In the Golden age of Ocean Racing.

- Last night at the Harbour Court New York Yacht Club in Newport, Rhode Island, we had a special evening with a guest speaker who had an extreme influence as a Yacht Designer for the rest of my life. Notably, Richard E. Carter is known as Dick Carter, who came to shake the world of Yacht Design, Offshore Racing, and Yachting Rules.

In Time; my office for 40 years.

- C'est l'histoire de mon bureau à Newport, RI, USA. I had offices in town before, but...


- Everything has an end, and in this case, a new beginning. After almost 40 years, President Carter and I are parting ways. By this, I mean I moved inside the Main Post Office in Newport for my new office, which was also the location of the President's office when Jimmy Carter moved into the White House; that is a long time!

- COVID came in, and being a Federal Building, it was on lockdown. Furthermore, the lease had to be renewed for another 5 years. But "le coup de grace" was that, across the street, they were starting to build a Hotel, completely masking the beautiful view I had of the Newport Harbor. So I decided to move into the house,

- This corner of America's Cup, Thames Street, and Memorial Boulevard is the location of a beautiful building from 1916. A small plaque acknowledges the dedication.
William McAdoo. Secretary of the Treasury. (sounds like a commercial for E-Trade 2018, but I digress).
-James A. Wetmore.
Acting Supervising Architect 1916.
Perhaps it was meant to be for another Architect of a different kind.

- For me, the way to move into there happened when the Founder of the Yachting Museum mentioned that he was moving out of the building, to relocate to the Museum site at Fort Adams.
People had no idea that rental spaces were available. So I moved in. At first, sharing with another Frenchman, Bertrand Dumont, a large space on the third floor. Then moved downstairs, on my own, to the vacant office left by T. Benson.

-  My neighbors at the time, in this fully Federal Building, where the location of NOOA, F.B.I., I think C.I.A., and the US. Customs handled by Mr. Monk. A legend in himself. I have stories about all the above.


- Well, from my Ivory Tower, I had the privilege to be involved with the best, to help me in some busy times.

-Steve Baker, a wonderful person and friend. Loyal, and a good engineer, yacht designer, and a drafting maestro; when you had to have the Talent to design boats; in other words, before computers.
Steve, on top of his above natural qualities, got me going on the "new" Computer World about 30 years ago.

- Jeremy McGeary. "Mac. I first met Jeremy when he was hired for my new venture at the time, "Branton Yachts" to build wooden I.O.R. racers. The first one is a Two Tonner called "Black Gold" and a few others.

- Much later on, after a stint in England, as the head designer for C&N, he came back to the US. See on this Blog: Jeremy McGeary R.I.P.

- Pictures of the new office on the third floor of the house.. (minus the hard floor to be laid).

- Fore and aft, as they say.

Bermuda Race (1978) 2018.

-Ubiquitous title.
But tomorrow is the start of the Newport -Bermuda race.
Only to remember a unique moment in the Bermuda Race History, and a long story at that.
Forty years ago, the first I.O.R,  U.L.D.B on the East coast wrote the new era of lighter boats, more sail area, less displacement and at the time lighter on the budget. Rated at 69.9, just under the maximum. First to finish.

-Rambler 88 at the start.

Volvo Ocean Race.

Newport Stop over. 2018.

- Breathtaking finish by Mapfre nudging Brunel by1mn and 2 seconds after the 7000 Miles distance from Itajai Brazil to Newport.
-The inshore short course event of today showed more gap between the boats at the finish. Brunel won this one, followed by Mapfre and the local Vestas.

-Tomorrow is the Start for the Atlantic crossing to Cardiff.

Magie Noire, with the Long Flying Wings.

-Yes, it has been a long time. Even though on this Blog I have written many different captions about Magie Noire and for good reasons being of my Design and the vision of Christian Quoniam way back when in 1983. To read more Search on this Blog: "From JR to Elia".
- But, there is a new News. The boat, the wings will fly again under the hospice of an Association dedicated to re-build the boat within a 3 years time frame.

-Yes, she was in a field and literally abandoned. I am not about to tell you why, because I do not know the details. The object of this post is to celebrate a postmortem and a resurrection. Well, I am a little ahead of myself, so let me explain.

This the way I like to remember her. (to be continued).

Detour to History.

= Newport News.
- From Florida to Newport R. I

- I drove 1800 Miles. This is the USA for you! It takes a notion of distances to realize how big this country is. Glad I came trough in a car rather than on a Cattle Wagon. The detour is about going to Norfolk to Newport News. Clearly, I am attracted to the word Newport; from Nieuwport in Belgium to Newport Beach California, to Newport Vermont, Newport Beach CA. etc. The list is long for a remembering sailor.