Welcome to Clearwater’s Events Calendar! For information about upcoming sails visit our Public Sail Schedule.
Shifting Shorelines brings together historic and contemporary art, visual culture, and environmental science to engage the history of human existence, commerce, and industry along the Hudson estuary. Focusing on the river’s edges from Albany southward to its flow into the Atlantic Ocean, the exhibition foregrounds the impact of local industry on the natural environment, highlighting the history of the river’s distinctive ecological features such as brackish and salt marshes, mudflats, and beaches, along with the docks, factories, and buildings that crowded them out. Through visual and material evidence, Shifting Shorelines demonstrates the various cycles of exploitation, damage, and reclamation.
The Practical Navigator Captain’s Course
Cost: $600
Location: Clearwater’s office in Beacon, NY
When: January 6 to January 10, 2025, from 8:00 to 5:00 with a break for lunch.
We are expanding our educational and outreach programs taking place outside of the sailing season. For the first time, we are collaborating with Practical Navigator to offer a 5-day captain’s course in the Hudson Valley this winter! Kate Enright of Practical Navigator will be teaching the course and will be creating a custom version that caters to sailors and the class audience. Take your sailing to the next level and explore maritime careers as a captain carrying passengers! While it is short notice, we are offering an unbeatable price for an in-person course.
The course will prepare you to test for and submit an application to the USCG for an “Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels” (OUPV) license, commonly known as the “6-pack”, which allows you to operate vessels with up to six paying passengers, or a 100 Ton masters license, dependent your goals. If you want to carry passengers onboard your boat for paid activities—fishing trips, scenic tours, diving adventures, or transportation—you’ll need a captain’s license.
There are no prerequisites other than interest, commitment, and the necessary seatime. Interested students should ideally have the sea time to submit their application one year after the completion of the course. All necessary books and study materials will be provided on loan.
- Sea service – via employer documentation or 719S form for vessels less than 200 tons.
- Medical Exam 719K – be sure to get the exam on the correct form and double-check all the signatures!
- TWIC card – via the TSA website.
- Application 719B – you are looking for “deck” and “original/officer” licenses for the right waterway and tonnage
- Government fees – pay.gov, it usually comes to about $145 for an original master license
- Drug testing – via an employer or 719P form, there are several options.
- Approved Red Cross or equivalent First Aid/CPR course. It has to be an “in-person” class
About Practical Navigator: Practical Navigator Training is designed to present useful navigation topics for professional and recreational mariners in a no-nonsense and accessible way. We are a veteran-owned business started by Captain Chris Nolan, a former USCG cutterman.
About Kate: Captain Kate Enright is a maritime educator and tall ship sailor. She has worked all over the world on research boats, day sailing charters, and educational programs, but has spent much of her career working for the Sea Education Association (SEA), on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and currently sails as a Captain in Casco Bay, Maine. She is also a graduate student at the University of Southern Maine pursuing her Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Kate holds a USCG 200 Ton NC Master/Auxiliary Sail, 200 Ton Ocean Mate/Auxiliary Sail license. She received her first license in 2017 through a combination of Practical Navigator classes and testing in Boston.
A perk of taking a Practical Navigator course is that you get 2 years of free MMSEAS PRO access – they are experts at license applications and can give you 1:1 counseling on the application. This can support students with the licensing process and ensure follow-through and a license in hand!
This course can provide a boost to people who have long hoped to pursue a Captain’s license but have been stumped by self-studying. Once completed you can also test through Practical Navigator’s online proctoring, rather than traveling to a Regional Exam Center. There are options to continue later in a hybrid format at your own pace for people who would appreciate the attention given to learning material, then more time for self-study before taking an exam.
With questions, email Kate at: kate@practicalnavigator.org
We are looking for a minimum sign-up of 6 participants, maximum 10. If we don’t make the minimum sign-up in time, the course will be canceled with a 100% refund for anyone who had signed up.
Dance with Clearwater! Join us on Sunday, January 12 for a Dance Party at Sunset in the Hudson River Maritime Museum Barn. Our winter restoration workshop will transform into your dream dance floor! Bring your friends to ward off the winter blues with community and musical offerings from local DJs Hunter Starkings and Leena. Clearwater merch will be available, including *new* reusable mugs, winter beanies, and bandanas.
Mark your calendars for January 12 from 3pm – 7pm – more info and tickets coming soon! All proceeds will support Clearwater’s mission to steward an intergenerational community of Hudson River advocates through education, music, and sailing.
Tickets: $15 pre-sale, $20 at the door
Join the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus on Saturday, January 18 for their January Coffeehouse, monthly gatherings featuring performances by folk musicians. Before the featured performance, audience members are invited to join the chorus in song. January’s featured musical act is Jackson Pines.
About Jackson Pines
Jackson Pines is an indie folk band hailing from Jackson, New Jersey. Best friends Joe Makoviecki (guitar, vocals, harmonica) and James Black (upright bass) make up the core of the group. Help to round out their sound is Cranston Dean (drums, mandolin, vocals), Max Carmichael (banjo, flute, octave mandolin, guitar), and James Herdman (fiddle, ukulele).
Joe Makoviecki and James Black grew up playing in local bands in their hometown, writing music together, traveling around the country, and traveling around the U.K. They became known for playing original and traditional folk music.
Critics have called them “a mash-up of James Taylor and Tom Petty — with serious focus on acoustic guitar” Jackson Pines have a collection of music that “presents a unique lyrical take on life, bringing a rustic flair to the world of indie-folk/acoustic music”. They have also been described as “rootsy when they jam. They are poetic, but they rock.”
Known for playing traditional folk music along with their fingerpicking guitar and stand-up bass rhythms, Jackson Pines weaves their songs with threads of stories from people they know, places they’ve been, and pains and joys they’ve experienced.
TICKETS:
- Reserved Tickets: $30 – Reserve tickets in advance using the ticket form. Reserved tickets will be set aside for you, and paid for at the door by check, cash, or credit card. Reservations may be made until 6:00pm the Friday prior to the performance date.
- Tickets at the Door: $35 – Purchase tickets at the door by check, cash, or credit card.
About the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus
Carrying on the vision of our founder, Pete Seeger, since 1984
The Walk about Clearwater Chorus is dedicated to promoting environmental awareness and social action through song and education and is a volunteer-run New York State not-for-profit organization. Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is a chartered member club of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and our activities support the work of our parent organization.
The Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is more than a singing group. Beyond performing at various venues, including our own Coffeehouse, rallies, and marches, Walkabout brings folk music to the younger generations through school programs. First and foremost, the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is a group of activists – using their voices to address the issues of today, uniting song with purpose.
Join the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus on Saturday, February 15 for their February Coffeehouse, monthly gatherings featuring performances by folk musicians. Before the featured performance, audience members are invited to join the chorus in song. February’s featured musical acts are Emma’s Revoluion and Lisa Gutkin.
About Emma’s Revolution
Emma’s Revolution is the dynamic, award-winning activist duo of Pat Humphries & Sandy O, whose songs have been sung for the Dalai Lama, praised by Pete Seeger, and covered by Holly Near. With beautiful harmonies and genre-defying eclecticism, Emma’s Revolution delivers the energy and strength of their convictions, in an uprising of truth and hope for these tumultuous times.
Emma’s Revolution has shared the stage with Pete Seeger, Holly Near, Rev Jesse Jackson, Amy Goodman, Indigo Girls, Joan Baez, Rev William Barber and Bill McKibben and has performed at concerts, justice events and mass demonstrations across the country, including the #FamiliesBelongTogether Day of Action in San Francisco, Women’s March Oakland and the Poor People’s Campaign National Demonstration in Washington DC. Their songs cover issues from reproductive justice to refugees and Black Lives Matter to their sustaining power of love. “Sing People Sing” is the duo’s loving and moving tribute to Pete Seeger that captures Pete’s unique ability to empower an audience with harmony and hope. A dear friend and mentor to her, Pat was at Pete’s bedside when he passed, “singing his songs back to him in gratitude for all the times he had left home to sing to us”. The duo’s songs span styles from folk to jazz and funk to rock.
About Lisa Gutkin
Lisa Gutkin is a Grammy Award-winning fiddler, singer, actor, and composer and is best known as a member of the acclaimed Klezmatics. She wrote the musical score, performed in, and was musical director in the two-time Tony award-winner Broadway show, Indecent.
Lisa has had a storied career that reflects the eclectic nature of her life, passion, and creativity. A cameo performance in Sex and the City, a seat in Sting’s Broadway band for The Last Ship, a CD of original songs produced by John Lissauer, and scores for two of Pearl Gluck’s films have taken her a long way from her beginnings as a back-up musician to the Fast Folk songwriters’ collective.
Praised for her “hauntingly emotional” vocals by the L.A. Times, she has co-authored songs with Anne Sexton, Maggie Dubris, and Woody Guthrie. “Gonna Get Through This World”, co-written with Woody Guthrie, was described by Pete Seeger as “a piece of genius”.
In her ventures as soloist and band leader, Lisa might swing seamlessly from Klezmer to the blues, or between traditional Irish and Appalachian sounds. She might even put the violin down altogether, pick up a tenor guitar, and sing one of her own universally resonant songs. Wherever she goes, Lisa, a MacDowell, and Norton Stevens Fellow, has an uncanny way of taking the audience with her.
TICKETS:
- Reserved Tickets: $30 – Reserve tickets in advance using the ticket form. Reserved tickets will be set aside for you, and paid for at the door by check, cash, or credit card. Reservations may be made until 6:00pm the Friday prior to the performance date.
- Tickets at the Door: $35 – Purchase tickets at the door by check, cash, or credit card.
About the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus
Carrying on the vision of our founder, Pete Seeger, since 1984
The Walk about Clearwater Chorus is dedicated to promoting environmental awareness and social action through song and education and is a volunteer-run New York State not-for-profit organization. Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is a chartered member club of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and our activities support the work of our parent organization.
The Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is more than a singing group. Beyond performing at various venues, including our own Coffeehouse, rallies, and marches, Walkabout brings folk music to the younger generations through school programs. First and foremost, the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is a group of activists – using their voices to address the issues of today, uniting song with purpose.
Join the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus on Saturday, March 22 for their March Coffeehouse, monthly gatherings featuring performances by folk musicians. Before the featured performance, audience members are invited to join the chorus in song. March’s featured musical act is Seamus Kennedy.
About Seamus Kennedy
In his thirty years of professional performing, Seamus Kennedy has taken his music from Alaska to Florida, Maryland to California, and a host of stops in between, playing everything from the pubs to the concert halls. As a result, he is a master showman with exceptional musical skills and an unmatched repartee.
Seamus has released eleven CDs of both contemporary and traditional material, including Christmas songs and a children’s album. The Washington Area Music Association has awarded him a WAMMIE for “Best Irish/Celtic Male Vocalist” every year since 1993. His versatility makes him a headliner at Celtic festivals such as Hunter Mountain (NY); Celtic Classic (PA); Longs Peak Scottish Irish Festival, (CO), and at Sacramento (CA) Highland Games. Seamus is often invited to perform for various organizations, including the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Fraternal Order of Police, Firemen, military groups, and the Bar Association. There is always something for everybody.
Seamus’ trademark is his ongoing interaction with his audiences. From the moment he steps on stage, he starts talking to them — and encourages them to talk back! He is quick with a quip and likes nothing better than to discover someone in the audience who is similarly inclined. Fast-paced humor is very much a part of what Seamus does, whether he’s telling a series of rapid-fire jokes or launching into a lyrical parody. Seamus seems to be having such a grand time and he makes it all look so effortless that it is easy not to notice what a superb musician he truly is. He will segue seamlessly from an Irish ballad about a dying town to a rollicking reel and then move into American music, equally at home with folk, pop, country, or traditional.
TICKETS:
- Reserved Tickets: $30 – Reserve tickets in advance using the ticket form. Reserved tickets will be set aside for you, and paid for at the door by check, cash, or credit card. Reservations may be made until 6:00pm the Friday prior to the performance date.
- Tickets at the Door: $35 – Purchase tickets at the door by check, cash, or credit card.
About the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus
Carrying on the vision of our founder, Pete Seeger, since 1984
The Walk about Clearwater Chorus is dedicated to promoting environmental awareness and social action through song and education and is a volunteer-run New York State not-for-profit organization. Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is a chartered member club of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and our activities support the work of our parent organization.
The Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is more than a singing group. Beyond performing at various venues, including our own Coffeehouse, rallies, and marches, Walkabout brings folk music to the younger generations through school programs. First and foremost, the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is a group of activists – using their voices to address the issues of today, uniting song with purpose.
Join the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus on Saturday, April 19 for their April Coffeehouse, monthly gatherings featuring performances by folk musicians. Before the featured performance, audience members are invited to join the chorus in song. April’s featured musical act is Betty and the Baby Boomers.
About Betty and the Baby Boomers
Betty and the Baby Boomers consists of Betty Boomer, Jean Valla McAvoy, Paul Rubeo, Robert Bard, and Steve Stanne. Their fans hail from the mountains of Connemara in Ireland to the Catskills overlooking New York’s Hudson Valley.
The folk magazine Sing Out! described the group as “a refreshing reminder of the halcyon days of American folk music”. In each song, they display the sheer joy of singing and playing music.” Along with performing original songs from Jean, the Boomers draw on traditional tunes, music from classic folkies like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Phil Ochs, Americana roots music, and contemporary artists such as Greg Brown, Bruce Springsteen, and Dougie MacLean. “Whatever the source, each song is “Boomerized” – set in distinctive arrangements with three and four-part harmonies. The singers’ voices differ in range and color; they combine in a unique and resonant blend that is the Boomers’ signature. Their vocals are coupled to impressive instrumental work on guitars, Dobro, bass, bodhran, and kazoo; sometimes they perform a capella selection. Critics agree the music is comprised of “beautiful melodies – meaningful lyrics – charming wit -all blended with engaging personalities!
TICKETS:
- Reserved Tickets: $30 – Reserve tickets in advance using the ticket form. Reserved tickets will be set aside for you, and paid for at the door by check, cash, or credit card. Reservations may be made until 6:00pm the Friday prior to the performance date.
- Tickets at the Door: $35 – Purchase tickets at the door by check, cash, or credit card.
About the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus
Carrying on the vision of our founder, Pete Seeger, since 1984
The Walk about Clearwater Chorus is dedicated to promoting environmental awareness and social action through song and education and is a volunteer-run New York State not-for-profit organization. Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is a chartered member club of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and our activities support the work of our parent organization.
The Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is more than a singing group. Beyond performing at various venues, including our own Coffeehouse, rallies, and marches, Walkabout brings folk music to the younger generations through school programs. First and foremost, the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is a group of activists – using their voices to address the issues of today, uniting song with purpose.
Join the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus on Saturday, May 17 for their May Coffeehouse, monthly gatherings featuring performances by folk musicians. Before the featured performance, audience members are invited to join the chorus in song. May’s featured musical act is Jay Unger and Molly Mason.
About Jay Unger and Molly Mason
Jay Ungar & Molly Mason are musicians of enormous talent who draw their repertoire and inspiration from a wide range of American musical styles — 19th-century classics, lively Appalachian, Cajun, and Celtic fiddle tunes, and favorites from the golden age of country and swing — along with their own songs, fiddle tunes, and orchestral compositions. Jay and Molly achieved international acclaim when their performance of Jay’s composition, Ashokan Farewell, became the musical hallmark of Ken Burns’ The Civil War on PBS. The soundtrack won a Grammy and Ashokan Farewell was nominated for an Emmy. The piece was originally inspired by Jay & Molly’s Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps in New York’s Catskill Mountains, which are still going strong today.
In recent years, Jay and Molly have reached an ever-widening audience through their appearances on Great Performances, A Prairie Home Companion, their own public radio specials, and through their work on film soundtracks such as Brother’s Keeper, Legends of the Fall, and a host of Ken Burns’ PBS documentaries. They’ve had the honor of performing at the White House for two sitting Presidents and continue to tour extensively delighting audiences across the country.
TICKETS:
- Reserved Tickets: $30 – Reserve tickets in advance using the ticket form. Reserved tickets will be set aside for you, and paid for at the door by check, cash, or credit card. Reservations may be made until 6:00pm the Friday prior to the performance date.
- Tickets at the Door: $35 – Purchase tickets at the door by check, cash, or credit card.
About the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus
Carrying on the vision of our founder, Pete Seeger, since 1984
The Walk about Clearwater Chorus is dedicated to promoting environmental awareness and social action through song and education and is a volunteer-run New York State not-for-profit organization. Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is a chartered member club of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and our activities support the work of our parent organization.
The Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is more than a singing group. Beyond performing at various venues, including our own Coffeehouse, rallies, and marches, Walkabout brings folk music to the younger generations through school programs. First and foremost, the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus is a group of activists – using their voices to address the issues of today, uniting song with purpose.
Save the Date for Clearwater’s 2025 Folk Picnic