Rocky Hill sailing team loses boat, now has new fleet

By Ashlee Reyes
Posted 4/7/16

By ASHLEE REYES

Rocky Hill School has raised enough money in a “Jump on Board” campaign to fund an entire new fleet of seven boats for their sailing team, “The Marines.”

Last season, …

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Rocky Hill sailing team loses boat, now has new fleet

Posted

By ASHLEE REYES

Rocky Hill School has raised enough money in a “Jump on Board” campaign to fund an entire new fleet of seven boats for their sailing team, “The Marines.”

Last season, two sailboats collided, resulting in one of them sinking. In order for a sailing team to be effective, the school needed to get another boat. At first the plan was to raise enough money to make repairs to the fleet as well as get another 420 sailboat. Then the campaign changed to replace the entire fleet.

This campaign began this past fall with a $50,000 goal, each boat costing approximately $7,000. The campaign went better than expected and the school raised more than $90,000, which allowed them to use any extra money raised to provide the team with things such as new life jackets, dollies, dock upgrades and repairs.

The new boats have been given names coined by the donors who matched the worth of each boat. They are named Branch Office, Candy, Challenger, Defender, Lada Wind, Oracle USA-17 and Reveille.

Rocky Hill has a recreational sailing team in the fall and a competitive team in the spring. Their competitive sailing team has a number of 10 to 12 members annually. The school has had a sailing team since 1959 when then Head of School Nathan Hale purchased dinghies.

Rob Lee, Ben Greenwood, John Hughes, Sean Tinsley and Michael Chatterley currently coach this year’s team. The Marines compete annually against other Rhode Island high schools including East Greenwich, Providence Country Day and Portsmouth High School.

This campaign was collectively put together by the school administration and faculty, receiving an overwhelming amount of support from students, alumni and donors, according to Communications Director, Peter Hanney. “If a team loses one boat, you lose the team entirely,” said Hanney, so this campaign was a must.

Historically, boats have been christened with champagne bottles being broken over the boats.

“We are a school who also cares about our environment, so we will not be breaking any champagne bottles, we will be sprinkling small amounts of champagne over each boat,” said Hanney.

The christening will occur this upcoming Tuesday, April 12 at 2:45 at the school’s dock, located on 530 Ives Road in Potowomut. This will be the third attempt to christen the boats. Early plans were postponed on two occasions because of April snow.

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