Newport Music Guide July 31, Aug 1

Fort Adams
fri - Folk Festival 50
sat - Folk Festival 50
Blues café
fri- SANTA MAMBA
sat- New Image Band
Jimmys
fri - 6 Bands -(benefit event)
sat - Skinny Millionaires
Rustys
fri- Lois Greco
pelham
fri ?
sat- ?
The Rhino Bar
sat- Top Shelf - Sublime Cover Band
Billy Goodys
fr- Buddy Roach Blues Band
sat- Dyre Weed
Narragansett Café (Jamestown)
fri- Westmoreland Street Jammers
sat- Gary ‘Guitar’ and the Grinders
Dockside
fri- Those Guys Newport
sat- Never in Vegas

Killer Whale Yacht

Check this out! Sparkman and Stephens are actually involved in this too. Schopfer Yachts

CNN.com - The planned seventy-six meter long “Oculus,” which is designed for 12 guests, looks like a large sea creature, with one end looking uncannily like the jaw and eye socket of a shark or a killer whale. More images and story - here.

CG OKs LNG tanker berth in Mt. Hope Bay

Projo.com  - The Coast Guard on Thursday gave its coveted blessing, with conditions, to a proposal to build a liquefied natural gas offloading terminal in Mount Hope Bay, removing a major stumbling block in a plan to bring LNG supertankers up Narragansett Bay and park them in the middle of one of the state’s major waterways.

Under the revised plans, the ships would pump their supercooled cargo via an underground piping system to Somerset, Mass., and then to Fall River, where the project is widely reviled.

“We’re disappointed in the Coast Guard decision, and we disagree respectfully,” said Save the Bay spokesman John Torgan. “This just moves us into the next phase of the permitting process. We’re going to need to be more active on getting people engaged and fighting this.” Story

Newport Bucket Experience - 155′ at 20kts

Synfo.com -  MITseaAH’s was invited to start the race under full power, then execute a high speed 360 degree turn and roar off to the windward mark, where she re-converted to a sailing yacht, shut down the power and got into the race! Her left-field handicap worked well too; she crossed the finish line in fifth position! More images and full story - Synfo.com

Check the other images and you will notice two Rhode Islanders onboard.

Shark Free Marina in Harwich Port

Wickedlocal.com/bourne - HARWICH PORT - Nevermore shall sharks darken the docks at the Harwich Port Boat Yard. It is now the first Shark Free Marina in Massachusetts. Soon there will be signs and other paraphernalia proclaiming the fact, all courtesy of the Shark Free Marina Initiative.

This doesn’t mean sharks themselves couldn’t swim around the boats - they just can’t arrive via hook.

“Sharks are not really a big thing here on the Cape,” noted boatyard owner John Our. “But we all know there is a growing problem, especially with shark finning; catching the sharks and cutting the fins off. So when (Kate Metzler) came to me, it was easy for us.” Story-  here

Still Time to Enter

Entries are arriving fast and furious at the Newport International Boat Show for its Newport For New Products awards program. The selection of Best New Sailboat, Best New Powerboat and Best New Boating Product are highlights of this major U.S. show, scheduled this year for September 17 -20. The program recognizes the best boat and the best product being introduced at the Show for the coming model year. Entries may be sent in up to September 14th to be eligible for the judging process on Thursday, September 17th. Details and the list so far, here

URI - Endeavor returns from research mission

WPRI.com - The ship returned from a four-and-a-half month research expedition to Florida, Brazil and Namibia. It was one of the longest cruises the vessel had ever undertaken and its first to Africa.

Home sweet rock

Boston.com takes a tour of Clingstone. You have seen it by boat. Here is what it looks like on the inside.

Some great still images and story - here

9 Footer

This is the 9.5 foot LOA radio control Cicely. . She’ll be in Bristol Rhode Island on display and performing sailing demos daily at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Aug 7-9.

This (image) is the radio-controlled 8-foot LOA sailing model of Starling Burgess’ famous 1902 Elizabeth Silsbee schooner. This beauty was built by master “working model” builder Andrew Charters from South Carolina and she will be there too.

It is all part of the American Model Yachting Association J Class Region 1 Championship to be held August 7-9. These and other R/C sailing models will complement the eight-foot long, 1/16 scale replicas of the 1930s America’s Cup J Boats with their ten-foot tall sail rigs, such as Ranger, Endeavour, Shamrock V and Whirlwind. The event is expected to draw model racing enthusiasts from across the country.

J Class model image

The Herreshoff Marine Museum will kick it off Aug 6th with the launch of their 2009 Lecture Series with “Little Boats and Big Boats: A Hundred Years of Model and Full-Scale Yachting”, to be presented at 7:00 PM on Thursday August 6 at the Museum.

The lecture will be presented by Earl Boebert, the historian and newsletter editor for the U.S. Vintage Model Yacht Group, an organization dedicated to the study and preservation of model yachting art and science as it was practices in the days before radio control. Mr. Boebert is a retired Senior Scientist of Sandia National Labs. (more…)

Carpooling for Yachts

The large and unique DYT Yacht Express was in Newport yesterday. She’s a (float on float off) yacht transport that takes on ballast and sinks to allow her cargo to load and unload them selves. The process all happened just north of the bridge where she anchored on Monday. From here she is scheduled to sail to Port Everglades FL and then go trans-Atlantic, on to Europe.

Yacht Express is 685 feet LOA. That’s just 45 feet shy of two football fields in length. She is 105 feet wide and can carry yachts up to 200 feet. July is off season and her current load is a light one, but depending on the yacht’s size she can have 40 or so, on deck at a time.

Image gallery

This is how it works: Engineers plan out the deck placement according to size shape. Blocking and boat stands for each boat are placed on deck in the corresponding location. The ballasting (taking on water) process starts and the ship slowly lowers into the sea flooding the deck. When the water on deck is the proper depth the yachts enter the (floating marina) under their own power operated by owners or crew. When the yacht is in the proper location, divers put the blocking and boat stands in place. Once all the yachts are loaded the de-ballasting starts and ship slowly rises. Divers stay in the water during the process to make sure the stands and blocking stay put and the yachts have settled in correctly. When the ship is fully floated and the deck is clear of water some of the boat stands are welded to the deck, the yachts are further secured and strapped down. (more…)

RIyachting.com - Reloaded

We have gone live with a bunch of format changes to the site today that we think you will like. Here is what we have done:

Site navigation is now up top.
Comments are now turned on.
Most of the content is now formatted left.
Our sponsors are now clearly featured to the right on multiple pages.
The Twitter widget has been moved down the page and increased in size.
The wind speed dial is back on the weather page.
We have added a forecast to the weather page.

Next week we will be adding expanded content. More on that soon!

Image - Hunt 54

New England Solo/Twin recap

07/27/09
From the race website - 7/25 1800 - Awards Party was held; about 50 people participated. 33 boats started and 4 did not finish. There was much recapping of the race. Evidently many boats got caught up in the adverse current and light air at 1BI. We did not have the usual dieing of the wind between 4am and 8am so the boats moved most of the time. A thunder storm came through in the middle of the night which gave Newport a lot of rain but fortunately most of the boats did not get nor did any serious squalls hit them. Food was provided and enjoyed. More

Results

Club 420 Nationals

07/27/09
The Conanicut Yacht Club and the Jamestown Yacht Club are jointly hosting the Club 420 Association 2009 National Championship Regatta. It starts today at Fort Getty in Jamestown. Check out the long list of racers here.

Laser Surfing & Funnel Clouds

07/26/09

Nefertiti in a collision, Coast Guard responds

07/26/09
NEWPORT, R.I.- The Coast Guard responded to a vessel collision near Klingstone House in Newport, R.I., Saturday. More