Month: March 2019

Businesswoman and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt, who has built an incredible portfolio of work devoted to our oceans made possible through the many organizations she has founded, led, and inspired, is the 2019 recipient of the America and the Sea Award. The award is presented by Mystic Seaport Museum to individuals and organizations whose extraordinary achievements in the world of maritime exploration, competition, scholarship, and design best exemplify the American character.

“We are delighted to honor Wendy’s passion for and dedication to the sea,” said Mystic Seaport Museum President Steve White. “She stands as an exemplar for maritime studies and stewardship, and thus it is an honor for us to call more attention to her noteworthy work.”

Schmidt is President of The Schmidt Family Foundation, which supports programs in renewable energy, healthy food and agriculture, and human rights. Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, an additional foundation program, supports the development of new ocean technologies with applications for conservation and research in areas including habitat health, marine plastic pollution, and sustainable fisheries. Schmidt has worked to advance the science and knowledge about the impact that climate change is having on ocean health and sea level, something directly affecting Mystic Seaport Museum.

In March, Mystic Seaport Museum announced an initiative to work toward eliminating single-use plastics on its 19-acre site on the Mystic River. The program is being developed and implemented through the leadership of a staff Sustainability Committee in collaboration with the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Md.

Schmidt is co-founder, with her husband, Eric, of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, which operates the research vessel Falkor, a mobile platform to advance ocean exploration and discovery, using open source data to catalyze the sharing of information about the oceans. Since 2013, more than 500 scientists from 165 institutions and 30 countries have conducted research on R/V Falkor.

She has sponsored two XPRIZE Challenge Prizes focused on ocean health and currently serves as the lead philanthropic partner of the New Plastics Economy Initiative, driven by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Schmidt has extended her oceans-focused work to the sporting world through 11th Hour Racing, partnering with the 2017-2018 Volvo Ocean Race and the Vestas 11th Hour Racing team to put sustainability at the core of their operations, empowering race managers and athletes to be leaders and spokespeople on restoring ocean health.

In 2017, the Schmidts launched the Schmidt Science Fellows program, a post-doctoral fellowship that provides the next generation of leaders and innovators with the tools and opportunities to drive world-changing advances across the sciences and society. With an initial commitment from Schmidt Futures of at least $25M for the first three years, the effort is the beginning of a broader $100 million commitment to promote scientific leadership and interdisciplinary research.

A black tie gala will be held in Schmidt’s honor in New York City Wednesday, October 30, 2019. This affair is the premier fund-raising event for Mystic Seaport Museum. Past recipients of the America and the Sea Award include America’s Cup sailor Dawn Riley, philanthropist and environmentalist David Rockefeller Jr.; oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle; historian David McCullough; legendary yacht designer Olin Stephens; President and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation, Thomas Crowley;  philanthropist William Koch; former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman; WoodenBoat Publications founder Jon Wilson; yachtsman and author Gary Jobson; maritime industrialist Charles A. Robertson; author Nathaniel Philbrick; and Rod and Bob Johnstone and their company J/Boats.

In the high season at Mystic Seaport Museum, it’s common to see young visitors walking around the grounds carefully cradling a contraption in their two hands. Upon closer inspection, one can see that it is a boat of some sort, made of wood, with bits and pieces of various shapes and sizes sticking to it, and sometimes including paper, string, and more. Each one is unique, the result of its captain’s artistic eye and glue-gun skill.

For about 10 years, Mystic Seaport Museum’s Build-A-Toy-Boat shop has churned out thousands of little pine boats crafted by artists ages 4 and up, some modest with just a hull and some coloring, others complex, with spars and masts and rigging and paper sails. By some estimates, there may be close to 100,000 little wooden boats adorning mantle pieces and gathering dust in attics all around the world, made by visitors from late March through October every year.

It takes a village to keep this activity afloat. For most years, the wood shop in the exhibits department made a batch of hulls and small pieces to get the season started, and then would crank up production whenever supplies ran low during the summer. Interpreter Patricia Willis, who oversees Toy Boats, “would call me up telling me we were low,” said Alan Schaeffer, a fabricator/carpenter in the exhibits department. “I never had a child not have the parts he or she needed to build their boat … but I did run it kind of close a few times.”

In the interest of avoiding panicked phone calls from the Toy Boat Shop and rioting children, Schaeffer took a “big picture” look at the production of all the parts and pieces and decided this year to try an experiment. So his Toy Boat team spent the winter months, one or two days a week, making everything that would be needed for the full season. “I wanted it all to be more efficient,” he said.

Toy Boats opens for weekends-only on Saturday, March 23 – 10 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. It opens daily for the season on June 15. The cost is $5 per boat.

Toy Boats are made from cheap wood, in this case pine roof sheathing board. The supply comes from Arnold Lumber in Westerly, which provides a good price and makes sure there’s a good mix of clean boards and knotty ones. They use about 5,000 board feet in a year.

Cut, cut, and then cut again

The first step in the process is to cut the large board into three equal long sections. Those sections are then run through the radial saw to make the pieces for the boat hulls. The shape of the hull rarely changes – it is similar to the outline of a catboat, and is angled at one end for the transom. The pattern is traced on each block (they still have the original pattern made 10 years ago) and stacked in piles of 20. (One hull change made recently was the addition of a Viking longship hull for Viking Days, a special event that debuted last year and returns this year June 1-2.)

A radial saw then cuts out all the hulls from the blocks, and they are boxed up, 160 to a box. 9,300 hulls have been produced this winter, the only part of the program that is inventoried. The extra pieces are used as pieces for the boat builders, and anything left over at the end of the season becomes kindling for wood stoves used throughout the museum.

Masts are made out of long thin strips of wood, cut at 6-inch intervals. The rest of the parts that go into building a boat are random – small cubes, larger cubes, rectangles, small thin pieces for spars or yards, and an even smaller thin piece that typically becomes crew on the boats.

The team – made up of volunteer Bill Mortenson and Museum staffers Willis, Peter Barres, Schaeffer, and Carson Hill – is winding down, having filled bags and bags with wooden pieces.

Toy Boat Building was started by Jonathan Shay, who retired from the Museum in 2018 after 34 years here. At the time he launched the activity, he was director of both interpretation and exhibits, and so, as he put it, “I didn’t have to ask anyone. I gave myself permission to do it.” He wanted to add a hands-on activity for children that spoke to the Museum’s mission and enhanced the visitor experience.

Popular from Day 1

They opened Toy Boat Building in a tiny alcove behind the Ship Carver building. “Everyone loved it, but the problem was they were all falling apart because we were using regular white glue,” Shay noted. “I realized this had great potential, but not if people had to wait three hours for their boat to dry.”

So glue guns were introduced to the process, and staff made some prototypes for people to use as inspiration, “but it was always so great to see how the visitors would just make it their own way. And theirs were way more interesting than what we did.”

The space was so small that there was always a line out the door to make a boat, so first they tried adding an outdoor space, and then they moved it to the Art Spot building across the way. These days, Toy Boats is located next to the John Gardner Boat Shop.

It’s interesting to note that the original charge for a toy boat was $5, and it remains so today.

One new change for 2019 – toy boat building that doesn’t involve hot glue. Because of the glue guns, children have to be 4 or older to make a toy boat. Schaeffer felt bad about that, and has seen his share of crying toddlers outside the Toy Boat building who aren’t old enough to go in. So this year he is making hulls that have two or three holes drilled in them. The mast pieces fit into the holes (literally a square peg in a round hole) and with a little push, are sturdy as can be and ready for decorating.

“It’s such a great activity,” Schaeffer said. “I think it’s part of the magic of the place, when you’re here your imagination is running and it’s an irresistible activity.”

Shannon McKenzie, director of Watercraft Programs at Mystic Seaport Museum, was named Volunteer of the Year by Tall Ships America at its Annual Conference in Los Angeles on February 27.

The nonprofit gives the award annually to “an individual member of Tall Ships America who has significantly advanced our overall mission.” For the last six years, McKenzie helped to orchestrate and plan the group’s annual convention, working on scheduling, logistics, and content. This year she also planned and led a plenary session on Workforce Development and a forum on Administration during the conference.

Jonathan Boulware, executive director of South Street Seaport Museum, presented McKenzie with the award. “He was the first captain I worked for when I started my career,” she said, “on Sound Waters out of Stamford, CT. So that was very special for me to receive the award from him.”

“I’m very honored,” McKenzie said. “And I’m pleased to be able to continue to work with Tall Ships America and support the great work they do.”

Tall Ships America is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization focused on youth education, leadership development and the preservation of the maritime heritage of North America. In addition to organizing the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Series, Tall Ships America manages scholarship programs to make sail training experiences more affordable for young people, grant programs to assist crew of member vessels with the costs of professional development courses and licensing requirements and publishes SAIL TALL SHIPS! A Directory of Sail Training and Adventure at Sea.

Schooner Brilliant at Mystic Seaport Museum is a member vessel of Tall Ships America. Brilliant‘s new captain, Dan McKenzie (no relation to Shannon) attended the conference as well.

The Thompson Exhibition Building, designed by Centerbrook Architects & Planners, has been recognized with a national award by WoodWorks – Wood Products Council.

The Thompson Exhibition Building was recognized in the “Commercial Wood Design – Low-Rise” category – one of nine national awards bestowed by WoodWorks. The Wood Design Awards celebrate innovation and excellence in wood building design across the country.

This is the fourth recognition for the Thompson Exhibition Building since it opened to the public in the fall of 2016 at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. The design previously garnered the Honor Award-With Distinction by the AIA QUAD Awards, and was named by the CT CREW Blue Ribbon Awards as the Best Specialty Project. In 2018, ArchDaily – the world’s most-visited architecture website – named the Thompson Exhibition Building one of the 100 Best Wood Architecture Projects in the U.S.

The Centerbrook design team, led by Principal Chad Floyd, FAIA and Senior Director Charles Mueller, AIA, chose wood as the predominant building material for its form, function and aesthetic capabilities. The Thompson Building’s more prominent wood features include Douglas fir glulam beams spanning the entire width that give the building its unique curvilinear shape, and arresting western red cedar exterior cladding.

With its 5,000-square-foot Collins Gallery exhibition space, the Thompson Building is the centerpiece of Mystic Seaport Museum’s reimagined mission that brings a new focus to exhibitions. With its functional flexibility, the Thompson Building has strengthened the museum as a year-around tourist destination.

Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic Aquarium, Olde Mistick Village, and Downtown Mystic Merchants have banded together to create and promote a new brand for Mystic tourism — Sea Mystic.

Together the attractions and business are providing an initial $100,000 to the Greater Mystic Chamber Foundation to fund billboards, digital advertising and a referral website to promote the iconic Mystic experience to visitors.

The campaign launches April 1.

“The goal of this initiative is simple — and something we know well at the Museum — a rising tide lifts all boats,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport Museum. “By increasing awareness of the Mystic brand, we hope to increase traffic and visitors to Exit 90 for the benefit of everyone.”

The initial $100,000 will promote the Sea Mystic brand on high-profile billboards on the Interstate 95 corridor in Fairfield and New Haven. It will also be a new domain name — SeaMystic.com — that will redirect to the long-standing Mystic.org website. There, visitors will find information about the Mystic Pass — a joint ticket for Mystic Seaport Museum and Mystic Aquarium that offers discounted admission.

The Sea Mystic billboards, digital marketing, and website are being coordinated by Miranda Creative of Norwichtown, CT.