Spend Some Time with Jim Bender

Plenty of West Coast mariners have colorful sailing résumés that include exotic travel on a variety of sailing craft. But we’d bet few could match the diversity of experience acquired by the Bay Area’s Jim Bender. Tomorrow, April 26, at 7 p.m. he’ll be the featured speaker for a special presentation at Sausalito’s Spaulding Marine Center.

During the past 15 years the self-described environmental educator and student of cultural anthropology has sailed to more than 40 countries aboard tall ships and a variety of other sailing craft. Along the way, he’s lent his energy and expertise to a number of community programs that involve sailing. Most notably, for the past six years he’s been the director of the Adriatic Maritime Institute, an NGO based in Croatia that’s dedicated to using traditional boats as a platform for youth development and maritime preservation in the Adriatic.

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One of the group’s most unusual projects features an annual sail aboard an 18th century cargo vessel to the agricultural center of the Neretva Valley in southern Croatia, where they pick up a boatload of fresh watermelons to sell throughout the islands as a fundraiser for needy kids. This year, Bender’s group will also organize a "peace-building boat project" with kids from Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. 

Of course, a side benefit of attending Bender’s presentation tomorrow is having an excuse to spend some quality time inside Sausalito’s historic Spaulding Marine Center, one of the true gems of wooden boat culture on the West Coast.