Craft Of Sail
Learn and enjoy big-boat sailing with a master.
Originally from midcoast Maine, Arista Holden grew up sailing in various traditional small craft throughout Penobscot Bay, She is a captain and long-time seamanship instructor for adult and youth programs including Outward Bound, the National Outdoor Leadership School, Atlantic Challenge Team USA, the Nova Scotia Sea School, the Viking boat Polaris, and Morse Alpha Expeditions. A student of languages, culture and craft, Arista has traveled, sailed, taught, and studied all over the world. Just last year, she sailed 800 miles of the Norwegian coast in a 42′ square-rigged femboring with Fosen Folkehogskole (Folk School). Arista holds a B.A. from Hampshire College, current Wilderness First Responder and CPR certifications, and a 50-ton Master’s captain’s license.
MISTY is one of the famed 39′ Concordia yawls built at Abeking and Rasmussen in Germany for the Concordia Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Designed by Ray Hunt and Waldo Howland in 1939, the 39s served as family cruisers and successful bluewater racers, and are known for their intricate construction details, beautiful proportions, and grace on the water. MISTY spent 45 of her 52 years on the Great Lakes in the care of one loving family who raced her successfully. She’s received excellent care over the years, and has never needed a major rebuild. Her layout and details are original. Her yawl rig provides many strings to pull to adjust her sails to perfection. MISTY is easy to sail in nearly all conditions, because none of her sails are too large to handle.
Queene Hooper Foster taught herself how to sail by reading books and studying the photographs of Morris and Stanley Rosenfeld. Right out of college she purchased a boat and learned to sail the hard way. She continued her education by sailing annually to Maine from the Chesapeake Bay, participating in the early classic yacht events in Newport, Rhode Island and in Maine. She has sailed in numerous Newport to Bermuda Races, always in classic wooden boats, and was the first woman to skipper her own boat in the that famous ocean race. Sailing for the New York Yacht Club in her Aage Nielsen Ketch SAPHAEDRA, Queene sailed across the Atlantic to Cowes, England and was the only woman skipper to race in the America’s Cup Jubilee. She and her international crew received a Third Place Trophy from Princess Anne for the week of competition. Her career has been in publishing in New York City, specializing in marine titles, including Chapman’s Guide to Boating Etiquette, a detailed guide to boating traditions. Queene is an experienced sailing instructor and these days enjoys being out under sail on her Concordia yawl MISTY.
VITAL SPARK is a Bill Harris–designed Concordia 31′ ketch built by the Concordia Company in 1964. She features a large catboat-style cockpit and 6’2” headroom below decks. Her interior is fashioned from butternut and aromatic Massachusetts cedar, and her hull is northern white cedar on white oak frames. She is a particularly well-balanced and comfortable sailer, carrying almost 550 sq. ft. of sail, and very much at home on the waters of the Eggemoggin Reach and Jericho Bay.
Ross Beane fell in love with boats and the ocean right here on the coast of Maine as a kid. Now a captain by trade, he spends his time in waters from the Caribbean Windward Islands to Madagascar’s Mozambique Channel but returns whenever he can to his favorite cruising grounds of all, right here in Downeast Maine. Ross is a former Jewell Island caretaker for the Maine Island Trail Association. He was WoodenBoat School’s Assistant Waterfront Manager in 2010 and received numerous accolades from both sailing instructors and students for his teaching style. A constant outdoorsman, a student of wilderness emergency medicine, and a certified “leave no trace” trainer, Ross enjoys sharing his passion for exploring the Maine coast under sail with anyone who will listen.
LEVERA was designed by naval architect K. Aage Nielsen and built to exceptionally high standards by the Paul E. Luke yard in East Boothbay, ME in 1966. As a 41′ keel/centerboard sloop she placed second in her class during the 1968 Newport to Bermuda race, and when you sail aboard her, you’ll understand why – she’s fast, seaworthy, and balanced, all-the-while in comfort, style, and grace. LEVERA’s hull is double-planked mahogany with laminated frames makes her strong. Her sloop rig makes her efficient, and her roomy cockpit makes it all enjoyable. LEVERA offers a comfortable, safe, stunning platform as students learn the finer points of big boat sailing along the picturesque Maine coast.
Tuition: $825
Note: These are five day courses ending Friday evening.
Craft Of Sail is for folks who have some previous sailing experience, whether it comes from a seamanship program or personal involvement with boats. The course is designed for those who want to improve their skills on the water, particularly in the context of a cruising-sized vessel. Subjects include sail theory, hull and rig balance, helmsmanship, piloting in clear weather and fog, approaching and leaving floats and moorings, knots and rigging, man-overboard strategy, handling ground tackle, crew management; and, with those of our vessels that have power plants, maneuvering under power, and the rudiments of auxiliary engines and navigation instruments.
The seaman aspires to the mastery of many subjects, but the essence of the craft of sail is sea sense: the ability to tune in to a boat, the weather, and the crew, and apply good judgment so that all work together. Our instructors understand this, and they will help you to acquire that sense by sharing their own experiences and by encouraging you to think and feel a boat through various real and “what if” situations. With a maximum of five students, there is plenty of opportunity to ask questions and try tricks at the helm. There are numerous sailing schools out there, but few offer experience in cruising/charter-sized vessels like these—and none that we know of offer instruction by such experienced sailors on such lovely yachts.
