The Beacon Sloop Club is raising money to restore the Hudson River ferry sloop, Woody Guthrie. G Since 1978, the sloop Woody Guthrie has given thousands of people their first experience on a sailboat and their first experience of the beauties of the Hudson River and the surrounding mountains from the vantage point of her deck, all for free, at no charge. The Woody Guthrie is a 46 foot gaff-rigged, traditional wooden sailboat similar in vintage to the Hudson River sloop Clearwater. Smaller than the sloops that sailed up and down the river, the Woody is a replica of a Hudson River Ferry Sloop, that ferried folks and cargo from one side of the river to the other.
The Beacon Sloop Club has raised $200,000 of the estimated $400,000 needed to do a complete restoration on the boat and needs your help in reaching the final $200,000. Click here to help them reach their goal.
Where’s the Woody – Fundraising Video from Jodie Childers on Vimeo.
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I’m a plank owner on the Ferry Sloop “Woody Guthrie.” In the spring of 1978 was one of the crew on her maiden voyage that took her from the Rondout Creek in Kingston, NY, where her keel first touched the water, down to her home port in Beacon. It was the first time I’d met Pete Seeger; a mutual friend, Rachel Gatland, had put us in touch, telling Pete I was a sailor with experience on the Hudson and in the Caribbean. Pete needed crew for the transit and I was signed on. Sailing with Pete was the start of a friendship that lasted decades and has been one of the formative experiences in my life. The song you hear on the fundraising video is my friend and fellow Hudson River Sloop Singer, Rick Nestler, singing his great song, “The River That Flows Both Ways.” I hope you will support the worthwhile effort of restoring the “Woody” as we plan to. She’s being restored at the Hudson River Maratime Museum on the Rondout, only a short distance from where she was launched.
“Being on this river always makes my spirits rise
Sailing on the Woody Guthrie cuts my troubles down to size
Thanks to the Captain and my hat’s off to the crew
That came to volunteer tonight and sail this boat for you.”
I wrote these words for the crew of the Woody. Some of the best times
in my life were on this boat. Now that we’re living in the Rockies, we have
a red sunscreen for some shade — but the COLOR was purposely chosen to remind us of those good times with my captains: Pete Seeger, Carol Cina, Tom LaBarr, Steve Schwarz and Kip Touraine among others, and of course, all the members of the crew. I’ll post the whole song “Hudson River Breeze” on the Woody’s Facebook page, but you can get it at http://www.greatblueduo.com. I truly hope you can use it to raise more funds. Pete and Toshi’s vision lives in all of us, most of all in the people who work so hard to sail that boat, with love, for free.