Meet three stars of the New York Harbor community

Linda Kulla, Volunteer Membership Chair, Manhattan Sailing Club

Linda Kulla carefully points out that the Manhattan Sailing Club is more like a floating village than, say, an anonymous health club. She should know: As a volunteer membership chair, she orients all new members. And she participated in many of the MSC’s activities, such as intra-club races that take place every Tuesday and the annual winter flotilla to the Caribbean, as well as the social members mixers held in the Honorable William Wall, the floating clubhouse designed by acclaimed naval architects Sparkman and Stephens that is moored just north of Ellis Island. She’s even involved in the club syndicate that purchased and is now refurbishing the America II, a 12-meter boat that raced in the Louis Vuitton regatta in Australia in 1987. “It’s a real piece of American sailing history,” she says of the club’s new flagship, which members use regularly.

While Kulla has been sailing all her life—from a childhood in Long Island to Brown University’s sailing team, then back to the city—what she enjoys about her current perch is its inclusiveness. “We have members of all kinds: kids out of college, retired people, foreigners transferred here for business, and expert sailors, to people who’ve just completed their first class.” That could explain why, in 2002, the group changed its name from Manhattan Yachting Club to MSC. “It’s a wonderful sense of community in the club and in Battery Park City,” Kulla remarks, “and ‘yacht club’ did not portray that environment.” Club Members pay a $1,100 annual membership fee, and $800 extra to maintain a skipper’s licensce. They can avail themselves of the club’s J24 fleet of sailboats for several-hour-long runs anytime between 9 in the morning and dusk.

Randall Henriksen, President, New York Kayak Company

Randall Henriksen missed his canoe. When he moved to New York from Minnesota in 1985, “I felt like I was losing touch with nature without my boat.” He and his wife sought an alternative to clunky canoes in foldable kayaks, and spent their vacations taking lessons in the sport. Little by little, the hobby escalated. Henriksen began building kayaks in his Brooklyn woodworking shop, and then, in 1994 he gave up dual careers in general contracting and fiction writing to found the New York Kayak Company. Now NYKC occupies a delightful home at Pier 40 and provides lessons to as many as 500 landlubbers annually.

Every year, a certain number of novices become members, too. Different levels of membership, which range in price from $800 to $2,000 provide access to the launch, locker space, instruction, store discounts, and for those members who don’t enjoy Riverhouse’s extensive kayak storage, a place to park your vessel. Skill is no barrier to membership, Henriksen says, because learning to kayak “is like tango: Many people get the hang of it in three nights.” New pledges have taken a shine to the “experience of the wind, the current, the waves.” And because Henriksen advises to always kayak in a group paddling it safe also means making connections. “Members kayak with friends in the club, and they meet new people. The point is, people who have never kayaked before learn to kayak here in Manhattan and they go on adventures together all over the world.”

Dan Falcon, Sailboat Charter Manager, Sail NYC

Gazing out on the Hudson from Sail NYC’s Jersey City location, Dan Falcon wants to get one thing straight: For boating, give New Jersey a chance. It’s got the best views in the world, after all. “You hop in the ferry right near the World Financial Center and you’re in Jersey in three minutes flat,” Falcon advises, “and it all looks spectacular from here.”

Chance might well be Falcon’s middle name—because he’s taken a few himself. “I guess I was a banker,” he says, laughing seemingly in surprise at his own audacity. SInce 2006, he and his partner Len Butler have run Sail NYC, also known as Harborside, as a no-fuss relaxed outlet for anyone who wants to hit the water. “You don’t have to own a boar, you don’t have to commit to membership fees, you don’t even need to know how to sail yet,” Falcon points out. Simply pay for the services you choose, such as chartering a motor yacht or sailing lessons. Falcon urges anyone to commit a few hours to a rendezvous on the water. The easy Jersey commute just starts the pleasure trip: “The New York Harbor is the best wide-open space anywhere near New York City, with fresh air and freedom to maneuver.”

-Jude Stewart