Innovative Boat Will Get Urban Students on the Water
Ronnie Vesnaver ’15 prepares for a groundbreaking solar-electric vessel to ply the Delaware River
Maine’s centuries-old boat-building industry conjures images of graceful schooners, sturdy sloops, and hardy lobster boats launched from historic boatyards into sparkling ocean waters.
While those romantic images still hold true, today’s boat building also reflects 21st-century sensibilities and technology. Take Firefly, a unique solar-electric catamaran under construction at the Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding facility in Thomaston, Maine.
Firefly is poised to become the first passenger-carrying vessel to run on revolutionary lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, said Veronica “Ronnie” Vesnaver ’15, director of regional programs and partnerships for Upstream Alliance. This Maryland-based nonprofit organization commissioned the boat.
Upstream Alliance promotes healthy relationships between people and the environment by providing on-the-water experiences. “The organization specializes in getting people on the water as a means for change. And we oftentimes do that by partnering with other organizations or influential community members,” said Vesnaver. The bulk of Upstream Alliance’s work is on the Delaware River in the Philadelphia and Camden City, N.J., area, “where there are access and clean water issues,” she said. “And a lot of need.”
Firefly will be docked in Camden City, an underserved city across the Delaware from Philadelphia, and will become the organization’s flagship vessel for its environmental education programs. Vesnaver will play a key role in building out the program’s curriculum and overseeing its implementation.
During the school day, the vessel will act as a school-boat to get students in Camden City onto the water for hands-on activities. The goal, said Vesnaver, is to expose them to the Delaware River’s environment and biodiversity as well as its environmental issues. Partner organizations will use the boat afternoons and weekends.
“We couldn’t be more excited to have Ronnie on our team,” said Don Baugh, president and founder of Upstream Alliance. “She brings everything you’d want in a representative and a teacher for the environment. She has a passion for it, she has experience, and in terms of being a teacher, she really gets it with the kids.”
Firefly’s design and usage
Vesnaver was in Thomaston last month with a group of Upstream Alliance’s supporters, funders, and volunteers to see Firefly under construction. That misty morning along the narrow inlet of St. George’s River, hushed and fragrant at low tide, they stepped inside the bustling Lyman-Morse facility. The 49-foot vessel’s aluminum double hulls and skeletal frame gleamed in the light.
A ladder pitched invitingly from the shop floor up to the boat’s deck.
“This is wild—it’s so big!” said Vesnaver, standing on the 49 by 20-foot deck for the first time. A tent was pitched in one corner to show how the deck can be used for overnight camping, with space for six three-person tents. The boat will also carry 10 kayaks for inshore excursions in waters navigable only by kayak.
The boat’s architect, Dave Gerr, pointed out the soon-to-be U.S. Coast Guard-approved fireproof compartments for the vessel’s 48 batteries, which can store power and be charged when docked. The frame above the deck will hold 24 double-sided solar panels that he noted will provide the power needed to propel the 32-passenger boat. When underway, Firefly can travel continuously at eight miles per hour for 70 miles on battery supply, an extensive range for a boat of its size.
Firefly will have the lowest carbon footprint possible while allowing Upstream Alliance to fulfill its mission of getting people on the water. The organization hopes the boat will serve as a national and international model for emissions-free, sustainable transportation.
“There’s a lot to think about, like how the boat’s going to be used and building new partnerships with various organizations that can make use of the boat,” said Vesnaver, who brings academic and real-world experience related to sustainability and environmental education to her current position.
“The role for the boat is endless,” she said.
Crafting her experiences
Vesnaver has designed her career to date as adeptly as she designed her experience at Colby.
Initially, she was dead set against enrolling at Colby. She did not want to be the fifth in her family to study on Mayflower Hill by following her parents and older siblings to Waterville. Ultimately, however, she decided that a small school in the north was exactly what she wanted. Colby was familiar and felt like a good fit, she said. Access to the Colby Museum of Art was a huge draw.
While Vesnaver was growing up, her family moved around and spent a lot of time in museums. They eventually settled in a town near Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport Museum, where she immersed herself in maritime history. At Colby, she combined her interests by double majoring in art history and American studies.
“I crafted my own experience through those majors,” said Vesnaver. “The art experience helped me dive into the museum world, and then the American studies piece let me explore different facets of American life.”
As a student, she interned at the Colby Museum and the L.C. Bates Museum of Natural History and Culture in nearby Hinckley under the guidance of Professor of Art Véronique Plesch. The Colby Museum funded a summer internship at the Art Institute of Chicago, and she spent a semester at William College’s Williams-Mystic Coastal and Ocean Studies Program.
Reflecting on her Colby experience, she said the interdisciplinary nature of her studies— seeing topics through a range of lenses—was significant. “Making connections between the environment, art, and science, that groundwork was definitely laid for me at Colby.” She also gained valuable skills in research, writing, and publishing, and learned about administrative roles and operations at the Colby Museum.
Urban environmental work
While collecting these experiences, she harbored an interest in sustainability and the environment, which she explored after she graduated. She taught social studies and co-chaired a sustainability committee at the Pennington School in New Jersey for five years. She taught environmental humanities for the next four years for the Chesapeake Watershed Semester, a program she eventually directed, from 2022 to 2024.
Along the way, she enrolled at Rutgers University and earned her master’s in environmental history with a focus on marine and coastal topics.
“Making connections between the environment, art, and science, that groundwork was definitely laid for me at Colby.”
Ronnie Vesnaver ’15
At Upstream Alliance, Vesnaver has found a position that blends her skills, passions, and education into a meaningful whole. She runs programs, raises money, and makes relationships between partners, which she said meshes with her personality. “I love making connections with people and learning about what makes people tick, and how what we’re doing aligns with their interests.”
As she prepares for the arrival of Firefly, those connections include teachers and stakeholders in Camden City public and charter schools. Vesnaver is working hard to ensure that the curriculum for Firefly will align with area schools curricula.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm, and we have good relationships with those schools. There’s just a lot of excitement about what the boat is going to bring,” she said.
“Camden City is a place that needs support, help, and resources. So often we don’t think of urban centers as environmental spaces or places where folks could or should have access to their outdoor world,” she said. “It’s been a cool place to do environmental work.”
