Through boating and education, CISF inspires and engages people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities with the coastal environment.

CISF is on target with our mission. We provide free sailing on Wednesdays during the summer, hold 8 weeks of Jamestown Sea Adventure Camp, a sailing and marine education camp, and have a STEAM Ocean Education Initiative offering year-round in-school and after-school programming within the Jamestown school system.

Our future vision includes the following:

– A modest growth in camp to eliminate waiting lists

– Other marine related activities, such as boat rentals

– A ‘wet’ lab and classroom space to support the Jamestown school curriculums for additional year-round educational programming

– A speaker series about sailing & marine education to engage adult audiences

– A Permanent location at Fort Getty in which we can run programs and increase the number of programs that we run.

Giving CISF a Permanent Home

The Vision for a community sailing and marine education center is rooted in CISF’s love for Jamestown’s marine environment. Each and every CISF Board member feels passionately about Jamestown’s marine environment and making that accessible for all.  Each Board Member has their own story and memory of how sailing and the marine environment helped to shape and became a vital part of their life in a positive way.  These connections to the marine environment have become the passion that drives CISF to continue to improve its fundraising, programming, and community base each year.

Ft. Getty is blessed with a natural environment second to none within Rhode Island; located on a peninsula jutting into the west passage at the mouth of Narragansett Bay. Fort Getty provides a sandy beach, a rocky shore and a salt march, all facets of a marine environment that are ideal for exploration and learning.

Our vision for a community sailing and marine education center at Fort Getty includes a facility with enough space to include the following:
—–Winter storage of boats
—–Storage for science equipment
—–A Wet classroom
—–A multi-purpose room
—–A small office
—–Bathrooms

Our main goal is to serve the residents of Jamestown by providing marine access and education.  In the past, Fort Getty has served as the venue for regional and national small boat sailing events with much success. Fort Getty will remain a viable and (hopefully even more) appealing site for sailing events in the future.

CISF would like to work with the Town of Jamestown to develop a “Community Sailing and Marine Education Center”, which will provide service and economic benefits to the community through camp programming, sailing and marine education programming, sailing instruction, boat rental, and other community-related events that serve the residents of Jamestown.  The Fort Getty Community Sailing and Marine Education Center will also provide local and regional exposure of the Jamestown area as a positive, healthy, and unique waterfront experience.

A public-private partnership described above will be a tremendous asset to the Town of Jamestown and its residents.  CISF and the Town of Jamestown are both in the business of public service.  CISF intends to provide 100 percent of the funds necessary to build the Community Sailing and Marine Education Center on land owned by the Town of Jamestown.

Any help and support we can garner is very much appreciated! Letters and emails of support can be sent to Meg Myles (CISFSailing@gmail.com), or directly to Jamestown’s Town Council:
Nancy A. Beye, President
Mary E. Meagher, Vice President
Michael G. White
Randall White
Erik Brine