Increasing public access and accessibility to the Brooklyn waterfront A Sebago Canoe Club Project

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1 Increasing public access and accessibility to the Brooklyn waterfront A Sebago Canoe Club Project SUMMARY GOALS: The goal of this phase of Sebago s multi-year capital improvement plan was to design and build a recreational dock and ramp facility in a New York City Park that met the needs of the human powered boating community. These needs required designing a dock that could accommodate specific types of human powered boats from small 6 long whitewater kayaks to 30 long dragon boats all using the facility at the same time. Another goal was to make sure that all people including those with disabilities would have direct access to the Brooklyn waterfront. COURSE OF ACTION: Sebago spent many years talking to its membership of roughly 200 to see what each discipline wanted and needed in a new dock and ramp. Sebago talked to our sea kayakers, our canoeists, our sailors, our rowers and our flat-water racers. While everyone wanted a dock that was low to the water, our sailors wanted a side as long as possible on the seaward side of the dock to make hitting the dock easier in the wind. Our sailors also wanted a large enough dock area to remove their boats from their large dollies and slide them into the water. Our rowers wanted a space where they could lower their rowing sculls in the water and still have a dock on either side for their 12 long oars. Our sea kayakers wanted to be able to launch at least 10 boats at a time to help make our community programs run more efficiently and a shape where 1 or 2 instructors could address 10 boaters at a time while they got into their boats. We then talked to the human powered boaters in the New York City area and asked for their suggestions. We contacted 10 different dock manufacturers and looked into steel docks, plastic docks, wood docks, floating docks and dock kits that club members could build themselves. The planning committee then sat down and with this vast amount of information in front of us took on the task of boiling it down to the 8 things we absolutely needed in a dock. 1. Low freeboard. 2. Ability to fit at least 11 kayaks 15 long around dock and launch at the same time. 3. Long (at least 50 ) face of dock for sail boats to land. 4. Accessibly by all including disabled people. 5. Affordability 6. Able to hold at least 20 people at a time. 7. Low maintenance especially ridding the dock of splinters. 8. Area for instructors to work with multiple boaters at 1 time. Now that we had our dock requirements we began to think about the ramp that would connect the dock to the land. Again from the information we had collected we knew we needed a ramp that: 1. Had a relatively low angle so that wheelchairs could get down to the dock at low tide and people carrying boats could be safe even if the ramp was wet. 2. Was wide enough so that sailboats on dollies and kayakers carrying kayaks could safely pass each other on the ramp. 3. Low maintenance. 4. Affordability. Everything was in place so in collaboration with 12 th St Design (the design firm that has helped the club create a master plan with multiple phases of capital improvement over multiple years). Rosemary Suh and Shawn Watts took the absolutes we needed and began the design process. With multiple designs, first being approved by the planning committee and then the Board of Directors the dock and ramp was finally put into one coherent design. 1

2 This design was submitted to different dock builders for bidding and the club looked into building the dock itself. From when Sebago really started to make plans to build the dock to final design that went out to bid took almost 3 years. Along with the design process Sebago knew that it had to acquire the funds for this project before it could be given the green light. Sebago held fundraisers over this 3 year period and was able to raise and commit $15,000 plus in-kind labor towards the project. With the downward turn in the economy Sebago was very fortunate that the prices it received when the project went out to final bid were low enough so that Sebago was able to job out almost the entire project. Some items were still done by volunteer labor from Sebago and in-kind donations from outside sources. ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Sebago is very proud that it was able to build a new dock and ramp facility in Paerdegat Basin Park (A NYC Public Park) and that this new facility MEETS every need of human powered recreational boaters. This facility is the showcase of the New York Water Trails. With this new facility, Sebago was able to: Run its Open paddle program more efficiently by getting more boats at the dock at one time. Expanded its youth program for youths years old. Held the first sanctioned District 8 Laser Regatta (dinghy class sailboats) in Jamaica by increasing the size of the dock and having a ramp that could accommodate wide sailboats. Held its first disabled kayak day in cooperation with the V.A. Hospital. Ability to hold a large open house where kayaks, canoes, sailboats and guests could all be on the dock at the same time. LESSONS LEARNED: The basic message we conveyed was that any project can be achieved over time if you are willing to put in the effort required. All the fundraising events over the years took hundreds of volunteer hours to coordinate. Finding grant opportunities and writing the grants (and loosing many of them) involved thousands of volunteer hours and much heartache. Coordinating with other not-for-profits about what type of dock they needed also involved many hours of work. The biggest challenge had to deal with all the different agencies that had to sign off on the project before it began including N.Y. C. Parks Department, N.Y. S. D.E. C. Army Corp of engineers. An example of this was that the size of our new dock was considerably larger than our old dock and when we originally applied to N.Y.S.D.E.C. for a variance it was denied. Instead of building the dock smaller and having something that did not work we met with them to understand why our application had been rejected and then rewrote the application to prove that every variance we were asking for had a legitimate need and was backed up with documentation from federal, state, city and parks reports. PROJECT EVALUATION: The success of our project can be measured in how the new facility was used and in the number of people who used it. These numbers are an estimate since in the case of Sebago members, we cannot accurately determine how many times each member used the facility this past season. See accomplishments above and participant numbers below. Estimate of usage of recreational dock and ramp facility in Paerdegat Basin Park SEBAGO MEMBERS Open Paddle Program Youth Open Paddles Persons with Disabilities kayakers ( not Sailors Racers Canoeists Rowers Others TOTAL USAGE: over 3000 people. Sebago is extremely grateful to The Harbor Estuary program and The New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission for their support of this project. With the success of this project our environmental and recreational paddling Stewardship programs will be able to continue and expand to reach more New Yorkers. 2

3 Old dock and ramp Installing new dock and ramp 3

4 Enjoying the ew dock and ramp 4

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