By Ally Gravina
FAIR HAVEN – It is a Wednesday evening in late July and five sailboats are circling the starting line in the brackish waters of the Navesink River. Nearly halfway between Red Bank and the Oceanic Bridge, they jockey, ever-so-politely, for the ideal start position. The competitors – a junior racer sailing solo in an Opti, a Sanderling captained by the mayor of Fair Haven, a family in an O’Day 19, and two other boats – await the sound of a horn, which indicates that the first race of the evening has begun.
At the helm of that horn, as well as at the helm of the weathered committee boat, are Joe and Carole Malik. The couple run the summer sailing races at Fair Haven Sailing Club, also known as River Rats.
River Rats is a nonprofit sailing club located on Battin Road in Fair Haven. It is a bare-bones sailing operation that functions as a place where kids from the community can learn to sail. In addition to training programs for both children and adults, River Rats organizes social events and makes race series accessible for its members. “It’s a family-oriented club,” Joe said. “Its purpose really is to teach people how to sail. Especially kids.”
The club has always strived to put the community first. It may not have a clubhouse, but it makes getting kids and their families out on the river a priority. “If there is someone in town, or in the area, that wants to sail but can’t afford it, we will make sure we get them into sailing classes,” Joe said. Or, if a local child wants to become a member, but their parents do not, then an existing member is asked to sponsor the child.
And that mission has remained the same since the founding of the club in 1955. Walter Isbrandtsen, the founder and first skipper of River Rats, started the club as a family-oriented sailing group after moving to the area from New York. Early members purchased 21 Indian Scout sailboat kits and asked members of the community, both children and adults, to help with assembly. In 1960 the club took a home on Battin Road and officially incorporated as a nonprofit.
The Maliks, of Middletown, have been members of River Rats since the late 1970s when they moved to the Two River area from New Providence and were looking for a place to launch their 1973 O’Day Javelin. “We already had two kids, or maybe one and one on the way,” Carole recalled. “River Rats fit our budget best and that is why we joined.”
Since then, their five daughters have gone through the youth sailing program and the couple remain essential in ensuring the club’s success.
Years ago Carole worked as editor of the club’s newsletter “Cheese.” She recalled one edition after she and Joe took a boater safety course, in which she included a quiz of sorts with line drawings of running lights. She and her daughters spent an evening coloring in the red and green lights on each black and white newsletter before distributing them to members. She also started a regular column – Aged Chatter – in which a member regularly wrote about the history of the club.
Joe has also been extremely active in River Rats. He started as a boat mechanic and has held many positions since then, including skipper, a role he was appointed to twice. The skipper is River Rats’ version of a commodore. Joe explained that as “part of maintaining a less formal arrangement,” they have more casual titles like skipper for president, executive officer for vice president, and purser for the treasurer. Joe was skipper for the 1986-87 and 2005-06 seasons.
Together, Joe and Carol spearheaded a charge to get more kids from the sailing camps out on the water for the Wednesday night races. They made it possible for the kids to borrow boats from the club and get instructor guidance during the races.
That junior racer who competed alongside four other (adult-manned) boats in late July won the races that night. Sailing an Opti he borrowed from River Rats, no less.
The Maliks have seen many things stay the same during their 40-year tenure at River Rats, but they have also seen many changes. They have seen the removal of powerlines that hung so low they would catch on boat masts. They witnessed the addition of the bulkhead. They have welcomed kayakers and canoers to the club with open arms; kayaking and canoeing, according to Joe, are increasingly popular on the Navesink. They have seen the club’s fleet of Turnabout swapped out for Optis. And they even witnessed a near disaster when the club toyed with the idea of swapping their famous Junior Sweeps Regatta meal of tacos from Casa Comida in Long Branch for a healthier option. “That was met with uproar,” Joe said.
But, at the end of the day, the crucial thing about River Rats remains the same–it is a low key club focused on getting kids out on the water. “Gosh,” Joe said, “most of us wouldn’t be down there in the cold, wet, fixing boats and stuff if it wasn’t for the fact that the kids were going to use it.”
