Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Ready about, we're almost there!

Taylor Walker, one of the founders of Team Chance shows a kid the ropes aboard a Big Boat. Walker hopes to show many kids the ropes this season aboard the newest addition to the CCB fleet "Stealth" a 26' Evelyn.


In a move bringing us closer to our goal to reopen Bridgeport waters for all, CCB met with City Officials Monday to discuss plans to create a waterfront facility at 1 Stratford Ave in Bridgeport. With several approvals left at both the City and State level, it is far from a done deal, but big things move slowly and every move forward is a positive move towards a cleaner, healthier and more vibrant waterfront and Long Island Sound. We continue to work with City officials to devise a plan for the Sliver by The River and what we are terming, “The Bridgeport Boat Basin” located at the mouth of the Pequonnock River directly beneath the Bridgeport Transportation Center.

Once approved we will continue to grow our fleet and will offer College and high school sailing opportunities for Fairfield University and with luck the public high schools of the Greater Bridgeport region. We believe this facility will grow the ever-increasing tide of high school sailing in our local waters and continue the fastest growing trend in local high school sports.

 This comes in conjunction with a project we are working on in Eastern Long Island Sound, Team Chance. Tayor Walker and Jay Greenfield, college students, set to work last summer to build a new program in the CCB fleet. Their idea was to provide low income children with a chance to experience big boat racing at the helm of a performance sail boat and mentor the kids as sailors and racers. This weekend, Team Chance launched their little girl, a 26’ Evelyn Sailboat called “Stealth” and are preparing to visit at least a half dozen community boating centers around the region to give the kids of community boating a chance see what it’s like race on a go-fast boat and try to raise funds to support youth sailing and community boating. Team Chance and the crew will sail into Bridgeport aboard Stealth later this summer and hope to provide some local sailors with a chance to win the Park City Regatta.

This is a tack in a new direction for CCB. By intensifying our efforts to promote and participate in what we see as a growing trend for youth racing and sailing, a facet of sailing we have not previously delved into, we hope to further promote waterfront access for all. And with the huge growth this past spring in high school sailing in Fairfield County and the passions of our newest crewmates at Team Chance, we believe the waters of Connecticut have never looked better to provide every child with a chance to enjoy a day on the water.
Laser Radial Sailors from area high schools start with a signal from the Pequod at Pequot Yacht Club this past Saturday for the annual regional sailing competition, The Fairfield Cup. Fairfield Prep, a continual supporter and great friend of CCB, ranked second out of fleet of ten teams who competed in 420's , lasers and laser radials.
Congrats Prep on a strong showing and great season!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

CCB to announce course change this week.


We are preparing to begin a new chapter in the life of CCB tomorrow and will post  an announcement about our future plans for Connecticut and Long Island Sound after a day of meetings and discussions with the City, State and CCB Board of Directors. In the announcement we will share our plans to open public access to the waterways of Connecticut for every man, woman and child on both sides of the Connecticut River, east and west. We have discussed plans to modify our efforts to provide even greater public access to the water and will fomerly lay out our mission and plan following these meetings on Tueday morning at 10AM. In the meantime, please take a look at this video to understand a little of our inspiration for this course change and recommittment to our mission.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Annnnnnnnnd........We're back.

After weeks of being down, we decided it was time to renew the old look and work on a new one at the same time. You can see from the old content on this site that it has been down for sometime but we're back and ready to roll.

Our plan to start a whole new season in a new location is on the rocks this weekend, but it's Mother's Day so make sure your Mom has a happy one and we'll have all the details on the new plan to bring CCB to Bridgeport Harbor (hopefully) by Monday.