March News!

Welcome Tom Leach, Sailing Director!

Pleasant Bay Community Boating is proud to announce longtime Harwich Harbormaster and party boat captain Tom Leach in the new salaried position as Waterfront/Sailing Director. Leach will replace retiring Greg Kelly who brought the program from the shores at Jackknife Harbor to its new campus setting along the bluff on the western side of the Bay. With the expectation of the Floating Classroom Research Vessel being donated by the Friends of Pleasant Bay, PBCB trustees saw Tom’s unusual background as a fully licensed captain with sailing and towing endorsements, competitive sailor in J/24’s and Flying Scots, and 12 years as co-coach for the Harwich Rough Riders a great fit for its sailing and science program. He is a member of Guild of Harwich Artists and hopes to bring plein air art along with boating safety certification classes to PBCB.
He holds a BS in Chemistry from Tufts University. Leach served the Town of Harwich as Natural Resources Director/Harbormaster for nearly 40 years. In that time, he sought more than a dozen grants and a myriad of permits for waterways improvement and dredging projects. The last and largest was the $1 million grant to replace the Town Pier at Wychmere came after his retirement in 2012. He is married to Jackie Leach a retired Harwich school adjustment counselor. They live one mile from PBCB. He pioneered the first public shellfish upweller system in 1994 at Wychmere, where Harwich students seasonally intern to raise millions of quahogs and oysters while learning science behind water quality and the life that grows in it. After acquiring two pumpout boats and equipment he submitted and the Town was awarded a successful Federal No Discharge Area in 1998 making Harwich the fifth FNDA in the state. He designed the successful Cape Cod Frosty racing dinghy that has six active fleets and is the basis of the youth build-and-sail program at Sail Maine, Portland Community Boating. He is a certified welder, is a past president of the Cape & Island Harbormasters Association and Cape Cod Astronomical Society, and holds a General Ham Radio operators license.
Tom can be reached at: tom@pbcb.cc