Sea Scouts Play an Important Role in Memorial Day Parade

Members of Sea Scout Ship 41 played an important part in the community Memorial Day remembrances. Our youth assisted in running the sound system at the Lakeside Cemetery, marched with the Bay High School Marching Band  and as members of the Honor Guard carrying the flags. The service and parade was a great show of community spirit for our military past and present.

 YESS Leadership Boot Camp, Sunday, May 23 was a high-energy kick-off event for our YESS program. The boot camp curriculum is being designed by the Institute for Creative Leadership, a local organization focused on creating unique leadership and team-building programs for youth and corporations for over 30 years. Through a series of exercises and games the organizers built a real sense of camaraderie to the 25 Sea Scouts present. The picture below shows the entire YESS group being assigned into crews.

This crew successfully removed the bucket of gold from the acid pond.

How to turn the tarp over without stepping on the concrete.

Local Sea Scouts partner with new Ship.

This year Sea Scout Ship 41 is excited to welcome the  Tall Ships to Cleveland, Ohio July 7-11, 2010.  The event is sponsored by the Cleveland Rotary who are offering 30 scholarships for high school students through a new program called Project YESS. The selected youth will have an opportunity to go on a three day sail aboard a Tall Ship.  The youth will be selected after completing an application which includes an essay on why they would like to go on a sail.

Once selected the 30 youth will be signed on as Sea Scouts, members Ship 247, newly chartered by the Cleveland Rotary. They will complete 6 training sessions which will include team building, Safe Swim Defense and Safety Afloat taught by Sea Scout leader, Richard Gash. 


Skipper Gash said, "this is a fantastic opportunity for the selected boys and girls, an all expenses paid trip working on a Tall Ship".  Courses in navigation and sailing basics will be taught by Doug Sewell and members of the U.S. Power Squadron at the Lakeside Yacht Club to help prepare the youth for their three day trip. 

Richard Gash also said that the adults and scouts of Ship 41 will partner with the new Ship to ensure that their scouting experience is a positive one.

Sea Scouts Receive Top BSA, Dover Rockport District Award

The Westshore Award for the top Venturing Unit in the B.S.A. Dover Rockport District was awarded to Sea Scout Ship 41.  Congratulations, Sea Scouts for having a fantastic program. The qualifications and requirements for the award are listed here.

Navy 44 Allocated to Sea Scout Ship 41

The Navy Yawl, NAY 1, "Intrepid" located at the Naval Station, Annapolis just across the Severn River from the U.S. Naval Academy has been allocated to Sea Scout Ship 41. This boat was used to train midshipmen from mid 60's to mid 80's. It will now be used to train Sea Scouts in seamanship, navigation and leadership. The beauty of this yawl is that there is a complete sail training manual available to us and it has berths for 9.  Ideal for a long cruise to the Lake Erie islands.

Sea Scouts Acquisition Navy 44' Yawl "Intrepid"

The vessel we are requisitioning is the one with the sail covers on. This is one of the second generation of navy offshore sail training boats.  The picture in fact shows three generations all named "Intrepid". 

At this point we are reasonably confident the boat will be assigned to Sea Scout Ship 41 but it has not been confirmed yet. Stay tuned ..... as they say.

Navy 44 Luder Yawl becoming a Sea Scout Training Vessel?

At the request of a good friend of Ship 41, the chair of the local USNA Alumni, sent out an email to the members requesting help regarding the technical aspects of the Navy 44 Luder Yawl.  We wanted to get background information on the sailing and handling characteristics of the boat - would it be too much for us to handle?  What follows is a quote from an alumni:-

"We did sail on these yawls during Plebe summer and afterwards for training back in ’86.  They are very forgiving boats and hard to break, very solid.  Definitely designed for training.  Easy to sail without a lot of bells and whistles.  They were fun.

Below decks were very bare-bones without many comforts.  You could take them out overnight as they had a few racks, cooler, very small stove and a small head.     

For something like training Sea Scouts, I would definitely recommend them.  But, for their age, they might also require a lot of work to keep up and running."


Rob Morley of Riverfront Yachts has offered to unload the boat from a trailer, allow us to work on the boat (even provide advice), and then put the boat in the water next year at a substantially discounted price. To encourage us even further, Matt, manager at Spitzer Marinas, has kindly agreed to continue to work with the Sea Scouts to provide summer dockage at Spitzer Marina.  This is a great group of people and a super marina located in the Lorain Harbor.


We continue to research the suitability of using the Navy 44 Luder Yawl for our Sea Scout program.

Wow! Could the Sea Scouts Handle It?

These are exciting times at Sea Scout Ship 41. We have an opportunity to acquire a Navy 44 Luder. A brief history and details of the boat are available at the Navy Patuxent Sailing Club. The one available to us is a 60's fiberglass boat that was designed to train the midshipmen of the U. S. Naval Academy and was used in their offshore sailing program.

The yawl has beautiful lines, the cabin has seven bunks, two pipe berths, a galley, head and navigation station, it looks to be in sound condition but.....the concerns.

.The deck gel coat is flaking, cracking and peeling off as the close up photograph shows.  The websites giving details of gel coat repair indicate this could be a major job.

Our plans are to consult a few marine experts before we commit to what for us would be a major undertaking and expense.  Any suggestions???