For a satisfying sampler of New England summer fun, cruise over to Block Island. A short jaunt from Montauk, New York, and Newport, Rhode Island, this charming isle offers 17 miles of beaches, 28 miles of trails, fascinating history, solid marinas, great restaurants and a laid-back atmosphere.

Beaches

With 17 miles of beaches, Block Island has an expanse of sand for every type of traveler. Crescent Beach stretches for 3 miles along the island’s eastern shore. Mansion Beach at the island’s northern tip is quieter, better for beachcombing. Fred Benson Town Beach, at the island’s center, is beloved by families for its wide beach, shallow surf, extensive facilities, concession stand and summertime movies. A quarter-mile away is Scotch Beach, a “see and be seen” spot for teens and 20-somethings. For the party scene, head to Ballard’s Beach for tiki bars and live music.

Outdoor Activities

The Nature Conservancy once named Block Island one of 12 “last great places” in the Western Hemisphere because of its abundance of rare plants and animals, and the community’s dedication to conservation. The Block Island Conservancy offers free nature walks and programs during the summer.

It’s easy to explore the island’s natural wonders by hiking or biking along 28 miles of trails. The Mohegan Bluffs are a must-see, standing 200 feet high along a 3-mile stretch of the shore. It’s worth the 141 steps down to the beach to view the bluffs from the waterline. Birders flock to the island’s north end for the 127-acre Block Island National Wildlife Refuge, which hosts more than 70 migratory species in the fall. You can launch your kayak or paddleboard from your berth in one of the three marinas in the Great Salt Pond (West Harbor) to search for crabs and other creatures. Or book a fishing charter to angle for striped bass, for which the Block Island Sound is so well known.

History

A national historic landmark, the Southeast Lighthouse has been a beacon for ships from atop the Mohegan Bluffs since 1873. Its museum chronicles the history of New England’s highest lighthouse, including the time in 1993 when the bluff’s erosion forced a $2 million relocation of the lighthouse. In New Shoreham, the Block Island Historical Society showcases stone tools from the indigenous Manissean community, along with maritime and colonial memorabilia, and photos of island life during the Victorian era.

Dining

A Block Island institution, Poor People’s Pub serves casual fare as well as creative specials, such as duck pasta and saltimbocca pizza. Dead Eye Dick’s is known for its lobster and swordfish, which it also sells through its seafood market, Dick’s Fish & Provisions. Head to Block Island Oyster Bar and Grill for its namesake dish, harvested daily. Aldo’s Bakery provides boat delivery for its delicious coffee, pastries and light fare.

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Summertime belongs to boaters. Whether it’s on America’s coasts or all along the inland lakes and rivers, boaters spend more days out on the water during the summer months than at any other time of year. And pretty much everywhere a hook can be dropped or a line can be tied off, there’s a festival, a rendezvous or another type of event for boaters to enjoy.

One of the most perennially popular summer experiences for boaters is the Newport Jazz Festival, held each August in Rhode Island. Boaters can avoid the crowds by anchoring out and listening to the music as it wafts across the water. The best seats in the house are on deck in the sunshine and fresh air. This year’s lineup of artists (as with most years) includes a who’s who of musicians, with Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall and Jon Batiste all scheduled to perform.

Another must-do event for boaters is the Fourth of July holiday. There’s nothing quite like witnessing the glow of fireworks from a boat, whether it’s in Boston Harbor, New York Harbor, San Francisco Bay or somewhere else. While everyone ashore is looking up at the show in the sky, boaters can experience the broader view that also includes the city lights and all the reflections dancing across the water—again, often while avoiding a lot of the crowds. And boaters have no need to scramble for a place in line at a barbecue joint on July Fourth. Boats with onboard grills are already set up with everything required for a grand-scale waterfront cookout of burgers, hot dogs, fish and whatever else the folks on board want for the holiday feast.

Yet another rite of passage each summer is the rendezvous, which comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Boaters can organize a rendezvous at a marina, in a harbor, on a sandbar—anywhere there’s a spot for lots of boats to gather. These events showcase the camaraderie that exists among like-minded boaters, whether they’re owners of the same brand of boat or the same style of boat, or are people with similar cruising aspirations.

MarineMax locations host rendezvous known as Aquapalooza at various spots around the country each year, with live music, giveaways of keepsake items such as T-shirts, and other kinds of fun. This year’s Aquapalooza event in Boston is scheduled for July 15. It will take place in Perry Cove off Peddocks Island, which is part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

Marine museums are another great location for boaters to gather in the summertime, with festivals and exhibitions that are specific to the maritime community. In August, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels hosts Watermen’s Appreciation Day, which is a celebration of the heritage of people who have worked on boats in the region for generations. The event includes a “watermen’s rodeo” boat-docking contest, along with live music, steamed local crabs and other family-friendly fun.

Attendance at this festival can be combined with a look at the museum’s exhibits and floating fleet, which includes classic power and sail vessels such as a 1912 Delaware River tug, a 1909 crab dredger and an 1889 bugeye that is registered as a National Historic Landmark. Members of the museum can dock at its marina, including overnight stays with a reservation that’s made in advance.

Up the East Coast a ways is the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, another of the nation’s best keepers of nautical heritage. In August, this museum hosts the Antique Marine Engine Expo, which is celebrating its 30th year this summer. This expo typically includes more than 300 exhibits, with many of the engines still able to operate just as well as they did on the day they were first purchased. Anyone who enjoys getting their hands dirty in a boat’s engine room can find all kinds of marine machinery here, including steamers, inboards, outboards and more. This expo is a good reminder of just how much easier today’s boaters have it down below, compared with boats of the past.

As interesting as all these getaway ideas are, they’re just a handful of the many waterfront festivals and events that boaters can attend with family and friends this summer. Untie the lines and go. So many memories await.

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The city of Newport, Rhode Island, has long been synonymous with 12 Metre boats, given how many of them competed there for the America’s Cup between 1958 and 1983. Quite a few of the boats still spend a great deal of their time in Newport, but there’s also a strong global fleet whose most recent World Championship was held in Helsinki, Finland, in 2021.

This summer, that racing is coming back to Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound, with on-water action scheduled to take place from July 31 through August 5. Many of the yachts expected to race have ties to the America’s Cup competitions, setting the stage for some of the highest-caliber racing that can be seen anywhere in the world.

“It’s very special that this event is returning to Newport, especially because of the rich history this city shares with the America’s Cup,” said Peggy Hersam, executive director of the 12 Metre Yacht Club Newport Station, which is organizing the World Championship event in partnership with the Ida Lewis Yacht Club. “A large concentration of 12 Metres, many of which have ties to the Cup, make their home in Newport; however, the fleet is worldwide and going strong. It will be amazing for visitors and locals alike to encounter these iconic boats tuning up for and competing in this most important event.”

Some of the yachts expected to compete include Columbia, Challenge XII, American Eagle, Courageous, Defender, Enterprise, Freedom, Gleam, Intrepid, Nefertiti, Onawa and Weatherly. Each of these boats has amazing stories of their own: Columbia, for instance, never once trailed her challenger in the 1958 America’s Cup and is still out on the water winning races today.

Base camp for the World Championship will be established at the International Yacht Restoration School, with class-sanctioned regattas planned in June and early July, leading up to the main event. And some of the boats, including Columbia, are available for charter, giving racing enthusiasts a chance to sail aboard the historic vessels.

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If you were a baby boomer kid who grew up in the sailing-crazed town of Newport, Rhode Island, as I did, there was no way you didn’t have at least a passing familiarity with Pearson Yachts. They were everywhere on Narragansett Bay, built on Aquidneck Island in nearby Portsmouth. Even if you didn’t actually sail a Pearson, you probably knew somebody who built them.

I learned to race sailboats out of Newport Yacht Club on a pair of Pearsons—first a 26, then a 32—owned by the father of a high-school buddy. My first real taste of cruising under sail happened on another set of Pearsons—a 28-foot Triton to start and, later, a 32-foot Vanguard—both skippered by a fellow editor when I started working at Cruising World magazine.

And last spring, I became the proud possessor of my own good ol’ Pearson 365, a beamy, shallow-draft cruising boat designed by Bill Shaw and built in 1977.

OK, gulp, full disclosure: I now own a couple of Pearsons.

In my defense, they are very different boats that reside in quite different locales. I purchased one Pearson—a 22-foot-6-inch full-keel, Carl Alberg-designed daysailer—a couple of years ago when I needed to find a boat quickly to secure my city mooring in Newport’s Brenton Cove. The fellow who owned it had retired to move south, and he had a sailing friend take charge of selling it, which the friend did for a ridiculously low price on Facebook Marketplace. I stumbled on it and got the best deal on any boat I’ve ever owned, and there have been a few.

My boat-buying luck held last spring while on a swing through Florida, where the son of my old mate Dan Spurr—the very same Triton/Vanguard chap referenced above—approached me on the dock at his marina on Longboat Key and said: “You’re just the man I wanted to see. I’m going to sell you my boat.”

Steve Spurr is an avid waterman who, these days, prefers Gulf of Mexico fishing jaunts on his center-console. He was eager to divest himself of one of his two vessels, a Pearson 365 called August West, so named for a character in a Grateful Dead song titled “Wharf Rat.” He was also utterly disinterested in the fact that I wasn’t in the market for a cruising boat. Like Marlon Brando in The Godfather, he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, with the deal-sealer being the awesome boat slip on Longboat, adjacent to Sarasota Bay, where I could park it.

I always wanted a boat called Saunter, which I renamed Ensign, but never had one that fit such a stately moniker. But I like nothing better than summer sauntering through Newport Harbor on Ensign. It fits. With August West, I’ve decided to keep the name and do my own wharf-rat thing down the coast to the Keys this winter and, if I get ambitious, maybe even point her in the direction of Mexico or the Bahamas.

For now, the pair of Pearsons dovetail perfectly with what I want and need from a sailboat, at differing times and places. Though I didn’t realize it before it happened, it took two to accomplish the whole thing.  

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Few chairs are as simple as the Adirondack, which (at least some experts say) a man built from 11 planks of wood after becoming frustrated by uncomfortable lakefront furniture in the early 1900s. The chair soon became a staple along waterfronts from New York to New England, where it could be left outside in scenic spots for watching boats cruise past.

Even today, that kind of simplicity is still relaxing, especially in places like Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay, a boater’s paradise where summer regattas put on a fantastic show. Few of life’s pleasures are as easily accessible as sitting in an Adirondack chair high above the shore and watching a heck of a lot of great boats go by.

The most famous harbor on Narragansett Bay is the one at Newport, a city that dates to the 1600s and the New England whaling industry. Today, Newport is as much a tourist town as it is a seafarer city, with world-class marinas and services within walking distance of restaurants, shops, music clubs and more.

Cruising here is great on your own boat—or on a rental that can give you a taste of the city’s storied sailing history. Many of the classic America’s Cup 12 Meters that raced here years ago are now available for charter, either through daily ticket purchases or by way of custom bookings. You can get a feel for the action with a two- or three-hour sail, or book a whole boat for one of the harbor’s special events, such as Fourth of July fireworks.

Many boaters like to cruise to Newport in July for the annual Newport Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival, both staged at Fort Adams State Park. The park is on the waterfront, which means boats can anchor out and hear the music without ever stepping ashore. There’s usually serious talent on stage; over the years, musicians such as Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and Muddy Waters have performed.

And, if you have a foldable Adirondack-style chair on board, feel free to position it on deck and enjoy the view too.

The Boaters’ Bay

Narragansett Bay is at the north end of Rhode Island Sound, which hosted America’s Cup Races from 1930 to 1983. Today, all kinds of boats cruise and race here, making for on-water fun and a great spectator sport. It’s not unusual to see J Boats or classic Herreshoff Designs take to the bay en masse for regattas, or to see Downeast powerboats strutting with style across the local waters. The Herreshoff Marine Museum borders Narragansett Bay in Bristol, and has transient dockage and moorings available from mid-May through the middle of October. The America’s Cup Hall of Fame is on-site, with half-hull models on display.

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Dates have been announced for the 48th annual Newport International Boat Show, which is scheduled September 13-16 at Newport Yachting Center in Rhode Island.

The show is expected to cover 13 acres with hundreds of equipment, electronics and other exhibitors, as well as yachts from 15 to 90 feet length overall.

Events will include the Confident Captains at the Helm instruction program. The Newport for New Products program will have awards for products making their U.S. debut.

Show hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from September 13-15, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on September 16.

How to buy discounted tickets in advance: Keep an eye on the website. Tickets are expected to go on sale in June.

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Jeremy king grew up in a New York home where, on any given night, the adults would play the records of Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis or the Dave ­Brubeck Quartet. He knew the quintuple time of “Take Five” the way other kids know songs by the Muppets. When somebody said “Leap Frog,” he knew to tap his toes instead of jump. So, when the longtime sailor arrived in yachting’s best-known Rhode Island city about a decade ago, he couldn’t think of anything better than attending its annual Newport Jazz Festival. He went by land. He went by sea. He went back again and again, and he still wants more. “There’s multiple sides to the jazz fest,” says King, who is captain aboard the 115-foot classic schooner Eros. “Part of it is a land event: People have tickets and they’re going for the music-festival experience. Then for some people, it’s just a great weekend to be in ­Newport. It’s just so lively. There’s probably 30,000 more people in town, and the restaurants and stores and parks, there’s just a lot going on. And then the third aspect of it is the boating. To boaters, we get this awesome vantage point. There’s very, very few music festivals that you can sit on your boat and have as good a view as the people standing in front of the stage.”

This year’s dates: Friday, August 3 through Sunday, August 5.   

Ticket prices: A three-day land pass is $170. Listening from the yacht is free.   

Who’s playing: Charles Lloyd and friends featuring ­Lucinda Williams, Jason Moran, Marvin Sewell, Stuart Mathis, Reuben Rogers, Eric Harland and more.   

The setup: It’s at Fort Adams State Park, overlooking Newport Harbor.

  Interesting add-on: Guided tours of the fortress include going to the top of the fort’s walls and into the underground tunnels.

Eros, which charters through Nicholson Yachts, is still open for the event this ­August — and King hopes a client will book, because he knows all the tricks for anchoring off the peninsula at Fort Adams State Park.

“The shape just creates this natural amphitheater,” he says. “The way they set up the stage, the sound reverberates out onto the water. The few times I’ve gone in and been at the festival on land, it’s not nearly as great an experience as being on the water. Assuming you’re downwind, the sound is incredible.”

Maneuvering a charter yacht into that perfect spot takes some been-there-before know-how, he adds.

“It’s competitive,” he says. “Some years, I’ve gotten up and gone out there at 7 in the morning and waited to get closer. The bigger the boat, the farther away you get, but with a boat like Eros, we can see right up and over all the small boats. You’re not standing in line for an hour to get a beer. You’re not fighting the crowd if you’re 5-foot-nothing just to see the stage. A really fun thing we can do is send somebody up the rig a little bit in the bosun’s chair and watch from above deck.”

The other great part of the Newport Jazz Festival, he says, is the boating culture that surrounds it. While other premier charter events such as the America’s Cup and the Monaco Grand Prix tend to draw the biggest of the big superyachts, the Newport festival draws a blend that might best be described as a pseudo raft-up of mixed nuts.

“What happens on the water is you get all kinds of things,” King says. “There’s people rowing up on kayaks — one year it looked like there was a picnic table with outboard engines attached. The music is only part of the experience when you’re chartering a yacht. The music is great background the entire day, but we have our paddleboards and kayaks and an inflatable lily pad, so you get to enjoy being on the water all day if that’s what you want to do. It’s like a music festival on land, but it’s the boating people who are the characters all around you.”

A charter for this year’s festival can include only the three-day event, or can be woven into a week or longer itinerary all around New England. In his adopted hometown of Newport, King knows where to send guests for shoreside fun, and he’s equally excited to sail out to Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket or legendary designer Nathanael Herreshoff’s old stomping grounds in Bristol to show off what Eros can do.

“Generally, we find that the experience of sailing is the biggest attraction itself,” he says. “We try and share that with our guests and have a good time along the way.”

The post The Best Seats for the Newport Jazz Festival appeared first on Yachting.

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