Ranger and Hanuman together at the start. Not since 1937 has the waters of Newport seen this image. Although these boats are reproductions is was these two designs that were together in 1937.
Hanuman coming out of the Fog
In the world of sailboat racing there are certainly a number of very serious venus and events. Some are on a world scale as in the Americas Cup and the Volvo Round the World Race. Others are more regional and class oriented. None I can imagine are more fun than the Bucket events. This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in the Newport Bucket Regatta. Although many of the boats may take this seriously as far as the racing is concerned. Most of the participants do it for the fun of the event. The nature of the event is setup in a way to be fun. First there are no line starts with a fleet of boats bearing down on a starting line. This is a persuit race where as the handicap system is set up in such a way as to have independent starts. Each boat starts based upon it's projected time to complete the course. The theroy is that all the boats should be at the finish at close to the same time. For the most part the handicap system seems to work. This is not to say that there are some elements of this that are not perfect. Nonetheless this is one fun event. My goal with this blog was not to get into the detail of the event as you can do that at the Bucket web site bucketregattas.com/newport . What I want to do is share some pics I was able to capture at the start of race #1 on Sat. Enjoy!!!
