Boston Blind Sailing Inc

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025 BBS enjoyed another full season of our core programming, conducting weekly practices from May through August at our host center, Boston's Community Boating, Inc (CBI,). These practices usually consisted of various drills, starts and short races. The participation numbers for blind and sighted sailors and volunteers remained on par with 2023 and 2024 levels, but we ended the season with the strongest Boston Blind Open (BBO) Sailing Regatta ever. We are looking to increase participation in all categories in 2026. In 2025 we welcomed Shelby Graham as our new Coach and she brought a new level of energy and enthusiasm to the role. In late May, the Robie Pierce One Design Regatta for Disabled Sailors was held on Western Long Island Sound in New York at the Larchmont Yacht Club. BBS was represented by blind sailors Cailin Currie and Duane Farrar and sighted guide Solomon Marini. On two occasions during the Summer, Duane Farrar, Sam Peirson and Dana Robinson had the pleasure of taking a Visually Impaired Junior sailing with a parent. One Junior was a girl aged 10, and the other a boy aged 14. The girl was already a participant in CBI's Junior Program. The mother of the boy had been told by a Cape Cod yacht club after one day in their junior sailing program that "they couldn't do anything for him." That's when she reached out to BBS. The BBO took place at CBI on September 20. Blind & visually impaired sailors from the Carroll Center's SailBlind Saturday recreational program who had an interest in racing were invited to take part in the regatta. Sighted sailors and tacticians were recruited from BBS, SailBlind and CBI's Tiller Club. Despite some last-minute cancellations and scrambling to fill out the crews, there were six Sonar teams of two blind or visually impaired and two sighted sailors who were treated to a spectacular day of racing and sunny September weather with just the right amount of wind on the scenic Charles River Basin. After six very competitive races, Jason Wallenstein, William O'Donnell and their team of Sam Peirson and Madi Jolly emerged victorious by a single point over Duane Farrar and his team of Lindell Cooks, Solomon Marini and Payton Farrar. Jin Qian and his team of the blindfolded Daniel Graziano, Nolan Cooper and Uyen Nguyen finished just one point behind Duane's team in Third Place. A special shout-out must go to Jin Qian, who didn't know until Saturday morning that he was going to helm in his very first regatta! Not only that, he won his first race! He won two races in all, finishing the regatta nipping at the sterns of two longtime, veteran helmsmen in Jason and Duane. Rounding out the standings were the teams of Willi Fontanez, Mark Russell, Rick Peralta and Gregor Dzialas in fourth, Ginny Duff, Casandra Xavier, Dana Robinson and Gail Boettiger in fifth and Cailin Currie, Tabitha Baskin, Shelby Graham and Peter Fay in sixth. Special thanks to Ginny Duff for traveling to us from Toronto and to Rick Peralta for filling the role of Sighted Tactician for the very first time! And, Dan Graziano, who offered to volunteer for the regatta on Friday and was rewarded for his altruism on Saturday by being tossed into a Sonar with a blindfold slapped on his face! This was also the first regatta for blind sailors Lindell Cooks and Mark Russell, who really had no idea what they were getting themselves into. The same could also be said for first-time Sighted Crews Uyen Nguyen, Gail Boettiger and Madi Jolly. Along with our veteran sighted guides and blind sailors, we are extremely grateful for all of you and thank you for making this the most successful BBO regatta to date! Our Race Committee of Nick Peirson, Pavel Zbitskiy and Karen Bertram had their hands full moving the course around on a challenging Charles River day, as well as monitoring boat rotations after nearly every race. They kept everything running smoothly and ensured we got off six races within our specified time window. Kudos to Nick, Pavel and Kare

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 45.4%; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.27; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: -15.3% per year; rating input score 0; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -24.3% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -35.9% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings