the Wildlife Ramp. (9 others were launched there on Friday as well.).

A sailboat fleet needs more than just the hulls. There were sails to be unloaded, too.

And rudders. Jim Edwards hands off some of them.

… and rudders.

Rodney White with one of the masts.

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Like a fire brigade, the unloading of the hulls took a lot of hands, starting on the truck….

Then hull #15 was lowered to waiting arms on the ground.

From there, hulls were taken, one by one toward the Wildlife Resources ramp.

Ramp bound.

Backed in to the water.

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Tank, who came to the unloading with John Rahm, provided management oversight from the back of a truck while the bi-peds got the boats in to the water.

A quick bit of line handling by Zack Bruno.

Zack had been busy hauling all 9 boats to the water Saturday morning.

The scene Friday at the docks of the Wildlife Resources ramp where some of the first FJ’s were being set in the water from a delivery truck.

Joe Bliss tends to some of the masts that were hauled – by land – to Bow to Stern.

There were trailers, too. At least one was set up to get the hulls to the water.

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The driver hauled the truckload of FJ sailboats from Washington DC to Oriental, where they arrived on Friday. Jim Edwards at left, runs the Bow to Stern Boating Center which will put 18 of the Georgetown University sailboats to use this season.

Mark Crowder – prone on the dock – worked to secure the boats before their tow up Smith Creek.

Once all the hulls were in the water, it was time to connect them with a line to ready them for their tow up Smith Creek.

A string of hulls on their way up Smith Creek to Bow to Stern Boating Center..

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John Rahm led the newly arriving boats to the shore at Bow to Stern where Joe Bliss and George Sechrist were ready to haul them up.

.. where they joined the other FJ’s already there.

Bringing the boats ashore.

The enhanced fleet at Bow to Stern, on Friday.

Posted Friday February 6, 2015 by Melinda Penkava