Greetings.

I have been following the recent stories on the Amistad in The Day and The Courant. I share the  shock and dismay at the gross misuse of state funds by those involved with Amistad America Inc. In fact, I have known about these abuses for quite some time. I worked for Amistad America Inc. back in 2008, just when things were starting to get real desperate for that operation. I am a professional, credentialed mariner who has over ten years experience in the traditional sailing industry. I have also worked for Ocean Classroom Foundation. From my experience, I feel they have become a less-than-noble organization as well. Due to my disagreements with how their operations were run, my associations with both organizations ended less-than-pleasantly.

From the years of 2008-2011, while on an extended hiatus from sailing and pursuing a bachelor's degree in both English and American Studies at UConn-Avery Point, I shopped around the region for persons interested in forming a non-profit group that could offer themselves as an alternative program for the Amistad. My hope was to present an option for the state of CT to switch operational groups, relieving Amistad America Inc. of their command and awarding this new organization the vessel and funding from the state to subsidize the first few years. The basis of the program was a slim-budgeted, narrow-focused sail-training program based out of New London and working cooperatively with Mystic Seaport for maintenance and winter storage. Over that span of time, I found mostly frustration as all my investigations revealed was this persistent state funding by grants with no apparent oversight -- and no interest in other ideas. I found no one willing to join together and take the next step towards challenging this paradigm and so, ultimately, I chose to shelve the idea and wait to see what happened.