A long-time St Francis Sailing Foundation grantee, Sausalito-based Call of the Sea had an epic 2024, in fact, it’s been its strongest year yet according to Lizzy Hunt, Director of Advancement. “We served more children than ever before – over 5,000, we also offered 2000 scholarships, many more than previously, with 54% of the schools we work with served through scholarships, something we’re very proud of,” Hunt commented. “75% of the people who received scholarships were people of color and many of them were first nation and immigrant families with English as a second language. This year our goal is 2500 scholarships and we’re working hard toward that end.”
Hunt added, “One of the coolest things about this past year was the ability to serve more kids from farther away – we’re trying to do that more with help from foundations who have been supporting bus transportation subsidies, for example. We have great partnerships with groups like Oakland Goes Outdoors, relationships that really help us to serve those kids who are high need.”
COTS serves people from the entire Bay area including schools in Alameda County, Contra Costa County, Marin County, San Francisco, San Mateo, Napa, Sonoma County, the Sierra foothills, Yuba River, Sacramento and even Utah where dedicated teachers want to bring their students to experience the Bay, Hunt noted. COTS caters mostly to 4th-5th graders through its traditional school program but covers the spectrum of ages from middle, high school, and university students and, increasingly, more adult sessions through specialized workshops including its Aloft Seamanship sailing program which is like an advanced ropes course program.
This year all COTS workshops will be conducted as overnighters, an experience also suitable for families and people who have aged out of COTS summer camps: scholarship and non-scholarship slots are available. The Sea Scouts participated in valuable three-day sessions last summer, including a group from Utah who visit every other year – they’re hosted on the submarine USS Pampanito and at COTS participate in an advanced seamanship and navigation program where they work on voyage planning, learning about the currents and the tides and all the things that go into planning a successful sailing trip.
The pride of COTS is its two ships – the Seaward, an 82’ classic staysail schooner built in 1988, and the brigantine Matthew Turner, a 132’ traditional wooden tall ship built in 2017 to serve as an experiential learning platform for Bay Area youth. In 2024, COTS also operated its ships more than ever before with 240+ sails throughout the year, sometimes heading out on the Bay twice a day. The Seaward has made the trip to Mexico fourteen years in a row partnering with Camp Sea Lab (Santa Barbara) who hire the ship, sign up their campers and provide the naturalists while COTS provides the vessel and seamanship aspect. A voyage is scheduled in late August to Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay on the Matthew Turner, in addition to its busy San Francisco Bay schedule.
“The Matthew Turner has been super busy this past year and we are working on upgrades for next year because we want to make it more suitable for voyaging,” Hunt said. “We are seeking support for items like a water maker, and her sails have now been under the sun for many days since they were first built in 2017 so they need to be upgraded. We’ve had a lot of work to do on the electrical propulsion system, re-wiring as we figure out loads etc., as our power system must be good enough to be offshore for more than a few days.”
In 2024, COTS gained a new executive director – Carla Thorson – the organization’s first ever female executive director who came from the World Affairs Council, and the Commonwealth Club after 20 years of leading programs there. Hunt joined the COTS team last June also coming from a not-for-profit background most recently working with Tech Soup. She’s from a local sailing family; her husband owns Modern Sailing based in Sausalito and she’s thrilled to share her passion for education, the environment and sailing in her new role at COTS.
“We are increasingly trying to get more dedicated support in conservation projects because of our strong emphasis on advancing the next generation of ocean conservationists through our programming,” Hunt said.
Another COTS objective, notes Hunt, is to launch a dedicated workforce development apprenticeship program to support folks interested in the maritime industry to benefit COTS crew for their long-term careers but also to support interns from Cal Maritime who want sea time. She’s hopeful that long-time supporters PASHA and Matson Shipping, who supported the build of the Matthew Turner, will partner in this goal.
COTS would not operate without its dedicated volunteers. Typically, volunteers join the team by helping out on sailing trips where they can develop the required skills or by taking COTS’ once-a-month Aloft program that includes dockside training and a two-hour sail. A long-standing crew of volunteers have been with the organization since the Matthew Turner was built and many still continue to assist with ship maintenance.
As with most not for profits, the fund-raising drive is continually on the go. 50% of COTS funding comes from donations with approximately 90% of that derived from individual contributions. The organization is fortunate to have a major angel donor who has supported COTS extremely well over the years and who they are working with to diversify and support to find additional donors at that level.
“The level of individual contributions is fantastic as is the volunteer commitment – so many are donors and volunteers,” Hunt said. “In the last year we had 200 days donated of sailing volunteer time which really helps us to achieve our goal of serving 6,000 kids this year. Demand is higher than ever!”
ABOUT CALL OF THE SEA
Call of the Sea (COTS) was founded in 1985 by Alan Olson and a group of local sailors to provide Bay Area youth an opportunity to sail traditionally rigged vessels and to learn about the marine environment as well as maritime history — while inspiring them to be stewards of the sea and earth. In 2004 COTS was re-founded with Ken Neal along with a new group of committed sailors who came together to purchase the schooner Seaward. Subsequently over the past ten years, Seaward has served over 50,000 students and now sails with an average of 5,000+ students per year. In January 2015 COTS merged with Educational Tall Ship Inc. (ETS), the organization constructing the 132′ wooden hybrid, propulsion system tall ship Matthew Turner in Sausalito. Matthew Turner was launched in 2017, US Coast Guard certified in 2020 and now serves, along with Seaward, as a floating classroom for students and the community, serving Northern California and beyond. https://callofthesea.org/