Schooner Brilliant

The 61-foot Schooner Brilliant, designed by Sparkman & Stephens and built in 1932 at the Henry B. Nevins yard on City Island, is owned by the Mystic Seaport Museum and has wonderful programs for young people. Link here to learn more about the teen programs on Brilliant.

And link here to see two more nice photos of her underway.

Schooner Aquidneck in Newport

Another beautiful Newport daysailing schooner, the Aquidneck shows her style.

Click here to learn more about the Aquidneck.

Wednesday Night Pizazz

Brutus from Wickford sails upwind in the Wednesday night races.

Aurora Newport

Schooner Aurora with her distinctive tan bark sails takes passengers on daysails / harbor tours in Newport. Link here to learn more about the Aurora.

Northern Light in Newport

Built in 1938, the beautiful 12-meter Northern Light is still active as a charter vessel in Newport. Here she is sailing in front of Clingstone, the house on the rock off Jamestown.

To learn more about the Northern Light, click here and to see some great interior and exterior photos of the 103-year-old Clingstone Mansion, click here.

Catboat Racing Saunderstown

Catboats racing on a breezy day at Saunderstown Yacht Club hug the shore to stay out of the strong current running against them.

Classic Sloop Near Dutch Island

A handsome classic gaff-rigged Friendship sloop, the 'Heidi Lee,' seen off the north tip of Dutch Island in Narragansett Bay.

3 Js on Wednesday

Three Js racing in the Wickford Wednesday night series...

Windsurfing Practice

Son Lyle practices his moves on the bay near Wickford.

Wickford Yawl

A classic yawl is bound for Wickford on a breezy and hazy July day.

Close Opti Action

The talented Optimist fleet at the Saunderstown Yacht Club scoots toward the leeward mark in a warmup race last weekend.

Fog on the Bay

An unusual low fog still allows good visibility above it.

Competition to Leeward

These two boats to leeward are our main competition -- the Nonsuch is leading the series and the Freedom is always in the fight, but has trouble sailing to its rating. I sail on a nice old wooden 8 meter and we are a bit erratic, but have had a good start this season with a 1st and 2nd.

Wickford Racing

Another Wednesday evening race shot -- prestart.

Twelves in Newport

Two twelve-meter yachts gear up for the season in Newport.

This is the 12 Meter 'Golden Year' -- 50th anniversary of the founding of the class -- link here to see the amazing schedule of events for 12 meters this year in the northeast including the 12-meter worlds in Newport September 22-26.

More than 30 of these beautiful yachts are expected to participate in events this season.

Wickford Wednesday Racing

20 boats turned out on a cloudy but comfortable Wednesday evening to race in Wickford -- 4 fleets -- no waiting.

Wickford Schooner

Schooner on the bay on a quiet spring day.

505 Heading in after the Race

A 505 returns to the beach after the Wickford Regatta.

Volvo Start Video

Here's some footage from the start of the Volvo Ocean race in Boston -- you can see the arriving ship that disrupted the start. Also has a nice shot of the Puma foiler moth. This was taken by Maia and Cal.

Another Volvo Start Photo

Puma is leading Ericsson 3 and 4 at the Volvo start in Boston. Most of the fleet completed the race to Galway, Ireland in less than 8 days, despite having to sail extra miles to avoid the right whale and iceberg exclusion zones.

Volvo Start Boston

This photo of Green Dragon and Puma at the start of the race from Boston to Galway Ireland was taken by Sailscape correspondent Maia Pilzer.

International 14

Here's an International 14 at the Wickford Regatta almost ready to head out. The unusual rudder with perpendicular hydrofoil has to be mounted in deep water.

To learn more about the class, link here. And to see the unusual foils, link here.

Wickford Regatta

Last sailed in 1980, the Wickford Regatta has been resurrected by former Olympic coach Skip Whyte and the Wickford Yacht Club. Classes racing are the International 420, 505, International 14 and Laser. Next year the A Class cats will be included if they don't have another major event conflict.

Link here to learn more about the event.

Spring Training on the Bay

The local high school team practices on the bay regularly now even though the water is still pretty cold.

Cruiser returns from the Bay

A few more cruising boats are venturing out of the harbor for their early spring test sails. Soon the harbors will be full of boats on moorings.

Volvo Fleet Arrives in Boston

Here are some distant photos of the top three Volvo boats in leg 6 from Rio as they pass Gloucester, Mass on the way to the finish this afternoon in Boston. They passed so close to Gloucester because they had to circumnavigate the right whale exclusion zone en route to Boston.

Top is Ericsson 4, winner of the leg.

Ericsson 3 is shown passing Thacher Island; they finished in second place, but only twelve minutes behind Ericsson 4 after 15 days.

And bottom is Telefonica Blue -- they finished only 6 minutes after Ericsson 3.

Click here to visit the Volvo Ocean Race page -- or drive to Fan Pier in Boston to see them in person.

Early Cruiser

Sloop Raven is one of the first cruising boats to venture out of Wickford this spring. The Jamestown bridge, Fox Island and Plum Beach Lighthouse are in the background.

The Volvo Ocean race fleet is fast approaching Boston -- updates at www.volvooceanrace.org.

Signs of Spring

Not much sailing on the bay yet, but high school teams are out in the chilly weather practicing and having matches. This team sails out of the Newport Yacht Club.

New Tall Ship for Rhode Island

Rhode Island's new sailing school vessel, the Oliver Hazard Perry, is in Newport waiting for work to start to rig her as a three-masted ship. The hull is 132 feet long and she'll have a sparred length of 207 feet.

To learn more about Tall Ships Rhode Island and to see how she'll look when completed, click here. You can also read about the objectives for this sail training ship.

Hobie Cats Ready to Go

Hobie Cats, kayaks and more for rent on the beautiful west coast of Barbados.