Le Grand Bleu

07/03/09
This is Le Grand Bleu tied up on the outside at Hinckley’s Little Harbor in Portsmouth RI. She has been here before in the same spot. The service must be good!

Toys on deck include a 74ft Sailboat and a 67ft Sunseeker Predator. Power and Motor Yacht Magazine has her ranked the 10th largest yacht in the world while YachtSpotter.com has her 16th. Apparently on the move, Le Grand Bleu was seen in New York City just two days ago.

Details:
370.00 ft / 112.80 m
58.00 ft / 17.70 m
15.10 ft / 4.60 m
2 x4570 HP Deutz diesels
Max speed 17 kts

She is owned by an oil billionaire from Russia who reportedly received the yacht as a gift in 2006.

More detail @ Superyachttimes.com
Images - riy

Three days in a row

07/03/09
Bristol Harbor fireworks display July 3.

Newport Harbor fireworks July 4. Rain date: July 5.

Jamestown fireworks at Mackerel Cove on Sunday, July 5.

Bassett Boat Company - Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in MA

07/03/09
For nine years, Bassett Boat has been consistently ranked among the Top Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts by the Center for Women’s Leadership at Babson College and the Commonwealth Institute.

Bassett Boat Company has been a leading boat dealership for more than 68 years. Today, the company is a Sea Ray master dealer and also sells luxury Viking Sport Cruisers, from its three locations in Springfield, MA, Warwick, RI and Westbrook, CT. Story - PRWEB

More about Bassett Boat - bassettboat.com

Forrestal will be cut up for scrap or sunk

07/03/09
Newport - The famous aircraft carrier Forrestal will be cut up for scrap or sunk as an artificial reef, the Navy has determined.

Both Forrestal and the carrier Saratoga are now tied up at an aging pier on Naval Station Newport, R.I., but due to deterioration of the facility, both ships need to be relocated by the end of September 2010

“Right now, the two disposal options being considered are partial dismantling and recycling or full dismantling and recycling,” said Katie Roberts, a spokeswoman at Naval Sea System Command.

A partial dismantling would result in the hulk of the ship sunk as an artificial reef, as the carrier Oriskany was in 2006. More - Navytimes.com

Heavy rainfall tests new Providence Sewer Tunnel

07/04/09
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — It rained so hard Thursday morning that for the first time all year, the state’s massive, $350 million combined sewer overflow tunnel filled to capacity and allowed untreated sewage to spill into the city’s rivers.

The good news is that it was the first time the tunnel overflowed all year.

Already, observers say the Providence River looks cleaner and there have been fewer shellfish and beach closures because the tunnel is capturing so much pollution. Story Projo.com

Image - Narragansett Bay Commmission

Newport Seaweed Harvester

07/02/09
After years of trying to turn the tide in its crusade against seaweed, the city has purchased a machine that costs $320,000 and is unlike any other in the world. Aquamarine, a Canadian company that has made harvesters for lakes and reservoirs from Thailand to Tunisia, won the contract to design and build one for Newport.

Story and video @ Projo.com
Image-riy

Sea Lion Takes Controls of Boat

07/02/09

$3 million for fish ladders - Swim to Worden Pond

07/01/09
When the work is done, fish will be able to migrate all the way up the Pawcatuck from Watch Hill, in Westerly, to Worden Pond, in South Kingstown. Story - Projo.com

New Build - HANUMAN to debut at the Newport Bucket

07/01/09
The new 138′ J-Class Sloop, HANUMAN, by Huisman Shipyard will debut racing along with the J-Class Sloop, RANGER. HANUMAN is a replica of the famous J-Class Sloop, ENDEAVOUR II, which last raced the original RANGER in the America’s Cup 1937, off Newport. SY ATHENA, the 295′ Royal Huisman Schooner will be the Committee Boat. Image - jclassyachts.

Newport Bucket - details

More on HANUMAN - J Class yachts.com

Deepwater signs $20.7M Quonset lease

07/01/09
Quonset will be a manufacturing hub for the development of offshore wind farms. Story - PBN.com

Swedish CG counts 2808 boats - Volvo Stopover Economics

06/30/09
The Volvo Ocean Race delivers huge economic benefits to its stopover ports. Whether this says more about the promotional muscle of the organisers or the latent demand for yacht racing by spectators it is hard to say - perhaps it is a bit of both. Story -Stopover Ecomonics. Yachtsponsorship.com

More about the image - YachtSponsorship.com

Image - Yachtsponsorship.com

Earth breathing - Tsunamis on the move

06/30/09

New Bedford - heraldnews.com Independence Day is a day off from work for most of us, but come this Fourth of July, the Ocean Explorium will not only be open for business, it will kick off a new seven-days-a-week visitors’ schedule.

Renovation work has been in high gear at the Explorium, 174 Union St., in preparation for new live animal and sea life exhibits, said Explorium Director Mark Smith.

The new exhibits include a large living coral reef, focusing on the issue of coral bleaching and global warming; scallops; jellyfish; anemone fish, also known as “Nemo” fish; and sea horses.

Smith said some of the sea life will be caught locally and others, such as jellyfish and sea horses, were donated from the New England Aquarium in Boston. Other exhibits - including the coral reefs - were originally from the South Pacific Islands, with some from the Red Sea.

http://www.oceanexplorium.org./

Big Fun

06/29/09
This is the 147′  Timoneer with 20 on the rail and room for another 40. She’s in town for The 7th Annual Newport Bucket set for July 17-19. The Newport Bucket is an invitational regatta set in the Corinthian spirit and open to yachts over 90′ (27M) L.O.A., unless invited under the Grandfather Clause. The race is based out of Newport Shipyard.

Timoneer has a good website and it appears that they have a lot of fun on this yacht. You would be surprised how many fish they catch!

Here is the list of the other entries as of June 11. Fifteen big yachts in all.

Avalon 108′ Southern Pacific
Carmella 92′ Vitter’s
Chippewa 80′ Swan
Hanuman 135′ Royal Huisman
Maya Ray 95′ Southern Wind Shipyard
Mitseaah 156′ Pendennis
P2 125′ Perini Navi
Palawan 75′ Little Harbor
Parlay 126′ Ortona Navi
Ranger 137′ J Boat
Summerwind 100′ Alden
Timoneer 147′ Vitter’s
Virago 100′ Swan
Wild Horses 76′ Brooklin Boatyard
White Wings 76′ Rockport Marine

Image- timoneer.org
www.bucketregattas.com/newport

The Block Island look

06/29/09
A single race today decided the fate of 153 boats entered in the Storm Trysail Club’s Block Island Race Week XXIII presented by Rolex. The event, which began Monday, hosted 1500 sailors on the tiny land mass of Block Island, which for five days in every odd-numbered year becomes the epicenter The for sailing in New England.  more

Image - Bandit SWAN 42. - Leighton O’Connor

OSTAR - Racer still out there but close

06/29/09
Peter Bourke (Rubicon), who was still 219 miles from Newport at 0400 EDT, has sent this email.

Hi David, Thanks for the email. Unfortunately the large headsail is on a furler and I may can’t seem to resolve that problem at sea. May take a trip up the mast which I’m reluctant to do at this late stage and without any reliable steering assist. However, the staysail pulls pretty well when there’s a breeze as there was yesterday morning. Unfortunately the wind died late yesterday afternoon ands no progress since then. Consequently Tuesday arrival in doubt.

I’m surprised that so many people are asking about my arrival time. It’s either a tribute to your race or the bill collectors are catching up with me.  Peter

Image and post @ OSTAR-home