NEWS from BoatUS
Boat Owners Association of The United States
880 S. Pickett St., Alexandria, VA 22304
BoatUS Press Room at www.BoatUS.com
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Press Contact: D. Scott Croft, 703-461-2864, SCroft@BoatUS.com
Story of Nation's First Black Yacht Club Wins Award for BoatUS Magazine
One of Two First Place Honors Bestowed in National Competition
Photo captions: Top: Howard University alumni – all DC Mariners or Oyster Harbor Boat Club Members – Preparing to join the Homecoming Capitol Classic Parade on LeiLani, built by Bob Martin in the 1950s.Above left: Martin works on Natatchia III, his 42-foot Owens in 1984.Center: Lewis Green. Right: Martin’s friend Delores Fox in 1961. Photo Credit: Vintage photos courtesy of Bob Martin’s Collection. Green photo courtesy of Seafarers Yacht Club.Download hi-res photo.
ALEXANDRIA, Va., February 16, 2010 – A six-page BoatUS Magazine feature that chronicles the challenges faced by the nation’s first African-American boat club was one of two stories that recently won first place awards in the Boating Writers International (BWI) Annual Writing Contest.
In the March 2009 feature "It Was a Club of Their Own" , BoatUS Magazine Contributing Editor Ann Dermody shares the story of Seafarers Yacht Club, located on Washington, D.C.’s Anacostia River, and how it has thrived under the strong legacy of a visionary teacher and his industrious student. The BWI judges singled out the story from several dozen entries, praising it as a well-researched, beautifully written and poignant story about a pair of passionate boat lovers and the barriers they had to break to found and maintain the nation’s first black boat club.
The other first place win went to BoatUS Magazine freelance writer Tania Aebi for her story, "One Mom, Two Teens, No Exit" . The March 2009 feature tells the story of a former around-the-world solo sailor and record holder, Aebi, hoping to give her two boys a worldview and a sense of responsibility by taking them on a year-long sail to the South Pacific. Any parent who has ever wanted to give their children something other than video games will appreciate the challenges of such a journey. Judges praised the feature as an inspiring story of family bonding.
Both Dermody and Aebi took home $500 each for their first-place wins. The annual contest covered 17 categories and drew 352 entries from 134 participants.
BoatUS Magazine is the largest boating magazine in the nation with over half a million circulation and is published by Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS). For more information on how to join BoatUS or get your own bi-monthly subscription, go to www.BoatUS.com/membership .
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About BoatUS:
BoatUS – Boat Owners Association of The United States – is the nation’s leading advocate for recreational boaters providing over half a million members with government representation, programs and money saving services. For membership information visit www.BoatUS.com or call 800-395-2628.
