News Room

Island "crew" to visit America’s Cup site

April, 2007
by SARAH DUNHAM
Island Advantages

The ongoing research at the Island high school concerning the "Deer Isle Boys" who crewed the America’s Cup winners Defender (1895) and Columbia (1899) will have a lot more data added in the next month. Ten teachers and students will travel April 25-May 1 to Valencia, Spain, the site of the 32nd America’s Cup match.

The America’s Cup project is funded by a three-year, $1.2 million grant awarded to the Island Institute by the National Science Foundation’s Information Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers program. The project that has been funded is called Community for Rural Education Stewardship and Technology. Involving 11 other schools, the CREST goals are to promote interest in technology-related careers. The program trains teachers and students in technology, particularly in GPS, ethnographic techniques and Web design, who return to their schools and incorporate these elements into their classes. In order to continue to qualify for the grant money, certain goals must be met over the three-year period of the grant. One of those, a Web site, has already been created. The trip to Spain will provide the data for future projects, such as a documentary and book, as well as expanding the Web site.

A request for information from the American team BMW Oracle led to an invitation to the Louis Vuitton Cup races, a contest that determines who will challenge the current holder of the America’s Cup. Held in Valencia, Spain, this year’s winner will race against the Swiss team Alinghi for a chance at the oldest trophy in modern sports, according to the America’s Cup Web site, www.americascup.com.

Jan Eagleson, the press representative for the BMW Oracle team, has organized meetings for the Island group with her team and the America’s Cup management. The group plans to visit the America’s Cup Museum and hopes to be able to watch some of the races from a spectator boat. Eagleson wants the group to be interviewed for television so "we have to decide what artifacts to take," says Anne Douglass, elementary school gifted and talented teacher.

Tom Duym, the marine technology teacher at the high school, says the goal of the trip is to "compare and contrast the crew, syndicate, and organization of the late 19th century America’s Cup to now." Though materials have changed since the late 1800s, the value placed on "power, strength and lightness" in the boats has not. The make-up of the crew has changed as well. Men from Deer Isle were chosen to crew the boats in response to a call for American crew members on the American team. Current crews are a blend of nationalities regardless of the team’s country.

Middle level teacher Torri Robbins adds that the current crew is "a cup family," with homes and schools at the race site. The "Deer Isle Boys" "left their families for six months," said Robbins. Using the information gleaned from the trip, high school English teacher Kimberley Larsen hopes the students eventually can make "a DVD documentary, a book, a Web site, and maybe a play."

The Web site, deerisleboys.google pages.com, has already been created. "We’re going to update the Web site while we’re there," said junior Alison Turner, who plans to upload pictures and blogs. All the interviews, pictures and videos taken on this trip will provide data for the next two years the group has to work on the CREST program. The students have found information on the Deer Isle Boys and America’s Cup at the Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society, in books and in community members’ letters and artifacts.

Robbins said, "Our particular group has a lot of drive and motivation for the project," noting that Deer Isle- Stonington has done the most among the schools in the CREST program. A whole class at the high school will be dedicated to CREST programs next year, which includes the study of the Deer Isle Boys using ethnographic techniques, as well as the study of the technology involved in the boats. The elementary school continues mapping the trials using GPS, and the sixth graders are studying and making models of tidal mills.

A letter-writing campaign provided most of the funds for this venture, with a quick and generous response allowing the group to secure plane tickets and lodging. Duym said that "it’s a kind of intensive, expensive trip but we can’t get the information any other way."

Tax-deductible donations are still being accepted. Checks, or any information on the Columbia or Defender crews, can be sent to 251 North Deer Isle Rd., Deer Isle, 04627. Call Kimberley Larsen at 348-2303 for more information.