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Who We Are:

Ferry Sloops is a non profit, environmental sailing organization that inspires people to appreciate and protect one of our country's greatest resources, the magnificent Hudson River. Our membership is composed of a diverse group of volunteers each giving in their own way, joined together by our respect of one another and our love for the Hudson River. We are dedicated to bring people to the Hudson to sail the waters, learn the lore and make a commitment to keep its water cleaner and safer as well as preserving the natural beauty of its shores.

A spin-off of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., Ferry Sloops Inc. was founded in 1979 and is committed to Share the beauty of the River.  We recently purchased a 22 foot Sloop-Rigged Catboat the Whimbrel with which we have been taking groups for free sails at Riverfront Festivals and Riverside Communities since the 2006 season.

Whimbrel was brought down from the yards of Marshall Marine on September 13, 2005.
Launched in the Hudson on October 1, 2005 and had its first sail there on October 9, 2005

What We Are doing:

The goal of Ferry Sloops continues to be to encourage people to appreciate and preserve our local waterways through sail training, hands on crewing, learning about the history of the river and its environment. Throughout the year we support various events directly related to the river, its environment and its history. Apart from being on the water, we have social activities (like potlucks), river-related land activities (like hikes) and fund raising (like sale of merchandise in our booth at community events).  We offer sail training to our active members and take small groups for sails on the Hudson.  

 

Membership

Anybody interested in experiencing the Hudson from a sailboat or from its scenic shores is invited to join, so is anybody who wants to support our cause. We are in particular looking for competent sailors or sailboat owners who are willing to sail with other members. Members are welcome to become active in the organization (e.g. as crew, helping with maintenance, participating at the various festivals and promoting our goals).

  • There is a Monthly Meeting held on the first Wednesday of every month from 7:00 to 9:30 PM at the Nature Center in Croton Point Park, open to all members and potential members who want to learn more about Ferry Sloops. Other information is posted on our Yahoo e-group, and via a newsletter.

    To become a member, please fill out this Membership form

     

  • IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY DONE SO PLEASE RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP NOW.

    Where we've come from: A Brief Ferry Sloops History - By Lenny Lipton

    Back in the 60’s when the Hudson River was very polluted and dirty there were people like Pete Seeger who looked on the river with sadness. They knew the potential beauty of the Hudson River Valley and longed for it to be returned to a clean state of being so that people could enjoy swimming, boating, and gazing upon it.

    Pete had read a book by two old Hudson River sloop captains, Collier and Verplanck, and he had an inspiration- if he could have a replica sloop built and sailed it on the river then it might move people to help clean the river up.

    After much hard work fund raising the Clearwater was built at Harvey Gamage’s yard in Maine. Clearwater sailed up and down the Hudson, attracting attention and helping to spread the word of the environmental movement. The Clearwater proved so popular and successful at focusing attention on the state of the river that Pete and others decided that local sloop clubs, which would operate out of one fixed location, would be a valuable addition to the movement.

    Pete had a smaller boat built of wood, named it the Woody Guthrie, and sailed it with the Beacon Sloop Club. In that era a material called ferro-cement, a type of reinforced concrete, was very popular as an amateur boat building material. People thought that it would be quick and easy to build boats out of this material (in fact it is neither- boat building is hard work no matter how you slice it) and that a separate organization could be started to build boats for the Hudson River movement. The hull of what later became the Sojourner Truth was built professionally in Maryland and shipped up to Yonkers to be completed by the new group Ferry Sloops. It was indeed finished and sailed, but it took 5 years! After that no one else really wanted to build a boat, so other sloop clubs took the form of ‘Friends of Clearwater’ types of groups and Ferry Sloops was left to itself to pursue its own course, and it developed into an all volunteer mini-Clearwater type of group much like the Beacon Sloop Club which had preceded it.
    Since then Sojourner Truth had migrated upriver to Croton, where it hosted sail classes from Senasqua Park, with the cooperation of the town of Croton. It was wintering at Randy King’s marina in Verplank. It was still operated by a ragtag group of volunteers, some of whom had been with the boat for 20 years until that fateful day of September 11, 2002 when high winds and surging waves tore the Sojourner Truth from its Hudson River mooring, pulling it downstream and sending it onto the rocks at Half Moon Bay. Randy King then generously offered Ferry Sloops the use of a 22’ Ensign, which we have been sailing out of King Marine and Senasqua from 2003 to 2005.