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Learning to sail on the Charles River
Have you ever seen sailboats on the Charles River or Boston Harbor and thought, “How can I get on one of those?” As a matter of fact, you don’t need to know a sailor or own a sailboat to go sailing in Boston. But there are a few things you’ll need to do — including taking lessons — before you can take the helm. WBUR’s Hanna Ali met up with Sam Peirson of Community Boating (@sailcbi) to learn more about the do’s and don’ts of learning to sail.
Golden hour on the Charles hits different
@sailcbi the oldest and largest public sailing organization in the United States with a mission of Sailing for all. I joined a few years back to learn how to sail & it’s now my favorite summer night activity… mostly for the sunset views.
The intro membership starts at $99 where you can take lessons and unlimited boats out! Annual membership is just $450 and includes kayaks, paddle boards and sailing!
Click to watch videos: golden hour, boating experiences not to miss
June 20: The Charles River will host a 24-hour sailboat celebration and dock festival in Boston
Community Boating, Inc. will mark its 80th anniversary with a Summer Kickoff Party and Sailathon Celebration on the Charles River, bringing together members, alumni, and supporters for an evening of festivities and fundraising. The event coincides with the organization’s first-ever 24-hour Sailathon, highlighting its longstanding mission to make sailing accessible to all.
24-hour sail-a-thon kicking off on Charles River in Boston
24-hour sail-a-thon is kicking off on the Charles River in Boston on Saturday.
A sailor’s life for you: A beginner’s guide to sailing in Boston
The water surrounding Boston is dotted with sailboats year-round, and now that summer’s nearly begun, you’re sure to see plenty of them cruising through the Charles River and Boston Harbor on pleasant, breezy days.
The question is: How can you get on one?
As a matter of fact, you don’t need to know a sailor or own a sailboat to go sailing in Boston. (You will have to take a few classes, though.) Once you’ve gotten started, it’s a skill you can hone over time and enjoy for summers to come, according to local sailing instructors.
“We have people who in one season go from complete beginners to sailing in high wind conditions, sailing on more advanced boats,” said Anna Braun, education and volunteer manager at the Boston nonprofit Community Boating Incorporated. “So, if you’re really dedicated to it and you come a decent amount, I would say you can become a good sailor in a season.”
Anita, electric-solar boat prototype, makes appearance on Charles River
Sailing enthusiasts will get a preview this weekend of a solar-electric boat that’s due to launch later this year.
Why it matters: James Worden, a solar industry leader and MIT alum, is pioneering solar design and manufacturing for the sea.
State of play: North Andover-based Worden Marine plans to send its 20-foot prototype to Community Boating Inc. for the organization’s 80th anniversary party and sail-a-thon Saturday and Sunday, a year after first showing it at MIT.
The boat will carry a small group of media and VIP guests on the Charles River to get a closer look at the sail-a-thon, a 24-hour sailboat regatta with 10 teams.
The events, including, the 80th Anniversary Dock Party, is part of CBI’s fundraising efforts for its junior sailing program and universal access program for youth and people with disabilities.
What does it take to overnight on the Charles ?
You’ve probably spotted their bright pink sails from Memorial Drive. Usually, they pack it up once the sun begins to set — but not this weekend.
Starting Saturday at 10 a.m., sailors from Community Boating Inc. will ping-pong across the Charles River for 24 hours, in commemoration of the club’s 80th anniversary. Eight teams will compete in the first-of-its-kind regatta, each raising funds to benefit the club’s inclusive sailing programs, which are designed to open up the sport to sailors of all ages, incomes and abilities.
Executive Director Kate Ferris Richardson says that if this year’s relay goes well, she hopes to bring back the event annually. Last week, she walked us through what it takes to traverse the Charles after dark.
Community Boating marks 80-years with 24-hour Sail-a-thon on the Charles
The oldest public sailing organization in the U.S., Community Boating, Inc., will celebrate its 80th birthday beginning Saturday, June 20, with a 24-hour Sail-a-thon on the Charles River to support CBI’s continuing mission of providing equitable access to sailing for people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.
For the Sail-a-thon, participants assigned to a specific boat will sail around the Charles River for a full 24 hours beginning at 10 a.m. on June 20, completing as many laps as possible in this time to raise funds to support CBI’s youth and adaptive programs.
“You choose your boat, put your team together, and keep your boat going on the river for 24 hours,” said Kate Ferris Richardson, CBI’s executive director, during a recent video call.
Community Boating Inc. marks 80 years with 24-hour sail-a-thon on the Charles River
For 80 years, Community Boating Inc, better known around the waters of Boston, Massachusetts, as the CBI, has been making it possible for kids to enjoy a sport that would not have been accessible to them.
“You can still get a $1 membership here,” said Kate Ferris, the organization’s executive director.
The CBI helps kids interested in sailing have an outlet (or an inlet) for their interests.
Click to read more and watch video. Additional video coverage here and here.
The Perfect Speaker Match
The perfect event speaker can energize a conference, ignite a sales retreat or turn a routine meeting into a moment people talk about for years. A misaligned speaker, however, can flatten the energy, confuse the message and leave attendees wondering why they showed up at all.
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Bobbie Carlton, founder of Innovation Women, reinforces this idea with a practical lens. She asks, “Does the speaker offer actionable takeaways, not just ideas and concepts?”
She also stresses the importance of frameworks, the structured thinking that helps speakers communicate ideas clearly and efficiently. She asks, “Does the speaker have a framework that allows them to efficiently communicate their ideas?”
In short: the best speakers don’t just talk, they equip the audience with meaningful takeaways.
Community Boating Inc. celebrates 80th anniversary with first-ever 24-hour Sail-a-thon
Community Boating, Inc. (CBI), the nation’s oldest and most accessible public sailing organizations, is marking its 80th anniversary with a unique new event: a 24-hour Sail-a-thon on the Charles River designed to rally sailors, teams, and supporters around its mission of “Sailing for All.” Taking place June 20–21, the Sail-a-thon is a continuous, team-based endurance challenge in which participants will sail around the Charles River for a full 24 hours, completing as many laps as possible while raising funds to support CBI’s youth and adaptive programs.
Sail Boston 250 is coming up. Here’s where to learn to sail.
Witness over 25 countries’ tall ships as they sail into Boston Harbor by learning how to sail yourself.
Ahead of the six-day bicentennial event, numerous sailing schools around the Boston area offer courses for all skill levels.
Located on the Charles River, Community Boating Inc. provides a variety of level-based sailing programs for both adults and youth. A membership is required for all adult classes.
A Midnight Sail On The Charles: Community Boating Hosts ‘Midnight Regatta’ With Special 24 Hour Sail-A-Thon For One Night In Boston
We’ve all heard about a “night at the museum,” and recently, a night at the aquarium, but how about a night on the Charles under a starry Boston sky?
The nation’s oldest public sailing program, Community Boating Inc., nestled on the Boston side of the Charles River Esplanade, is hosting a 24 hour “Sail-athon” this summer, including a midnight sail!
Women’s History Month: Women Leaders On The Power Of Sharing Your Story
According to Bizzabo, two-thirds of all conference speakers are men. This leaves women out of important career and business opportunities, because speaking is a path to pay equity, equal funding for women-founded companies, and more women in the board room and C-suite, says Bobbie Carlton, founder of Innovation Women. Carlton says she made it her mission to get more women speaking opportunities after having a job that placed speakers on stages for nearly 40 years, and not having a single woman client in the first 20 years of her career.
Mass. Innovation Nights returns after 6-year hiatus with Museum of Science partnership
For 11 years, Massachusetts Innovation Nights hosted an in-person pitch-and-networking event every month—until the pandemic hit.
While Covid kept everyone indoors, that 11-year streak came to an end. Eventually, its online events also came to a halt, and Mass. Innovation Nights went into hibernation.
Now, more than six years after its last event, Mass. Innovation Nights is making its in-person comeback.
Before its hiatus, the series of events was a free, monthly product‑launch showcase where Boston‑area startups and established companies could debut new products, get visibility through social media, and connect with the broader innovation community.
The event series will return to the Museum of Science on April 15, as part of a continued partnership that will run through the rest of the year.
FORGE awards grants to help Connecticut startups move from prototype to production
STRATFORD — From a spare room in their New Haven apartment, Clémence Bruguier and her boyfriend developed two medical devices they hope will revolutionize breast care.
“It’s very simple, it’s very cheap, because we want people to be able to use it often at scale,” Bruguier said of their first marketed product, a nitrile cup that helps women do more thorough breast checks at home.On Thursday, Bruguier walked away with a $62,978 check from manufacturing accelerator FORGE to help her company, Mirabelle Medical, get to the next level.
“This funding is literally life-changing,” Bruguier said. “We’re going to go from our five prototypes to being able to create our products and send them to our customers.”
On Thursday, Bruguier walked away with a $62,978 check from manufacturing accelerator FORGE to help her company, Mirabelle Medical, get to the next level.
“This funding is literally life-changing,” Bruguier said. “We’re going to go from our five prototypes to being able to create our products and send them to our customers.”
Mirabelle Medical was one of three startups to receive Make It Here: CT Product Development Grant awards from FORGE after the most competitive contest ever in the nonprofit’s three-year history in Connecticut, President Laura Teicher said.
This CT nonprofit is getting startups through the ‘valley of death’
FORGE, Dellal says, was crucial to providing early developmental advice. The organization also provided funding, giving Floe some financial support after the startup won an audience choice award at a manufacturing and innovation showcase in 2020.
So when Dellal and another Floe executive moved to Connecticut to start their engineering Ph.D.s at Yale, the startup CEO was worried that leaving Massachusetts and FORGE would become a setback for the business.
Fate, however, had different plans. FORGE announced a move into Connecticut in 2023, spreading its work helping startups and other companies further into New England. In the years since, the organization has partnered with the state’s Office of Manufacturing to support startups in an effort to fix a trio of connected issues: boosting Connecticut’s manufacturing industry among young workers, helping provide advice and support to innovators working with emerging technologies, and providing funding to early stage CT-based startups that often struggle to access capital and make the leap into local manufacturing and, ideally, full-scale production.