niantic bay yacht club

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NIANTIC BAY YACHT CLUB

photo by John Rousmaniere

Niantic Bay Yacht Club, Niantic, CT, founded in 1940 and which, soon after, welcomed its first of many Atlantic Class One Designs, enjoys a rich history of the development of a fair share of National and world class sailors. With an outstanding Junior program (open to non-members), convenient launching and docking facilities, quick access to open water, and a depth of race management talent, NBYC offers a great place for training and the hosting of many regional and national racing events. The cruising clubs within NBYC, the beach, bath house and large parking areas help to offer enjoyment for the whole family. Atlantic and other one design class races are held every Saturday and Sunday from Memorial Day to Labor Day, frostbite racing to mid-December, and a Wednesday night series open to anything with a sail. There are currently nine active racing Atlantics at NBYC.  

Deputy Fleet Captain: Norm Peck III,  [email protected]

Club website: http://nbyc.org

Street address: 8 Shore Rd., Niantic, CT 06357

Telephone: (860) 739-0558

Niantic Bay Yacht Club

Stories from the Niantic Bay Yacht Club

The Niantic Bay Yacht Club

8 Shore Rd, Niantic, CT 06357 Website: www: nbyc.org

Website: www.nbyc.org

In addition to season series and weekend racing the club has hosted many national and regional championship regattas for the Optimist, International 420, International 505, Lightning, Ensign and Atlantic Classes.

In the 1930s young racing enthusiasts were racing their Zips and other small boats off the beaches on the western shores of Niantic Bay. They organized informally in 1938, gained the support of their parents and others who were seasonal visitors to the shore, invited others to race with them, and were recognized by the Eastern Connecticut Yacht Racing Association. World War II intervened but racing continued and at the end of the war a small vacant lot was purchased at Tyler Point, the site of an old steamboat wharf and a hotel that had burned down in 1913. A modest club house was built and commissioned on July 4th, 1947.

Over the years more land was purchased, the clubhouse expanded, a breakwater and docks installed, swimming and sailing programs developed, and a reputation earned as a hospitable club with good sailors. Within the breakwater basin there are slips for about 75 boats, and there is a large mooring area. The club has dry sail boat area with 2 launching cranes and a ramp for launching dinghies.

There is a strong  junior sailing program that has produced many national champions and All American collegiate sailors, and the club has recently helped form the Niantic Bay Sailing Academy which will take over its junior program and expand it.

The club is seasonal operating from May thru October, has a galley and dining area and a large outdoor tented pavilion. There is an active social program supporting the club's boating activities.

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Niantic Bay Yacht Club hosts Atlantic National Championship Series

The Atlantic National Championship Series was held Friday, Aug. 12, 2022, at the Niantic Bay Yacht Club in East Lyme.

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Eight-week ‘Adventure Sailing’ Program in Niantic Bay Offers Entree to the Water

— Emilia Otte, 7.14.2022

How many teenagers does it take to raise a sail? 

Late on Thursday morning, on a sailboat floating in Niantic Bay, four boys are hovering around a set of ropes and a crank, trying to figure it out. 

“Is the top of the main halyard connected to the head of the sail?” interjects Sara Beth Bouchard, one of the instructors. “You’re not going to pull it up if it’s under the winch.”

It’s a busy day on the water.  The Larry White regatta, a race drawing about 100 young people from across southeastern Connecticut is being hosted by the Niantic Bay Yacht Club.

But the boys on the sailboat — christened the “Effie” — are trying something different: they are learning how to tie knots, how to raise sails, how to gauge the wind, and picking up general advice for how to survive long periods at sea. 

Their work is part of an eight-week summer program called Adventure Sailing, which teaches young people basic sailing skills combined with scientific and environmental knowledge. It’s the club’s first year offering this type of program. 

One of the teens, 15-year-old Max Savin, a student at the Williams School, said he wants to join the Coast Guard. Learning basic boat maintenance and navigational techniques — like how to use a compass — are things he sees as potentially valuable for his future ambitions.

Savin said he loves the experience of being out on the water, smelling the sea breeze and hearing the waves. He also said that he felt working in the Coast Guard, where he’d be doing things like making sure drugs didn’t enter the country, was preferable to being in the Navy or the Army. 

“To me it’s more important than going out and killing other people,” he said, adding that additional killing tends to “cause more war.” 

Another teenager, 14-year-old Logan Tomarchio, who goes to Norwich Tech and said he’s interested in working in plumbing, said he was used to going out on boats with his father. 

“Last year, me and my dad, we just sailed for hours,” said Tomarchio, adding that it was both hands-on and peaceful. 

Pam Woodruff, the program director, said she created the program for Niantic using a combination of STEM and math lessons and curriculum from U.S. Sail — and she said other clubs in the area have similar programs. Woodruff, a teacher in Manchester’s Alternative Education program, said the summer program was an alternative for children who didn’t want to race and was more “accessible” for children that don’t have any sailing background or knowledge. 

“Just throwing a kid in a dinghy … doesn’t really foster lifelong learning,” added Woodruff.

She said that at least half of the students who were enrolled in the program had never been on boats before. 

This was the case for Troi Trickett, a freshman at Waterford High School.

“It got me out of the house and just seemed interesting,” said Trickett, who hopes to become a carpenter.  

Others have sailed for years but shied away from the competitive aspect of sailing.

“I feel like the water’s supposed to be calming,” said 13-year-old Nick Brothers, who started sailing when he was six or seven years old. 

Ken Shluger, the president of the Niantic Bay Sailing Academy , said a program like adventures, which is more focused on “team effort” helps stave off some of the burnout he’s seen in young sailors. 

The first week, Woodruff said, the kids made anemometers and wind indicators. Last week, they were given a single propane grill and told they had to use it to cook a meal — a reflection of the small kitchen space in a typical sailboat. The teens made pancakes and Thai Stew. They have also made eco-friendly reusable wraps out of fabric and beeswax, and they built boats out of clay and aluminum to learn about buoyancy. 

“We’re trying to get them a lot more of the background that good sailors have,” she said. 

At around 11, the boys pile into a launch and pilot the small boat out to the Effie.

The boys will be spending most of the afternoon out on the sea, and they’ve brought provisions — which, for fourteen-year-old boys, mean Brisk Iced Tea and bags of Doritos. 

Once onboard, the first task of the day is to get the sail up. It takes a little finessing. 

“Do NOT sky anything. Please . Do not sky anything,” Bouchard tells them. She explains that “skying” is pulling up the rope without the sail being fully attached. If that happens, she said, they won’t be able to get the rope to come back down. 

After the sail is raised successfully, the boys sit down and start practicing knot-tying with some of the loose ropes. When Bouchard sees Nick Brothers complete a bowlin, one of the more complicated knots but particularly useful for securing things on boats, she pumps her fist. 

Bouchard, a junior studying chemistry and microbiology at Wesleyan University, said that sailing was, like many sports, historically dominated by men. But she said that the sport actually has an advantage for women — it doesn’t require excessive physical strength. 

“What’s nice about sailing is there’s no physical limitations,” said Bouchard.

Bouchard said that she’d like to see more girls in the program. Their single female participant was competing in the regatta that day, leaving them with an all-male crew. 

Bouchard said that the day’s itinerary will be a discussion about trash, and how long it takes to break down. She’s brought along samples of things you might find in the ocean — a plastic fork, glass bottles, a biodegradable plastic bag … and the now ubiquitous surgical mask. 

After that, they might practice  “man overboard” drills. If they are good, she said, she’ll let them be the man overboard. It’s hot. They could use a swim. Finally, she’s brought along two books of murder mysteries. She’s picked out all the boat-related ones.

The boat’s owner, Robert Shook, is helping the teens get the sails up and steer the boat. He shows them how to work the throttle for the motor. They need it today — the wind is quiet. 

Shook makes his living working as a captain on a private yacht, performing maintenance on the boat and sailing it back and forth from the East Coast to different Caribbean Islands. New York to Bermuda takes four days, he said. Bermuda to the U.S. Virgin Islands, seven. 

Shook has been sailing since he was seven, and he credits the sport with requiring “mental toughness.” 

“These kids are as young as eight years old and they are going out on their own,” he said. “Most of any toughness and determination I have come from this.”

He added that programs like this show children opportunities they might not have thought about for careers in the government or the private sector that require nautical skills — careers that for a long time have been closed off and accessible only to the privileged. Shook referred to it as an “old boys club.” 

Other potential careers include driving tankers or working in commercial shipping.

“All the little tugs … they all need captains,” he said, adding that those jobs offered good benefits and time off. 

There’s also the historic connection to exploration. Woodruff said that she’s amazed by the Polynesian explorers who went out on enormous stretches of water without any land in sight and had to navigate. 

“People have been sailing for centuries,” said Woodruff, adding that it gave them “that sense of self-sufficiency and exploration.” 

Moana, the Polynesian protagonist of the 2016 Disney movie of the same name, and who is taught to sail by the god Maui, is referenced by both Woodruff and Bouchard during the day. Back on the boat, Bouchard threatens to put on her kid-friendly sailing playlist, which, she said, features a mix of Kermit the Frog, the AWOLNATION song “Sail” and background music from Spongebob Squarepants. It used to include tracks from Moana, she said, but she took those out.

“It started getting excessive with the kids,” she admitted.

As the teens begged her not to put on the playlist, the boat moved forward toward the race course. Shook helped steer around the little sailboats competing in the regatta, prompting a heated discussion over who would be culpable in a legal lawsuit if the boats collided. 

They maneuvered the Effie without incident through the circling competitors. On the race course, horns begin to blow, calling the fleet of tiny boats with nearly identical sails to line up behind a red buoy, jockeying for the best position. 

But the crew of Effie heads off on its own, steering toward the horizon.

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41deg18'44.5'' N Latitude 72deg12'1.5'' W Longitude

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Thomas Parker Obituary

Niantic — Thomas Francis Parker, 89, of Niantic, formerly of West Hartford, died Sunday, March 17, 2024. He was born Feb. 9, 1935, the son of John Parker and Mary Griffin Parker. He is predeceased by his wife, Julia Smith Parker; his brothers, John Parker of Lewiston, N.Y. and Robert Parker of West Hartford; as well as his sister, Faith Donaldson of Punta Gorda, Fla. He is survived by his three children, Katherine Irene Parker of Dorchester, Mass., Timothy Francis Parker (Carolyn) of West Hartford, and Theresa Parker Colantuono (Walter) of Portsmouth, R.I. He was most proud of his seven grandchildren, Parker Colantuono, Jack Parker, Ellie Parker, Katherine Parker, Thomas Parker, Daisy Colantuono and Nicholas Colantuono.

He was a graduate of Fordham University in 1957 and then attended University of Connecticut Law School obtaining his Law degree in 1962. He was admitted to the bar that same year. He began his career as a law clerk to the U.S. District Judge T. Emmet Clarie from 1962-63. He then joined the law firm of Gross Hyde and Williams Associates, becoming partner in 1965 until 1990. He also served as a U.S. Commissioner/Magistrate from 1965-76. Former Governor William A. O’Neill appointed Judge Parker to the bench in 1990. He served at courthouses in Bristol, Hartford, Middletown, New Britain, Waterbury and New London. While in New London he served as assistant Administrative Judge for the New London Judicial District and was named Deputy Chief Court Administrator in 2002. As Deputy Court Administrator he assisted in the assignment of Superior Court Judges. He also administered the Judicial Performance Evaluation Program and improvement of individual judges and the bench as a whole. Lastly, He served as a Judge Trial Referee. He was active on the Prison and Jail Overcrowding Commission, the Judges Advisory Committee on e-filing, the Chief Justice’s Ad Hoc Criminal Practice Committee and the Investigatory Grand Jury Panel. To honor his distinguished career his portrait was hung in the New London courthouse in 2016. Judge Parker loved his work. He loved the Law. It was his lifelong passion. He cherished the many friendships made within the courthouse walls.

Tom and Julie bought a cottage in Niantic in 1975. They were active members of the Niantic Bay Yacht Club. Tom was a founding member of the Muffin Men. They held dear the Niantic Community and especially considered the Niantic Bay Yacht Club to be home.

Calling hours will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 21, at the Thomas L. Neilan & Sons Funeral Home, 12 Ocean Ave., New London. A Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Friday, March 22, at St. Agnes Church, 22 Haigh St. Niantic. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Care and Share of East Lyme. Care & Share of East Lyme, Inc., PO Box 314, Niantic, CT 06357. Condolences may be shared on Tom’s memorial page at www.neilanfuneralhome.com.

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