Sea Scout Boatswain Selected
The National Sea Scout Support
Committee selected Vanya Marie Keyes
of Huntington Beach, California, as the
National Sea Scout Boatswain for 2010-
2011. As youth representative for Sea
Scouts across the U.S., Keyes will serve
as the liaison with regional boatswains
and other
youth to help
promote Sea
Scouting.
She’s a member of Ship
90, Renegades,
Orange
County,
California, winner of the 2009
BoatU.S. Sea
Scout Flagship
Award. — R.L.
PHOTO MARK PERRY COLLECTION
Longer Leases Help Yacht
Clubs In Massachusetts
Massachusetts yacht clubs and boating facilities sited on state public lands
breathed a sigh of relief in March when a
law passed authorizing leases up to 30 years
versus the current system that requires
renegotiation after only five years. The
March 4 voice vote by the Massachusetts
Senate mirrored that taken last November
by the state House of Representatives and
spotlighted a nationwide problem of dwindling public waterfront access.
“This is good news for many yacht
clubs and private boating facilities in the
state because a 30-year lease allows them
to better plan and to make long-term
capital investments in the property,” said
state Sen. Thomas McGee, among the
bill’s supporters. Many of the facilities
affected -— including the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Boat House and the
Harvard University Sailing Pavilion, both
in Cambridge — were founded decades
ago and have constructed docks, floats,
gangways, storage buildings, clubhouses,
and other amenities. In addition to giving
the clubs more flexibility, the law assures
that these waterfront lands will remain free
from non-boating development. The loss
of boatyards and marinas to escalating land
prices and rampant waterfront development is a critical access issue for boaters in
Massachusetts and elsewhere.
The rift between the state and the
boating clubs came to a head in 2005
under then-Governor Mitt Romney, who
Continued on next page
he was once the queen of the ocean, a veri- table five-star floating palace transporting four U.S. presidents and international celebrities. But the SS United States, in ever-decaying retirement since 1969, may be headed for the ship breakers unless the grand- daughter of the naval architect who designed her can raise enough money to turn the ship into a tourist attraction. Considered one of the greatest ocean liners of all time “Big U” still holds the record for Atlantic crossings set on her 1952 maiden voyage with an average speed of 34. 5 knots. But now her once- bright red, white, and blue funnels are peeling paint in Philadelphia, and many feel her course towards the scrap yard is inevitable. That’s because the ship, owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines, which bought her along with the smaller SS Independence for an estimated $30 million in 2003, is so expensive to keep up. But Susan Gibbs, president of the SS United States Conservancy, is hoping to save the iconic ship designed by her grandfather, William Francis Gibbs. Constructed in secrecy at Newport News, Virginia, with Navy funding, the liner was revolutionary for her day. She was considered an important weapon for the Cold War. The ship could be converted into a troop transport capable of landing 14,000 soldiers in Europe in less than five days. Gibbs says the current owner listed the SS United States for sale in February ’09. “At that time, NCL stipulated the ship would only be sold to a U.S. entity and wouldn’t be sold for scrap,” she says. But these stipulations have xpired; the cruise line has opened the bid process to domestic scrap- ping companies. Her group hopes to raise funds to purchase the vessel. “The Conservancy’s goal is to acquire title to buy time to lay the groundwork for a large-scale public- private partnership to convert the ship into a multipurpose stationary attrac- tion in an urban waterfront setting,” says Gibbs. But time is running out, and costs are upwards of $700,000 per year. “If the ship was sold for scrap, the Conservancy would do everything in its power to sal- vage remaining items of historical value and conduct a thorough documentation of the vessel for archival purposes,” said Gibbs. — Ann Dermody S
REPORTS
BoatU.S.
Is Time Running
Out For The
SS United States?
