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SEAS History
Since 1975
In 1975, Andy Orgonik, a member of the High
Life Ski Club, together with other members of
the Ski Club, decided to teach a sailing class
as a summer activity.
The ski club still exists (5/07) and meets at
the Exchange Restaurant in Rockaway, NJ.
Andy was a certified Red Cross Basic Sailing
Instructor and Instructor Trainer and he spent
the winter working with interested members of
the ski club to enable them to begin the sailing
program.
In the spring, members of the club brought
their own boats to a nearby lake to teach the
class. They also had the use of a boat belonging
to the Morristown Red Cross.
The class was successful and some of the
members decided to continue the practice by
forming an organization of volunteers to teach
safe sailing to the public. Thus, The Society
for the Education of American Sailors (SEAS) was
born.
Initially, member's boats and student's boats
were used but it was soon discovered that we
could not rely on this source of boats and
needed to purchase our own.
The fledgling sailing club used dues money and
borrowed money (from the membership) to build a
fleet of sailing craft, trucks, trailers and
other items to enable them to move from lake to
lake in the region so as to offer the service to
the public, primarily in Morris County, NJ.
Basic sailing classroom sessions were held in
various locations and Round Valley Reservoir,
Spruce Run Reservoir, Lake Hopatcong, Lake
Musconetcong, Budd Lake, Mountain Lake and other
local lakes were used for the water sessions.
SEAS began racing after acquiring a fleet of 8
Phantom lateen rigged boats. We towed those
boats from place to place on a trailer called
"The Christmas Tree." Race locations included
Atlantic Highlands, NJ, Skaneateles, NY (one of
the finger lakes), Candlewood Lake, CT, Lake
Hopatcong, NJ, Cooper River in Collingswood, NJ,
East End Mini Yacht Club, St. Georges, Bermuda,
and Annapolis, MD (in a 24 hr. relay race
against the Navy, and a collection of drinking
establishment teams).
Meetings were held at a restaurant in Denville,
NJ and, eventually, in the Parsippany, NJ
Library.
The club grew. Circa 1978 - 1979 SEAS began
sponsoring club charter cruises, in Long Island
Sound and in Chesapeake Bay. In 1979 some of the
members flew to Tortola, B.V.I. where they
chartered 3 44' CSY cutters to explore the
British and U.S. Virgin Islands. The large boat
charter tradition continues to this day, with
charters in the Virgins, San Juan Islands, Sea
of Cortez (Gulf of California), Tahiti, New
Zealand, the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Florida
Keys, the Caribbean Windward and Leeward Islands
and other exotic places.
The club continued to grow. It soon became
clear that we needed to re-think our basic club
structure. We decided to form several local
chapters and a national organization to
coordinate inter-chapter operations. The
original SEAS became the Morris Chapter, with
the Bergen Chapter forming soon thereafter. The
Bergen Chapter arranged to procure space in the
Alpine Boat Basin to store and sail their boats.
Unfortunately, the Hudson River at the Alpine
Boat Basin location experiences a 4 1/2 knot
current, which makes the teaching of basic
sailing a real challenge.
The Bergen and Morris chapters joined forces to
teach a class for IBM employees. We had a large
(over 100) class and we held the water session
on the Hudson River, at Georges Island Park,
upriver of Croton Point, where the current was
less strong. We assembled a large fleet of
boats, of various descriptions and rigs and
(somehow) made it all work. Shortly thereafter,
the Westchester Chapter was formed.
The Westchester Chapter taught their classroom
sessions in the White Plains ARC Chapter and
held their water sessions in various lakes, and
ponds in Westchester County, and on Long Island
Sound. The Chapter was able to acquire space in
Tarrytown, NY in an unused Men's dressing room
in a County Park bathhouse on the Hudson River,
their current location.
Several years later, the Monmouth, NJ chapter
was formed.
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