New Jersey Friends of Clearwater
Environmental Sail Program
Your are invited for a sail on
NJClearwater’s Garvey, “Pete’s Banjo”
August 30, 2016
Tonights sail is the last of our summer evening sails. With daylight shortening, we switch to Saturday morning. Our next sail after this evening will be Saturday, September 17, 11 a.m.
NJClearwater's 40th annual festival will be Saturday and Sunday, September 10 & 11 at Brookdale Community College. More info here. Pete's Banjo will be there on its trailer with crew. Come visit us and enjoy the festival, too.
June 1, 2016
Tuesday evening public sails now open. Anybody who shows up at the dock at 6pm gets a free environmental sailboat ride on the Navesink river. WHERE: Red Bank, NJ, Foot of Bodman Place (across rt 35 from Birravino's, down Bodman Place by the water). The boat is at the dock that points across the river towards Middletown. First boat on the right, the only one with masts. If you see crew on board wave or shout and we will open the gate.
No reservations needed, in fact we have no reservation system. Just show up. All sails are weather permitting. Email me (Tom Gibson, tgibson37@gmail.com) if you want to confirm a sail is happening.
This page will serve as a log for all sails, beginning with the first two, latest on top...
Crew sail: present were Charlie G., Carmela, Tom, John (skipper), Ray, Rick. Nice south breeze, 5-7 knots, with occasional lulls. Went to the middle of the deep basin and back. Rigging started at 4 pm with two new crew, Charlie G. (mizzen), and Carmella (main), Tom teaching. Sail started early and we returned to the T dock at OPM to pick up the 6 o'clock folk.
May 24
Crew sail: Present were Jim, John, Gwen, Carmela, Charlie G, Ray and Tom. Experienced crew showed new crew how to rig the boat. Tom (me) skippered. Wind very light. Sailed about 1/2 mile out and returned.
May 19, 2016
Pete's Banjo is in the water. Yesterday a crew of 9 (what a nice turnout) launched the boat, rowed about 1/2 mile to the marina, set the docking lines, and tied her up nicely. Excellent weather. Nice social afterwards.
We begin the public sails on Tuesday, May 31. If you found this page you probably have an "invite card" with the above logo and invitation. Come on down. We will give you a nice boat ride for about 90 minutes, followed by an optional social at some Red Bank bar/restaurant. You don't actually need an invite card, it is just an invitation, not a ticket. Whoever shows up at the appointed time and place gets the nice boat ride.
Where: Oyster Point Marina, at the Oyster Point Hotel down by the water.
Time: Tuesday evenings all summer starting May 31, 6 pm so you can come after work. Note that all sails are weather permitting.
No reservations, though. We do not have a reservation system. Just show up. We give priority to first timers and to those who drove a distance. Rarely have we had an overflow crowd, in which case we just had two short back-to-back sails.
SCROLL TO END FOR MORE INTO.
May 13, 2016
We should launch in a week or so. Minor work remains. Sails will be Tuesday evenings, 6pm, from Oyster Point Marina (see previous entry), and will end at about sun-down. Usually a bit of social afterwards.
I've handed out many "invite cards" with the above logo, etc. Its not a ticket, you needn't bring it. Just show up. Bring a friend or family member, or two, but not a crowd. No reservations, but we give preference to those who drove a distance. Rarely do we get too many, and when that happens we have two short sails, maybe half an hour each.
March 28, 2016
We are hosted again at Oyster Point Marina, foot of Bodman Place, Red Bank, NJ. Park on the street. Walk down to the water and to the right. Their are two docks, one pointing north across the river towards Middletown. That's us. We are the first boat on the dock, the only one with sail masts. If you see crew rigging for the sail wave your arms and we will come up and open the security gate.
OK, that's all nice, but when will all this start. My hoped for launch date is May 1 or thereabouts.
Spring fit out status
Very little maintenance needed, and that is a welcome change. But we do need to do a bit of work before launch. We need to finish the paint job, check the rigging, sails, uphauls, and a bit more. We need to finish the trailer rebuild which progressed nicely this winter. Mainly we need a couple of more Saturdays with warm and clear enough weather to do the painting. The last two Saturdays were a bit too cool.
Tom Gibson, garvey skipper
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SAILS when the weather permits and the boat is launched will be at...
WHERE: Red Bank, NJ, Foot of Bodman place (across rt 35 from Birravino's, down Bodman Place by the water).
WHEN: Summer one specific weekday evening, 6pm, at the dock pointing across the river towards Middletown. UPDATE, Tuesdays this summer (2016).
SPECIAL NOTES: The specific day of the week will be announced here about mid-May. (It changes every year.)
Sails are on a specific weekday evening after work. 6 pm we start rigging, and usually about 6:15 we are ready to go. It is best to be there at 6pm.
Sails last until about 20 minutes before sunset. In June and July that is usually 90+ minutes. Towards fall it shortens to about 60 minutes. Usually an optional social after the sail.
Tom Gibson, tgibson37@gmail.com <<-- ask question here.