The sail numbers of Gleam, the classic 12 Metre carefully restored by Bob and Elizabeth Tiedemann. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – Classic yacht fans rejoice! This Labor Day weekend marks the 31st Annual Museum of Yachting Classic Yacht Regatta sponsored by Panerai and presented by Land Rover.
The regatta kicks off Friday night, Sept. 3, with Panerai’s festive opening night celebration at the Museum of Yachting, followed by two days of racing run by organizing authority Sail Newport and the event’s traditional Classic Yacht Parade on Sunday morning.
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The Nantucket Lightship at anchor off Goat Island with the Newport Bridge in the background. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
It’s always a welcome sight in the harbor, so I was pleasantly surprised to wake up to the Nantucket Lightship anchored off of Goat Island this morning.
As we wrote last November as she settled in for the winter at the Newport Shipyard, The Lightship Nantucket otherwise known as WLV 612 greeted boaters to her namesake island oasis from 1975 until 1983.
She was one of two Nantucket-based vessels that served as last lightships in the United States, and carries with her a storied history.
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Paddlers approach their mark just south of the Newport Bridge in the first Newport SUP Cup, presented by Coastal Urge on Saturday (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – More than 90 participants took to the water on Saturday for Newport’s first ever SUP Cup (that’s “stand up paddleboard” for those who missed our preview story last week).
With brilliant blue skies overhead and temperatures in the low to mid 80s, you couldn’t have ordered up a better day.
Plenty of locals turned out for the event, but so did some pros from as far away as California. Rhode Island is still only beginning to get into the SUP game, but if the turnout over the weekend was any indicator, it looks like it could be here to stay.
Follow the jump for photos and full race results.
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Photo by Cristophe Launay. (www.sealaunay.com)
NEWPORT, R.I. – If wing technology didn’t have everyone’s attention after BMW Oracle Racing’s victorious 33rd America’s Cup, it definitely does now after the International C-Class Catamaran Championship won by Canadian Defenders Fred Eaton and Magnus Clarke, hosted at the New York Yacht Club’s Harbour Court Clubhouse August 22-28. The high speeds and almost instant acceleration of cambered foils had members of America’s Cup syndicates, top designers and all sailors in awe.
Canadian C Class Catamaran Team of Eaton, Clarke, Steve Killing, Rob Paterson and Rossi Milev have been along for the entire ride, one way or another. Clarke, Paterson and Milev took six months off from their C-Class program to manage wing protection for the largest wingmast ever built for a race-boat: BMW Oracle’s 223 foot (68 meter) tall wing. Reunited in March, their team brought four wings to the International C Class Catamaran Championship on Narragansett Bay this past week.
More from the NYYC after the jump.
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Dozens of sailors from the U.S. and Canada competed this week in the C. Thomas Clagett Jr. Memorial Regatta, hosted by Sail Newport. Here, Mark Lewis and Barbara Wilson sailed to a third-place finish in the SKUD-18 class. (Photos by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – In each of the four classes (2.4 Metre, SKUD-18, Sonar and J/22) competing at the eighth annual C. Thomas Clagett Jr. Memorial Regatta for sailors with disabilities, an unbroken winning streak on the second and final day of racing determined the championship winners. The storm that pulled out of the area overnight left behind a perfect day for racing on Narragansett Bay, starting with a 5-7 knot westerly breeze that built to a top speed of 12-14. The only hiccup for the day came in the form of a 40-degree wind shift that caused a 2.4 Metre race to be abandoned just as it started and also necessitated a weather mark change for the SKUD-18 class.
Paul Callahan, founder of Sail to Prevail (formerly Shake-A-Leg), took second place in the competitive Sonar class.
In the five-boat Sonar fleet, John Porter (East Troy, Wisc.) with crew 2008 SKUD-18 Paralympic Gold Medalist Maureen McKinnon Tucker (Marblehead, Mass.) and Gerry Tiernan (Falmouth, Maine) continued the winning streak they had started on day one to end the regatta with 10 bullets for the class win. Second overall was Paul Callahan (Newport, R.I./Cape Coral, Fla.), Brad Johnson (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and Tom Brown (Castine, Maine) with 18 points after the day’s five races.
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A fishing boat at Parascandola Pier, one of the last commerical fishing outfits in the downtown area. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – One of the last vestiges of Newport’s working waterfront is being opened up for development.
Paul A. Leys, broker and co-owner of Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty, said on Thursday that his agency has been retained to market and lease Parascandola Pier.
Located just off America’s Cup and Lower Thames Street, the roughly one-acre waterfront parcel has been the longtime home of N. Parascandola & Sons, a generations-old commercial fishing outfit which has remained largely untouched while boutique hotels, timeshares, and condo developments rose around it.
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Fred Eaton's Canaan, practicing on Sunday. (Photo by Christophe Launay, www.sealaunay.com)
NEWPORT, R.I. – Six boats and wings were ready to fly on day two of the 2010 Little America’s Cup. But, instead of racing as planned, the group of internationally accomplished sailors from five countries played show and tell under the tent at New York Yacht Club for the second straight day as winds in excess of 25 knots pounded Narragansett Bay.
One of the most prestigious titles in the world of ultra-high performance sailing, the Little America’s Cup, which is also known as the International C-Class Catamaran Championship, was last raced in 2007, at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto. There, Canadian challenger Fred Eaton and crew Magnus Clarke sailed Alpha to a 5-0 victory over the previously undefeated Steve Clark’s Cogito.
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By Captain Tim Flaherty for Newport This Week
NEWPORT – The new moon delivered again, producing strong tides and great fishing this past week. Striped Bass can still be taken in shallow water as the inshore water temperature on the ocean side remains at 68 degrees. Block Island’s S.W. ledge has produced some big bass this past week, too. Anglers, using live eels, slammed fish over thirty pounds. The reefs off Brenton Point, Beavertail and those over Coggeshall Ledge and Seal Ledge are still producing bass to twenty pounds. There are also some decently-sized fish at the Pell Bridge and Gull Rocks.
There is good news to report: Ledge monster bluefish have finally arrived. This is their latest summer appearance that we’ve ever recorded. The schools are well dispersed, but have taken up, both out in front and at the mouth of the bay.
Some surface action was also reported off Clingstone and The Dumplings.
As for scup, stripers, and fluke, pick up this week’s edition of Newport This Week for the full Reel Report.
Capt. Tim, of Flaherty Charters, Castle Hill, Newport, is an island native, who taught high school and college history. He has been bay angling for over 50 years
as was his father, Frank.
Small craft like this rib, complete with center console and 50 hp engine, are among the dozens that make use of the stone pier at King Park each season. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
As we reported in Newport This Week, the stone pier at King Park is a focal point for boaters of all stripes around the harbor. In recent months, its often cluttered state has also grabbed the attention of the volunteer members of the city’s Waterfront Commission.
NEWPORT – As far as local waters go, the approach into the stone pier at King Park is one of the more welcoming in Newport Harbor. Removed from the bustle of downtown, far from the often tight quarters of the marina district, the pier juts out off of Wellington Avenue into a relatively open field of seasonal and private moorings.
On its north side is a series of floating docks intended for transient dinghy tie ups and tenders to larger boats moored in the harbor. It’s a lifeline of sorts, providing visiting boaters one of the few public tie-ups for their tenders, while moored locals and live-aboards use the pier to come an go.
Add in the pier’s proximity to Lower Thames Street, along with available free parking, and the dock’s popularity quickly comes into focus.
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Youth Challenge sailors show off their event t-shirts at the Ida Lewis Distance Race skippers meeting.
NEWPORT, R.I. – The Ida Lewis Distance Race, which since its debut six years ago has forged a reputation for blending world-class competition in one of the sport’s premier family-friendly events, begins today at high noon from its start inside Newport Harbor.
In all, 36 IRC, PHRF and Doublehanded boats will be on the line for what organizers expect to be a 150 nautical mile course out to Block Island and back. With winds forecasted at 6-12 knots, the Race Committee has banked on the smallest boat finishing before 1800 (that’s 6 p.m. for landlubbers) on Saturday night, just before a full-on Finish Line party—for competitors and club members—commences at the Ida Lewis Yacht Club.
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Did you race as crew on an America’s Cup 12 Metre or know someone who did? The skippers, crews, syndicate owners and afterguard of the 12 Metre era of the America’s Cup are heading to Newport for a reunion. The event will be hosted by the New York Yacht Club and presented by Rolex. Those who sailed in an America’s Cup race on a 12 Metre from 1958 to 1987 are qualified to attend. This is a wonderful chance to celebrate. The reunion will take place Sept. 16-19. Some of the events include a Reunion Sail on Saturday and a 12 Metre reunion brunch and Legends panel on Sunday. The legends include, in alphabetical order, Dennis Connor, Russell Coutts, Bill Ficker, Bill Koch, Ted Turner, Tom Whidden and more with Gary Jobson as the moderator.
Other reunion events include a BBQ dinner, a clambake with Gary Jobson’s premier of the “12 Metre Era Retrospective”, the America’s Cup 12 Metre Era Reunion Dinner and the 17th America’s Cup Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. One of the honorees is Rhode Island’s own Halsey Herreshoff who is distinguished as the most active America’s Cup sailor during the 12 Metre era.
The reunion attendees list and event updates are posted on the NYYC site reunion home page, http://www.nyyc.org/AC12Mreunions/
Regatta Co-Chairs include 12 Metre veterans Gary Jobson, Jeff Neuberth, Jan Slee and Tom Whidden. For more information or to register, contact Jan Slee at slee142@cox.net or Daniela Burton at burtond@nyyc.org
An Amphicar, one of only 4,000 made, sitting atop a yacht in Newport Harbor (Photo by Michelle Palazzo)
NEWPORT, R.I. – Let’s say you travel the seas in style on board your 100-foot megayacht, stopping at various ports of call with varying degrees of land-side transportation alternatives. Well, if you happen to be aboard one particular yacht in the harbor, you might take the Amphicar out for a spin.
That’s right. Some yachts come with tenders; others boast helicopters. This one, currently berthed nearby Casey’s Marina has what appears to be a 1960s-era amphibian car known as the Amphicar.
Here’s what we could find out about the vintage classic.
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Hundreds of youth sailors are in town for the USODA New England Championship. (Photos by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – Hundreds of youth sailors have converged on Sail Newport this week for the Ernst & Young 2010 USODA New England Championship.
Expected to be one of the year’s largest one-design regattas anywhere in the world, the USODA Championship is one of the most eagerly anticipated events in all of youth sailing.
In all, some 376 sailors from the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Argentina,the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and Switzerland are competing in the three-day event, which is estimated to generate in excess of $800,000 in direct economic activity to the area.
Daily race results can be found online at SailNewport.org.
NEWPORT, R.I. – The overdue boater we reported on earlier, Brett Knight, was found safe in a survival craft near Brenton Reef at the entrance of Narragansett Bay early Tuesday morning.
The crew of the fishing vessel Five J’s notified the Coast Guard that they found Knight in his rigid-hull craft around 5:21 a.m.
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