Left to right, top row: Skip Gmeiner (accepting for L. Frances Herreshoff); Miriam O’Day, Olaf Harken, Peter Harken Sitting: Harry Anderson, Trice Kilroy, Nat Bowditch, Jean Eichenlaub (Photo Credit NSHOF/Marcin Chumiecki).
Michigan, the Great Lakes State, was a fitting location as The National Sailing Hall of Fame (NSHOF) gathered for the fourth time in the organization’s history to fulfill its mission to recognize Americans who have made outstanding contributions to the sport of sailing. Eight of the sport of sailing’s significant contributors, as members of the 2014 Class of Inductees, were inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame at ceremonies that were the culmination of a weekend of activities co-hosted by Bayview and Detroit Yacht Clubs.
Bayview YC kicked off the weekend by hosting a Q&A session for junior sailors with National Sailing Hall of Fame Inductees. A standing room only crowd of close to 100 junior sailors – from local clubs and community programs – peppered the Inductees with questions before having one-on-one time with them prior to getting out on the water to race.
As a result of holding the 2014 Induction in Detroit, the NSHOF will leave a local legacy with Detroit’s University Prep Academy. As the first of 10 schools around the nation slated to implement the NSHOF’s Learning Math & Science Through Sailing initiative, students at University Prep will receive academic credit and benefit from the experience of 1,500 students who participated in the pilot program in Annapolis, Md. The NSHOF initiative began four years ago and aims to feed into the national STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) curriculum which will improve the future competitiveness of students as skilled workers and qualified candidates for high-tech jobs.”
Detroit YC, whose history dates to 1868, located in Belle Isle State Park, was the setting for the formal Induction of the class of 2014, which was full of laughs, as well as tears.
As Gary Jobson, NSHOF President, pointed out, the common thread uniting the eight Inductees – including a mathematician, a historian, an engineer, a naval architect and an Olympic Gold Medalist – was their service to the sport. “They made sailing better for so many people,” said Jobson.
The eight sailing legends celebrated for their impact on the sport: Yachtsman, historian and senior statesman of the sport Henry H. “Harry” Anderson, Jr. (Newport, R.I./Mystic, CT); mathematician and navigator Nathaniel Bowditch (Salem, MA); boat builder and U.S. Olympic Sailing Team boatwright Carl Eichenlaub (San Diego, CA); brothers Olaf Harken and Peter Harken (both Pewaukee, WI), respectively, boat builder and sailing hardware designer; naval architect and prolific writer L. Francis Herreshoff (Bristol, RI/Marblehead, MA); 1960 5.5 Metre Olympic Gold Medalist and boat builder George O’Day (Brookline, MA/Dover, MA); and Grand Prix yachtsman John B. “Jim” Kilroy (Marina del Rey, CA)
Courtesy of sailingscuttlebutt.com
