Bringing it back to Newport

Reaching For the Stars

Reaching For the StarsWind boiling out of the WSW coming into the East Passage of Narragansett Bay, the Eleventh Hour Racing team skippered by Charlie Enright takes first place in the Brazil to Newport leg of the race. Newport is this team's home port.

September 26, 1983, was the day. My twentieth birthday. There was a bellow for me from the end of the dorm that I had a phone call. It was not a birthday wish. It was a call to tell me that we had lost the America's Cup. I sat on the floor in near disbelief.

Reaching For the Finish

Reaching For the FinishWind boiling out of the WSW coming into the East Passage of Narragansett Bay, the Eleventh Hour Racing team skippered by Charlie Enright takes first place in the Brazil to Newport leg of the race. Newport is this team's home port.

I had spent my summer working on a local excursion vessel on Narragansett Bay, the M/V Bay Queen. I was in the midst of the Cup activity, among the sailors, the visitors. I had been to the trials offshore. A sailboat racer myself, I had grown up doing this.

Reaching For the Brass Ring

Reaching For the Brass RingWind boiling out of the WSW coming into the East Passage of Narragansett Bay, the Eleventh Hour Racing team skippered by Charlie Enright takes first place in the Brazil to Newport leg of the race. Newport is this team's home port.

Gone were the flotillas of spectators. The days of victory. The boat horns blaring.

Until yesterday, May 10, 2023. I saw it again. I heard crowds cheer on two shores over WSW winds gusting at 20 knots. The hometown team, the 11th Hour Racing team, brought their boat in first on the Brazil to Newport leg of the Ocean Race. I waited forty years to hear that cheer again.

Reaching For Victory

Reaching For VictoryWind boiling out of the WSW coming into the East Passage of Narragansett Bay, the Eleventh Hour Racing team skippered by Charlie Enright on a borad reach takes first place in the Brazil to Newport leg of the race. Newport is this team's home port.

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