RIMTA to honor industry leaders and innovators

by Cynthia Goss on 10 Sep 2014 On Saturday, September 13, members of the Rhode Island Marine Trades Association (RIMTA) will gather at its Annual Industry Partnership Breakfast to honor industry leaders and innovators and to chart a path toward the future for this Rhode Island industry.

At the breakfast, held during the Newport International Boat Show, RIMTA will honor Sally Helme, group publisher of The Sailing Company (Middletown) and Eric Goetz, chief technology officer of Goetz Boats (Bristol) with the organization’s Anchor Awards; these accolades are presented annually to individuals who have had a significant impact on the promotion and advancement of the state’s marine-trades industry. The organization will also present the results from a 2014 Economic Impact and Skills Gap Analysis, which paints a statistical picture of the R.I. marine trades and the challenges facing the industry. The study was produced by Planning Decisions of Portland (Maine).

'The annual breakfast is our time as an industry to network and socialize and honor the most talented and effective individuals in our industry,' said Wendy Mackie, CEO of RIMTA. 'But it’s also a time to take a hard look at where our industry is—and where it’s going.'

In addition to the Anchor Awards presentation, attendees will hear from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Congressman David Cicilline, RIMTA President Dick Cromwell, RIMTA CEO Wendy Mackie, and RIMTA’s incoming Legislative Chairman Andy Tyska. President of Brooks Marine Group Neal Harrell will give a presentation on 'Closing the Skills Gap,' which will include an overview of the results of the Economic Impact and Skills Gap Analysis. The Anchor Awards will be presented by Brad Read of Sail Newport and Peter Van Lancker of Hunt Yachts.

Anchor Award recipient and lifelong boater Sally Helme has combined her passion for boating with her skills in business to become a recognized leader in the marine industry. She started her career as a yacht broker and then assumed marketing roles at several marine manufacturers before moving to the publishing side of the business in 1994. She now leads two R.I.–based sailing magazines, Sailing World and Cruising World, which are part of the Bonnier Corporation, and the National Offshore One-Design Regattas, the largest sailing regatta series in North America. She has donated her time and expertise to a wealth of marine-related nonprofits and business organizations, and she also produces the 'State of the Sailing Industry' report—an annual survey that tracks sailboat production, imports, and bareboat charters that is recognized as the key barometer of the U.S. sailing industry. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Salve Regina University, where she earned her Master’s degree.

Eric Goetz is recognized worldwide as a pioneer in the high-tech composites industry. A lifelong sailor, he went to Brown University and also took industrial design courses at the Rhode Island School of Design. Those classes sparked his interest in how design is influenced by materials and processes; after graduation he founded Goetz Custom Sailboats in 1975 and soon became established as an innovator who found new ways to stiffen and lighten boats—beginning with cold-molded boats with all-wood hulls and decks and graduating to today’s high-tech fibers laminated with heat-cured resin systems. He was the first to build a pre-preg carbon racing boat in the U.S. and has built over 100 custom boats, including nine America’s Cup contenders, and numerous architectural structures, including the restoration of the Buckminster Fuller original Fly’s Eye Dome. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and he helps students understand the potential of building with composites by lecturing at leading universities, including Harvard Graduate School of Design, Dartmouth College Thayer School of Engineering, Yale School of Architecture-Graduate Division, and the Landing School.

RIMTA’s Annual Industry Breakfast takes place at the Newport Yachting Center Sunset Terrace on Saturday, September 13, from 8 to 9:30 AM.