$10 Buys A Surplus Sailboat Fleet For Sea Scouts

[RememberSchiff]

http://onlineathens.com/breaking-news/2015-07-15/athens-clarke-surplus-sailboats-go-local-sea-scouts

 

Athens, Georgia

Eight sailboats — six 8-foot craft, a 10-foot model and a 14-foot boat, will go to Sea Scout Ship 444, sponsored by the Winterville Civitan Club. Sea Scouts are a co-ed program of the Boy Scouts of America, and while Ship 444 already has boats at its disposal, the 8-foot Optimist sailboats work well as training vessels, according to Michele Matthews, an adult leader of Ship 444.

 

And, she said, the smaller craft work well on smaller bodies of water such as Lake Chapman at Athens-Clarke County’s Sandy Creek Park, where they’re based, and where both morning and evening breezes provide opportunities for sailing.

 

The boats go to the Sea Scout group through the Winterville Civitan Club, which will pay the county a token $10 for the vessels, Denson said.

As part of the deal, Sea Scout Ship 444, along with the associated Boy Scout Troop 44 and Venture Crew 44, which will also have access to the boats, must agree to make the sailboats available to other organizations that may want to borrow them, Matthews said. Among the details that remain to be worked out in the deal is how much the Scout groups can charge the other organizations for using the sailboats, Matthews added, explaining the groups would like to charge a small fee to cover ongoing maintenance and upkeep costs for the vessels.

 

My son trained on a small Optimist when he was younger than 11. Sounds like a deal and the beginning of a boat rental business.

 

Our troop has had to turn down deals or freebies, e.g. old canoes, simply because we did not have the storage capacity.

[jr56]

Sounds like a really good deal for youth programs.

[qwazse]

Sounds like a lot of work for the kids.

I approve!