Max Kahan, a young member of the Sailing Academy at the Shattemuc Yacht Club, crews for Bob Millstein during a race. submitted photo
Feature in LoHud on July 15
Making waves: Bob Millstein was only 9 years old when his father first took him sailing in Long Island. And at age 13, he got his own sailboat — a 16-foot gaff-rigged sloop built in 1924. But after leaving Long Island, Millstein took a long break (about 25 years) from sailing — until a commodore from the Shattemuc Yacht Club in Ossining introduced the Briarcliff Manor resident to sailing on the Hudson River. “I took my 16-foot gaff-rigged sloop on the Hudson River and started sailing again,” Millstein, owner of Briarcliff Classic and Imported Car Service, says. “Then I got a bigger boat.” These days, Millstein and his friends go sailing almost daily. “Any day that I don’t go sailing is a lost day to me,” he says.
Why he loves it: “First of all, sailing on the Hudson takes me away from my work and into another world,” Millstein says. “Being out on the water and sailing is both exhilarating and serene at he same time, being propelled by nothing else other than wind … Spending the time to enjoy a sunset each and every day on the water is like being on vacation all spring, summer and fall.”
Good to know: Millstein’s favorite pastime will keep your mind at peace and challenged at the same time. “Sailing is something that is easy to do but difficult to do really really well,” Millstein says. “So it’s always a learning process. I learn about the boat, I learn about myself … it’s a growing process and it keeps me thinking all the time. I enjoy that.”
Try it: Shattemuc Yacht Club. 1 Westerly Road, Ossining. 914-941-8777. (“Anyone can try. Come down for ride … We give sailing lessons to children and adults,” Millstein says of Shattemuc.)
—Latoya West