Around the Buoy

The Race to Alaska is a 750 mile sprint up the Inside Passage from Port Townsend, WA to Ketchikan AK, and the only rules are that your boat can't have an engine and there can be no outside organized support. Sounds simple right? Wrong! This is a race for the mad! Self-described as the Iditarod on a boat; competitors face the chance of drowning, dodging freighters, being eaten by Grizzly Bears, ins...

6:00 – Doors Open 7:00 – Brad Read leads a discussion with returning crew members 7:30 – Movie Around the Buoy is excited to announce our second movie night!  On April 16th at the Jane Pickens Theater in Newport, RI, we will be screening the 2008 documentary Morning Light! The film chronicles 15 young sailors as they train and compete in the 2007 Transpac race from Los Angles to Honolulu.  Among t...

Sail Newport has been Rhode Island's public sailing center since its inception in 1983 and it has attracted sailors as young and inexperienced as the kids in their summer Guppy Program to the biggest names in the sport with the 2018 Volvo Ocean Race stopover.  Brad Read is the executive director of Sail Newport and he has been instrumental in bringing high profile events like The Ocean Race to Nar...

Fight Oar Die with Bryant Knight Getting out of the military is tough enough but with an estimated 1/3 of all deployed soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from the invisible wounds of war like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury, this transition becomes nearly impossible. Bryant Knight, a retired Army Major and combat veteran, wanted to do something to help out. He is...

When Newport Harbor empties out in the winter, a group of intrepid dinghy sailors takes the opportunity to hit the water.  Every Sunday from October to April, the members of Laser Fleet 413 gather on the beach at Sail Newport to launch their boats for some around the buoys racing.  Some call them nuts or crazy and how could you blame them, but as fleet co-captain, Scott Pakenham will tell you, the...

Dawn Riley has done everything in the sailing world; from scraping by as a young sailor living in her van and making sandwiches to running an America's Cup campaign. Along the way she has shattered a host of glass ceilings; Dawn was a part of the first all-female crew in the 89-90 Whitbread, the first full time female crew member on an America's Cup boat and the only woman to head a Cup campaign....

Each spring, Classic Boat Magazine recognizes and celebrates the best of the best in their industry.  The Classic Boat Awards includes categories for everything from the best restorations of power and sailboats, Traditional New Build and Boater of the Year.  This year's the list of nominees is once again spectacular!  In this episode, Tyler and Carter talk to Rob Peake, the editor of Classic Boat...

Friend of the show, Jamie Enos, has arguably the best job in the world; she is the skipper of the beautiful 1965 Aage Neilsen-designed ketch Saphaedra. Last year, her owner decided to head overseas to cruise the Norwegian Sea and spend the summer exploring the fjords of Norway. In Episode 20, we talk to Jamie about the last 12 years cruising New England and Caribbean waters, the preparation for go...

Herman Melville boarded a whaling ship out of New Bedford in 1841 for a five year adventure that served as the inspiration for his novel Moby Dick, the epic tale of Capt. Ahab and his obsessive search for the Great White Whale. Every year since 1996, the New Bedford Whaling Museum has be host to the Moby Dick Marathon, a 25 hour continual reading of the American classic, and people from around the...

This Fall, the Board of Directors of the National Sailing Hall of Fame, led by Gary Jobson, announced that they will be moving from Annapolis, MD to the waterfront of our hometown, Newport, RI. Gary has been involved with sailing his entire life. A two-time Collegiate Sailor of the Year, he had a fortuitous meeting with the "Mouth of the South," Ted Turner, that lead to him being the Tactician onb...

The Mayflower II is a replica of the original ship that brought more than a hundred settlers from Europe to the New World in 1620.  Built in 1956, she was a gift to the citizens of America from the English as a thank-you for their support during WWII.  Since being delivered in 1957, she has been a focal point at The Plimoth Plantation, welcoming visitors onboard to give them a sense of what life o...

Leo Goolden is no stranger to big projects, after completing the restoration of the 1947 Folkboat, LOREMA, he sailed her from England to Antigua where he cleaned up in the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta.  Currently, he is in the middle of a much larger project, the restoration of the 1909 Gaff Cutter TALLY-HO.  Leo has been documenting the entire restoration on his website and they are highly enter...

From 1878 to 1945, The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company was the leading authority on designing and building the fastest yachts known to man. After the yard closed its doors, all the company's documents, approximately 19,000 pieces, were donated to the Hart Nautical Collection at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum. In the past, the public has had limited access to these documents, but...

As the impacts from global warming become more and more undeniable, many people and organizations are thinking of ways to reduce their footprint and become more carbon neutral. Sail Cargo has a loftier goal, they not only want to be carbon neutral, they are striving to be carbon negative.  For the past year the crew at Sail Cargo has been constructing the "Jungle Shipyard" in Costa Rica and gather...

Rocking the Boat started in 1996 as a volunteer project teaching East Harlem junior high school students how to build wooden boats after school and over the past 20 years it has grown to offer programs in sailing, rowing and environmental studies as well.  Their motto is, "Kids just don't build boats, boats build kids." and the proof is seen in the graduation rates and college enrollment numbers o...

When Jon Wilson published the first issue of WoodenBoat Magazine in 1974, the number of his employees, (him, his wife and their toddler son) outnumbered their subscribers, two.  But thanks to some self-admitted naivete and a ton of perseverance, WoodenBoat can now be found on newsstands around the world.  In this episode, Tyler and Carter talk to the founder of WoodenBoat Magazine and discuss how...

"First light is almost a religion." Woody Metzger, from First Light Boatworks, joins us in this episode. Learn about the history of this interesting boat-building and restoration yard located in Chatham, Massachusetts. First Light builds, restores, and services wooden boats. They are also the exclusive builder of the Monomoy 26', an absolutely stunning, award-winning lapstrake powerboat. Plus, Tyl...

Things are rocking and rolling at Around the Buoy! We are excited to introduce you to Tyler Fields as our new co-host. As we focus on growing this podcast and bringing you interesting content from around boating world, Carter and Tyler are all set to do that with their broad boating knowledge and humor-infused approach to sharing their passion with you. They have a great on-air dynamic that will k...

The story of the SS United States is also the story of brilliant marine engineer and naval architect who brought her into being. To say that William Francis Gibbs had a long-running love affair with a ship would be, quite frankly, an understatement. Salty-tongued, superstitious, and with no formal training in the field, he quit his job in real-estate law in 1916 to devote himself to designing the...

Ever wonder who's behind those fabulous photos of the most beautiful racing yachts in the world? In this episode of Around the Buoy, Carter and Helena chat with Tyler Fields, a nautical photographer with a knack for capturing some of sailing's most spectacular (and intimate) moments. Listen in! This week's sponsor: East Passage Boatwrights Featured image courtesy of Tyler Fields Show Notes & Links...

Andy Green returns to Around the Buoy to share the excitement surrounding the start of the most exciting sailing race in the world; the Volvo Ocean Race! The first leg starts in Alicante, Spain, and heads for Lisbon in Portugal. What's in store for the sailors and for the fans?  Listen in! This week's sponsor: East Passage Boatwrights Show Notes & Links: Hosts: Carter Richardson & Helena Harris Gu...

In this long-awaited episode, Carter and Helena return to chat with Dave Jackson, of the US Naval Academy Sailing Center in Annapolis, MD. Carter recounts his fond memories of the program, and we learn just what the Midshipmen learn under Dave's experienced and enthusiastic leadership. Plus, we recap some of the summer's most exciting events, like the Candy Store Cup and the J Class World Champion...

Carter and Helena talk Newport Harbor in this episode. Hear about Helena's 4th of July fireworks experience aboard Aurora, and her first glimpse of the schooner Meteor. Plus, Carter dishes about his preparation for the Candy Store Cup Regatta (next episode he'll tell us what it was like to race in it, too!), and answers a bunch of random questions from a landlubber. Listen in! This week's sponsors...

11th Hour Racing was a sponsor of the Land Rover BAR Sailing Team in this year's America's Cup, as well as the Vestas /11 Hour Racing Team in the 2017 Volvo Ocean Race. Our guest in this episode is Andy Green of British Racing Green. Andy is part of the 11th Hour Racing Ambassador Program, which consists of a group of professional sailors committed to ocean health. We chat with Andy about 11th Hou...

Summer on the water is even better when you're moving around on a beautiful, wooden boat. For classic boat enthusiasts, the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic, CT is like their Mecca. Andrew Breece, publisher of WoodenBoat magazine, joins Carter and Helena to chat about the cool stuff one can find at the show coming up June 30-July 2, 2017. Learn about Sharkbait, the cat who was delivered by UPS, a Hokule...