Agreement Reached to Begin Restoring the ‘Mystic’

Connecticut Community Boating is hoping to restore a three-masted schooner named ‘Mystic’ currently located in the Mystic River and use the schooner as a service school ship.

“This is a chance to do our part to put Connecticut back on an even keel”, Connecticut Community Boating founder Chris German said about the proposal he is putting forward with Geoff Jones, owner and master of the SV Mystic.

“We will work with her owners to get her back into ocean-going shape in the hopes that we can raise the funds to put her back into service this summer in Long Island Sound.”

The SV Mystic has been sitting unused for three years.

If the CCB can raise $500,000 as a down payment for the Mystic by May 1, 2013, the balance of the $1.8 million price tag will paid over four years through revenues and sponsorships the Community Boating organization will receive from its summer program and corporate charter services.

“If it was easy, everyone would do it” German said about the prospects of raising the funds and bringing the plan to fruition. “They all said we’d never open Bridgeport Harbor but we did that last fall. It’s time to do something that will serve all those residents who can’t make it down for a single day on the shore. This will serve to ensure that we live up to our motto, ‘No child Left Ashore’.”

German and Jones plan to work together along with a joint crew of volunteers and sailors to restore the Mystic enough to sail to Fairhaven, Mass., this April. There the ship will undergo renovations to be ready to be back into full-time service in June here in Connecticut when German plans to take command and begin offering week-long educational trips for New England and New York youth and families.

For more information, please visit: www.ctcommunityboating.org