 
Many a would-be entrepreneur has asked, How do you make a living doing something you love? If the something you love is sailing and you live in the Hudson Valley, you might found the Tivioli Sailing Co. and offer lessons and charter cruises with an appreciation of the river, its eddies and its history.
To assist those who lead a more mundane work life, a little ferry work is in the business model, too, via a motorized “tender” vessel.
That was the course charted two years ago by Captain Jerome Crandall-Hollick.
Now, on a calm summer day with the late afternoon sun glinting on the river, he talked about how, in its third year, his sailing business is growing even in a recession and said the explanation was relatively simple. “There”™s no one else really doing this,” he said, from the tiller of his 24 foot sail boat Leda navigating south between Saugerties and Tivoli.Â
By “this” he means the three pronged business model of the Tivoli Sailing: offering chartered river cruises, children and adult sailing lessons and a unique “sailing school” for children who learn more than just tying knots reading winds and raising sail.
The web site is tivolisailing.com.
“If there is no wind, we go from sailors to explorers,” Crandall-Hollick said, stopping at coves, beaches, rope swings, and local museums and light houses. The sailing school contains a science component taught by Bard College director of environmental policy director Mara Rainville and Saugerties lighthouse keeper Patrick Landawe.Â
The sailing school and in many ways the entire business started “organically,” as Crandall-Hollick likes to say. “I used the chance to go sailing as a reward for my guitar students, because it”™s hard to get kids to practice,” he said. Then a friend floated the idea of a sailing day camp. “And all of a sudden I had eight kids on my boat five times a week.”
The weekly sailing school running this year from June 29 through Aug. 31 is “steadier income” than the vagaries of the charter business and his complement of kid sailors so far this year has doubled the size of the camp from 8 to at least 16 sailors.
He is planning on slowly expanding and has hired a junior instructors he taught who will then pass on the knowledge to the children in small sailing craft under his watchful eye from the motorized mother ship he is purchasing called the “tender vessel.”
And he said he plans to use the tender as a ferry boat between Tivoli and Saugerties, for a small-but-loyal band of commuters who cross the river twice daily and who can save almost an hour a day in time and save on gas money while relaxing on the river instead of being behind the wheel. “You used to be able to go between these towns (via the river) really quickly but there is no demand now for a full time ferry so you have to keep the boat working full time,” Crandall-Hollick said. “I figured out a way to do it.”  Â
His charter business has been busier than ever. He credits his success to his relatively “cheap rates,” as well as the popularity of staycations. “People are staying closer to home and I”™m right here and it”™s a new and exciting thing. And now I”™m starting to see repeat business.”
His success also involves partnering with other area attractions and transport hubs offering, for example, a “Rail, Sail, Bed and Breakfast” package where visitors can be met exiting the Amtrak express at the Rhinecliff station, dine on the sailboat on the river and spend the night at a partner B&B.        Â
Crandall-Hollick has been sailing the Massachusetts coast since he was 11 years old. He attended Bard College. After graduation, he taught sailing in Boston Harbor, but was drawn back to the region by the lure of the Hudson River, its numerous nooks and crannies as well as the historic mansions lining its shores.
“As a hazard of this job I guess I”™ve become a bit of a tour guide,” he said. “And it”™s quite interesting. A big part of it is being able to share what you love.”
And the sailing itself is also plenty interesting. “This river is really tricky to sail,” he said. “Conditions are constantly changing,” he said, citing vagaries of winds, river traffic and tides. “If you learn to sail here, everywhere else is easy.”Â
