Off to the Races!

(photo (c) 2004 by Bernard Ente, via Working Harbor Committee website, link below - I'm emailing Doswell at WHC to make sure this is OK...).

Wow, quite the string of races coming up here, warrants a lunchtime post!

They start weekend after next - Sunday, September 3rd - It's the Working Harbor Committee's Annual Tugboat Race & Competition. YEAH! The event starts with the Tugboat Parade at noon, then three separate events will test the mettle of these Clydsedales of the harbor and their crews - there's a race, a bow-to-bow pushing contest, and a line-throwing contest.

Of course ONCE AGAIN I have to miss this 'cause Sunday is my regular day to work on the schooner - this happens every year, I've NEVER gotten to go watch 'cause I've always got something else I have to do - but I really recommend attending if you can, it has just got to be a blast. Reservations on spectator boats and all other information is available at the Working Harbor Committee website.

The week after that, one I am far less enthusiastic about - yep, September 10th is the annual day on which they shut down the river, usually from 11 am until early to mid-afternoon, for the annual New York City Stupidboat Race. I mean Stuporboat...no, wait, the term the organizers of the stupid event use is "Superboat Race". Yeah, that was the term. Ugh. Cigarette boats... This is the one class of boat which I simply and sincerely loathe as an entire class, irrespective of how good or bad the drivers are. I'm not posting about their stupid earshattering event to tout it, I'm mentioning it to warn any local paddlers that that would be the ideal weekend to be anywhere BUT North River. Maybe you could go visit Bill and Janice at Annsville Creek, or Terri and her general manager, Ray in Cold Spring, or maybe even a nice hike somewhere...or stay home & do some laundry, doing laundry is TONS more fun than being out with those freakin' waterborne jackhammers...Ugh. Once again, gentle boaters & others who appreciate of the relative peace & quiet of a day on the water - September 10th, I recommend finding some water other than the North River (the stretch of the Hudson that goes past Manhattan). I may actually have to be there - like I said, I work on the schooner on Sundays. We may sail north instead of to the Statue - doesn't matter, though, given the 2-hour schedule of our usual trips, we can't sail far enough away to get to peace & quiet. The amount of noise these things put out, they'll need earplugs in Yonkers.

And Saturday the 16th is the Mayor's Cup Schooner Race! This was a sad day in Adirondack-land last year, this year hopefully we reclaim our honor & the cup. Or at the very least, we don't go limping home with a mangled bow. Tickets are available, check out the Special Events section on our website, sail-nyc.com, or call 646-336-5270. Sorry, no friends-of-frogma discounts available, but it should be a fabulous day out on the water. OK, if you really want to read about last year, it's here, sigh.