Hudson River Sloop Clearwater from Rick Spilman on Vimeo.

The Clearwater is a Hudson River sloop modeled after the distinctive trading sloops that sailed up and down the Hudson in the 18th and 19th centuries.  The Clearwater was conceived by the folk singer, Pete Seeger, as a way to bring people down to the then very polluted Hudson River. For close to forty years the Clearwater has been a movable classroom, laboratory and stage as she has sailed up and down the vast tidal estuary that is the Hudson River south of Albany. 

Yesterday I was fortunate to tag along with my son’s seventh grade class at the Learning Community Charter School  as they spent three hours sailing and learning about the history, ecology and dynamics of the river and of the sloop.  The first thing they learned was that the main sail weighs over 3,000 pounds as all thirty of them pitched in to haul on the halyards to set the  almost 2,910 square foot gaff rigged main sail.    They also caught fish from the river, learned some history and got a chance to take a turn at the tiller.