By Patrick McGroarty
News Editor

The Marine Operations Unit of UMass-Boston has made a series of steady but significant improvements since director Chris Sweeney came to the Columbia Point campus 11 years ago, part of a conscious effort to counteract the campus' inward-looking layout by embracing one of its greatest resources: oceanfront property.

"So many people drive in and out of here and don't have the experience of being right on the water," said Sweeney as he stood on the campus marina at Fox Point. "We took it as an imperative to make use of our most valuable asset."

Previous improvements over the past decade have included beautifying paths and landscaping along the campus's shoreline and building a public pavilion just above the marina. But the biggest step came this spring, when UMass purchased a brand new, 40-foot research and excursion vessel for about $1.5 million.

The boat, built largely with 'green' technology (In this case that means a non-toxic paint job, engines that burn low-sulfur and biodiesel fuel, and prop placement designed to throw a minimal wake) is a big boon to the research and charter excursions that UMass-Boston captains have been leading into the Boston Harbor for years. Named the Columbia Point after the peninsula on which the university sits, the boat allows university students and their secondary school counterparts to conduct research and sightseeing trips throughout the harbor, and also allows the university to generate a bit of revenue through chartered excursions.

One initiative that does both is Harbor Connections program, a division of the Island Alliance, the fundraising arm of the Boston Harbor Islands Association. Harbor Connections is captained by director David Weinstein, who joined the Island Alliance nine years ago to spend more time on the water.

"I worked for 25 years as a printer, then I fell in love with the islands," said Weinstein as he gazed out across the Harbor. On an early morning last week, Weinstein led a pack of 40 sixth graders from the McCormack middle school on a trip to Spectacle Island. For many students, it was their first trip onto the water that borders their city. It was also a first for the program, through which Weinstein guides about 2,500 Boston Public School students to the Harbor Islands each year. The McCormack class was the first to visit the newly opened Spectacle Island, and the early morning voyage was the first open to students with physical handicaps, thanks to special amenities on the progressively designed Columbia Point.

Weinstein's Harbor Connections program includes two pre-trip classroom visits, which he makes to schools across Boston during the winter months, and a packet of information that students use to chart their course through the harbor and identify landmarks during the trip.

The program is funded by mitigation money from Duke Energy, who were court ordered to contribute to the Island Alliance after constructing a pipeline under the harbor.

On Tuesday morning, it was clear that fun was as much of an objective as research for the sixth graders.

Their first task was to measure the water depth at the Fox Point Dock before they departed (around 17 feet) which they would compare to a measurement taken upon their return, which would teach them something about tides.

Then the boat loosed its moorings ("Faster!", a student cried immediately) and began the 15 minute voyage to Spectacle Island, one of the closest Harbor Islands.

Students hung over the railing &endash; despite repeated pleas from Weinstein to keep their feet on the ground &endash; and chattered, often in Spanish, as they peered down into the waves.

"What's that?" asked one boy.

"Its just the boat's shadow, stupid!" replied a classmate.

"Look, a jellyfish!"

Out on the island, a National Park Ranger explained that the island, which once projected to a height of just 14 feet above sea level, rose to over 100 as landfill was brought out on barges from the Big Dig construction project. In between it served as a processing factory for dead livestock, a gambler's getaway, and a city dump. Sufficiently impressed by the lecture, the students tore off towards the top of the island for what they were assured was one of the best views in Boston.

As they raced to the summit, this reporter headed back towards the mainland.