Sayville Resident's Nautical Clothing Inspired By Local Boating

WEST SAYVILLE, NY —Sayville native and teacher Timothy Leigh-Manuell grew up boating on the Great South Bay and this year found himself launching an unexpected side business. Northern Nav is an online clothing line that pays homage to boating on the South Shore of Long Island with its designs.

Leigh-Manuell is a science teacher at East Islip High School who spends his summers captaining the Sayville ferry to Fire Island. He's been working on ferries since he was a teenager, but the past summer during the pandemic, there were less ferry trips and so Leigh-Manuell decided to get his own boat. Teaching his brother-in-law tips and tricks navigating the bay inspired him to create t-shirt designs with some of the mnemonics, like red-right-return, or "brown, brown, run aground."

Using a background as a part-time web and logo designer, Leigh-Manuell created a line of clothing that referenced instructional boaters' sayings and paid homage to Great South Bay landmarks like a shirt featuring a busy buoy nicknamed "Crazy Charlie."

The name Northern Nav was a way for Leigh-Manuell to show his pride in Northeastern boating.

"I wanted to plug our area," he told Patch.

"We have some of the best boating around here."

A shirt design with a silhouette of a clammer reading "South Shore clammers" honors Leigh-Manuell's family history of local clammers.

The online orders are mostly going locally, he said, but he's been surprised to see some shipping further afield, to far away states.

"I didn't expect this response. It was supposed to be a little project," but now he's open to seeing where it can go. Northern Nav may add snow sports-inspired designs next.

The men's, women's and kids' shirts, hoodies and accessories are also featured in some local boutiques like Action Sports in Oakdale and Off Main in Sayville.

And one percent of sales are going back to the Bay that sparked the concept—through a donation to nonprofit Save the Great South Bay.