2008 Opera House Cup photos

The 2008 Opera House Cup was an amazing regatta: big breeze, sunny skies, and beautiful classic yachts. View the photos here.

It was a perfect culmination for Nantucket Race Week, with more boats, more wind and a lot of spectators. The fanfare began with the Rainbow parade in the harbor at 10 am, then within a couple of hours, all of the classes in the classic yacht race were started and off around Nantucket sound.

The only negative for the day was the high number of boats that had to retire due to equipment failure. It's so great to see these old boats mainained in racing form, but when parts break, the owners can't just order new ones from West Marine.

But spirits were still high at the party and awards ceremony at Jetties Beach Sunday night, and with that it was the end of another Nantucket Race Week and Opera House Cup.

The photos tell the story; see them here.

Nantucket Race Week 2008: business and pleasure

Nantucket is the place to be for classic yacht enthusiasts. The local boats alone amount to a large collection of historic vessels that are wonderful to look at. Add Nantucket Race Week and the Opera House Cup, and you've got one of the biggest collection of classic yachts that we've ever seen.

See the photos here.

We can see it all from our spot on anchor in the harbor and even got to see some too close as we woke up in the middle of the night "rafted" with a ketch. Not our fault...we were here first and thought they had set hook a little too close. No damage done, just some time on deck during a downpour at three am.

We beefed up our anchor system in Key West so we are pretty confident in our hold here in 7 ft of water, even though we just watched an unmanned C&C drag by us and alerted the harbormaster.

We've got some great shots of 12 meters, International One Designs, and other classic and some not-as-classic yachts during Nantucket Race Week on Thursday and Friday.

See our photos here.

Saturday we did something a little different and opted to sail instead of taking pictures. With a pretty light forecast and overcast sky in the morning, and many of the same boats racing as the day before....and a desire to do more of the thing we like most that got us into this business...we "played hooky" and raced instead of photographing. The W class yacht White Wings had us aboard trimming jib and it was a great change of pace.

With the event-culminating Opera House Cup next on the docket, we're looking forward to even more classic yacht action and Nantucket harbor excitement.

Underway: Norwalk to Nantucket

Sunrise between Block Island and Martha's Vineyard, August 13th, 2008.

We left Norwalk at around 2 pm Tuesday, August 12th, a good time to leave to hit the Race right at an average speed of 6 to 6.5 knots. With 10-15 from the Northwest, shifting to Southwest, in the forecast, the trip was looking good. Our boat (Gulfstar 37, aka condo that sails fast on a reach) doesn't like to sail upwind- or really, we don't like to sail upwind at 55+ degree tacking angles- so we usually do our best to avoid big upwind stretches in high seas. No issue here.

The overnight "sail" was pretty easy, with lighter breezes than forecasted oscillating between NW and SW. We motor-sailed the entire way, never having enough breeze to push us at more than 5 knots under sails alone and liking the idea of getting our fridge nice and cold since we'd be on battery power alone for the coming week.

We went through the Race at 11 pm, passed close to Block Island at 3 am, and arrived in Nantucket at 3 pm. If that's not enough info for you...you can track us at our SPOT page.

Next on the event list, Nantucket Race Week and the Opera House Cup photos.

Meet Connor Fitzpatrick

Connor Fitzpatrick has been helping us cover local events this summer on Long Island Sound. He can call Longshore Sailing School his turf, and he’s done a great job capturing the kids in action. See the photos here. Connor got the hang of PhotoBoat-style photography very quickly- understanding how important close-up shots are and maneuvering confidently and safely in the dinghy. His AP photography training and professional equipment made the technical aspect easy for him. Connor has also done a lot of underwater photography and studied under Armando Jenik, who we had the pleasure of working with while shooting for Yacht Shots BVI in 2006.

Connor is a rising senior at the Brunswick School in Greenwich and a former JSA of LIS sailor out of Noroton Yacht Club. He’s got all the skills necessary to do well in this business, including a great entrepreneurial drive.

See more of Connor's work here.

Introducing Nick Pro

Nick Pro is a marine photographer to keep an eye on. At the age of 15, he has already been hired for some photography jobs and has collected a nice portfolio of images. Nick helped us cover the Red Grant Jr. Regatta in July, enjoying a first chance to try photographing while harnessed into the dinghy. He did a great job and his photos can be seen on our site, here.

Nick is a laser radial sailor from the Philadelphia area; he sails regularly on the Delaware River and also travels to Annapolis and other mid-atlantic sailing venues. He has also competed in some star regattas, including this year’s Bacardi Cup in Miami.

More of Nick’s photos can be seen on his Flickr site,

Keep an eye out for Nick Pro's work on PhotoBoat...he'll certainly be taking some more shots with us in the future.

YRALIS Champs 2008

A little bit of breeze went a long way yesterday as it often does on Long Island Sound in the summer. The YRALIS Championship Regatta was rescued by about 12 knots from the Southwest at 1 pm Sunday.

See the photos here.



The YRALIS Champs, in its third year, is a great event that brings LIS clubs together. Larchmont YC hosted one-design racing for S Boats, Etchells, Shields and RSXs; Indian Harbor ran a very efficient Laser and Ideal 18 race course inside Captain Harbor, and Riverside managed the PHRF course mid-sound.

The three courses create a lot of distance for us to cover, but we had two dinghies out there to make it possible.

We got a chance to try out our new toy/lifesaving device, the latter feature being what justified buying it (though it is actually very affordable). SPOT gps tracker is pretty cool. See Allen's track from Sunday here.

For more info about YRA LIS Champs 2008, see the YRA website, www.YRALIS.org .

For photos, click here.

Governor's Cup 2008

Yes, we were back on the Chesapeake, and here's a shot of another screwpile lighthouse to prove it. This time it's the Thomas Point light, left to starboard by Governor's Cup racers on their way from Annapolis to St. Mary's College at the mouth of the Potomac.

See the 2008 Gov Cup photos here.


We did this exact trip in November '06 on our way to Key West from CT, but we did not have to anchor in the middle of the trip to avoid drifting backwards like many of these sailors did. That's the beauty of a working engine (not always to be taken for granted) and a need to get South before it gets even colder.



But enough about us. Around 150 boats of varying sizes started at sunset and finished throughout the next day on the 70-mile race down the Chesapeake.



Conditions were very light at the start, but the setting sun created some nice soft light, as expected.



This event includes a photography competition and also draws a lot of spectator boats from Annapolis, especially on such a calm evening. The result, lots of spirit for the race- a good thing- but also a lot of big boats buzzing around the start on a light wind night. Dude, get a dinghy.


This wake was the result of something big. I watched American Flyer and Dame Blanche get knocked to a standstill. It took them several minutes to get any boatspeed back while the rest of their division pushed ahead.

As the sun set, we dinghied back to Annapolis, put the boats on the trailer and drove to Historic St. Mary's City. St. Mary's is the original capital of Maryland, but is not in our GPS or in Mapquest. It's a beautiful place if a little hard to find.

The next morning, with a dozen or so boats already on the dock after a nocturnal finish, we captured many boats heading toward the finish in a variety of conditions, including pouring rain in the middle of a storm.

The nice light before the storm and the banks of the river made for some great shots, like the is one of the St. Mary's College team on Hendonism.


With only one or two hours of sleep behind them, hundreds of sailors enjoyed a 12-hour party on St. Mary's College campus, with three bands, many local vendors, ice cream, and a beer truck that opened at 10 am.

For photos of the 2008 Gov Cup, click here.

For more about this event full of tradition and fun, including this year's results, see the SMCM website: www.smcm.com/govcup