NESS in the News: Foiling at NESS
NESS was recently featured in Windcheck Magazine!
“If you sail into Stonington Harbor in eastern Connecticut in the summer months, you might mistake New England Science & Sailing (NESS) for a summer camp, with children sailing, wading in tidal pools with fish nets, and kayaking about. Yet, while it may resemble a camp-like experience, there is a deep educational structure behind everything that NESS does year-round. And that tenet will be nicely punctuated when you see one of the non-profit organization’s foiling watercraft zipping by…
Foiling at NESS goes back to 2017, when a Rhode Island philanthropist contacted the organization with an interest in donating a foiling sailboat. He had seen foilers in action and knew these high flying craft would have ignited his own passion when he was a young sailor, a fascination that also drew from his engineering background and interest in the boats’ fluid dynamics and hull efficiency. Soon after connecting with NESS Sailing Director Mark Zagol, the two began building a fleet of advanced, foil-borne watercraft…
While foiling is a niche activity at NESS, it exemplifies the organization’s mission to empower students with a love of learning through ocean-based experiential programs. Founded twenty years ago by CEO Spike Lobdell following his thirty-year career in finance, NESS was built on core values of inclusiveness, experiential learning, personal growth, and stewardship. Starting in 2008, NESS began teaching marine science, which led to a focus on STEM (Science Technology, Engineering & Math), but that transformation was only the beginning. NESS now stands as the first and only program of its kind accredited by the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC)…
NESS differentiates itself by teaching sailing in nineteen different classes of boats. Students begin on Optis and Harley 12s and get the joy those boats provide, along with the Sonars and J/22s, but there’s a cool factor for more accomplished sailors that comes when sailing NESS’s Esse, a 29er, or a Viper 640. That’s elevated even more when students progress to single-handing the two Waszp foiling boats, the UFO foiling catamaran, or the new wing boards, which are foiling sailboards powered by an inflatable sail you hold with your hands…
Like foiling, NESS stays on the leading edge of innovative education by developing additional modules for teacher training and distance learning. ‘Teachers are hungry for ways to excite and engage curriculum-based student learning,’ says Lobdell. ‘Our board, funders, and certainly administrators and teachers, see this as a powerful vehicle for advancing classroom performance, especially after the challenges of the past year. It is a very exciting time for NESS.'”
