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Banner file photo
A new schooner race, from Gloucester to Provincetown, will be an added feature leading up to the Great Provincetown Schooner Regatta. |
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Fishermen’s race revives
By Kevin Mullaney
Banner Correspondent
PROVINCETOWN — Whatever your vision of Provincetown in the future might be, many residents think more sailing schooners is a good thing. A group with just such a vision has made a deal to introduce a new schooner race in September which they feel, together with the annual Great Provincetown Schooner Regatta, will enrich Provincetown both culturally and financially.
Schooner Regatta and Provincetown Public Pier Corp. members attended the annual meeting of the American Schooner Association, held in early February in Mystic, Conn. Susan Avellar, chair of the local race committee, said local residents have attended for several years now. “We are recognized,” she noted.
Pier Manager Rex McKinsey made a proposal to hold a Gloucester-to-Provincetown schooner race sometime between Labor Day and the Schooner Regatta.
Then, “Susan got up and threw down the gauntlet,” said Ken DiGregorio of Avellar. Avellar was speaking for the Hindu and Capt. Kevin Foley. And Capt. Mark Faulstick of the Adventurer accepted.
“We’re very pleased,” said Avellar. “The Schooner committee is jazzed. … The Gloucester-Provincetown race idea was well received.” The boats are moving toward Chesapeake Bay that time of year, she added. The new Provincetown race would follow Labor Day weekend’s Mayor’s Race in Gloucester. The Provincetown regatta sails three days later.
“We were greeted warmly by several of the captains who have competed in our regatta over the years,” DiGregorio said in a press release. “One captain even stood up and sang our praises and urged all those in the room to sail to Provincetown for our event. It was a great feeling.”
Others who attended the meeting were John Santos and Lory Stewart from the regatta committee and Pier Corp. chair Len Clingham.
The new race, to be called the “Fishermen’s Cup Challenge,” will leave Gloucester for Provincetown on Wednesday, Sept. 3, “across Massachusetts Bay in the great tradition of the Fishermen’s Race celebrating the historic Lipton Cup race of 1907,” the press release states, referring to the victory by the Rose Dorothea out of Provincetown.
The next day, Thursday, a commodore’s reception and presentation of the trophy and a cash prize to the winner will be held, hopefully at the Provincetown Library, where the famed scale model of the Rose Dorothea resides. Friday will feature free tours of schooners along MacMillan Pier, and Friday night’s crew party on Fishermen’s Wharf kicks off the festivities for Saturday’s seventh annual Great Provincetown Schooner Regatta & Yacht Race, which begins after the Swim for Life clears the harbor.
“We’re very interested in working with the Swim for Life and the whole harbor fest,” DiGregorio said of the festive week.
The schooner race committee is close to signing a deal with a big, hopefully soon-to-be-announced sponsor for the event, DiGregorio said, and he thinks there could be both A-class and B-class schooners, perhaps as many as a dozen, racing to Provincetown. Some may do a nighttime run.
“It’s very exciting,” DiGregorio said. “We’ll track them with Nextel and announce their arrival on WOMR. The schedule came together. It fell into plan amazingly,” he said. “We’re destined to have racing in that harbor.”
For more information, visit their website at www.provincetownschoonerrace.com.
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Falling revenue tests town
Jetty & harbor fixes tallied at $1.1M
School Lunch
Worship
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Apr 3rd, 2008