Month: October 2019

12 Meters come to Newport

The 12M Worlds were here this summer. One day they raced in Narraganset Bay so we took the boat up to watch. We hung around for the start then positioned about half way up the course and watched the early starters on their spinnaker runs while the later starts tacked upwind. A spectacular sight. Some folks wish the Americas Cup would go back to these more “traditional” boats. But back then, they were cutting edge, just like the mono-hull planing boats being tested now for the next cup.

Saturday morning the 12M fleet did a parade of boats through the harbor. We took the dinghy over and watched. Days like this are why we spend our summers in Newport. What follows is just a photo collection of a few boats from the parade. Hope you enjoy.

APHRODITE was built by the Purdy Boat Company and launched in May of 1937 for Wall Street financier and later Ambassador to the Court of St. James, John Hay (Jock) Whitney of Manhasset, Long Island. APHRODITE’S guest list over the years reads like a “Who’s Who” in the worlds of government, business and entertainment with such luminaries as Fred Astaire, Sir Laurence Olivier, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Henry Ford II, FDR advisor Harry Hopkins and Nelson Rockefeller aboard for summer day cruises down Long Island Sound. APHRODITE also once served as the site for a birthday party for Shirley Temple. She can do 30 mph.