On-Hudson.com

Coast Guard Retrieve 1,264 Navigational Aids For Winter

http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/index.php/2010/11/operation-fall-retrieve/

Operation Fall Retrieve

LTJG Stephanie Young

Approximately 1,264 navigational aids, such as the one above, are taken out of service during the winter months due to decreased vessel traffic and to minimize damage from ice and severe weather. Photo by PA3 William B. Mitchell.

As the winter season descends upon the Great Lakes region, units at the Ninth Coast Guard District are undertaking a massive effort to remove 1,264 navigational aids protecting 6,700 miles of coastline. Known as Operation Fall Retrieve, this removal of buoys is the largest domestic aids to navigation (ATON) recovery operation in the United States.

Spanning the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway System, the operation incorporates six Coast Guard cutters, five Aids to Navigation Teams (ANTs) and small boat five stations. District’s units also coordinate with Canadian Coast Guard partners and the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.

Operation Fall Retrieve incorporates six Coast Guard cutters, five Aids to Navigation Teams (ANTs) and small boat five stations. Here, members of Coast Guard Cutter Bristol Bay conduct service on an aid. Photo by PA3 George Degener.

The buoys are taken out of service during the winter months due to decreased vessel traffic and to minimize damage from ice and severe weather. If left in place they could sustain damage from the sheets of ice that move in every winter. In some cases, the ice could pull the buoy under, which causes damage to both the buoy hull and the light.

“One of the biggest problems with the buoy hull becoming damaged is that it may sink and never be recovered, said Boatswain’s MateJerad Calobreves, the executive petty officer at ANT Duluth, one of the units involved in Operation Fall Retrieve.

As part of Operation Fall Retrieve, ANT Duluth will maintain a total of 83 “seasonal” buoys that includes river and lighted buoys. The ANT will be working long days well into December to complete the job, but at the end of each day there is a constant reminder of how important their work is to the maritime community.

“ATON is very rewarding!” said Calobreves. “Every time you work ATON you can look back and see what you accomplished for the day. Everyone at the unit plays a key role ensuring that all ATON is operating and maintained properly.”

As part of the maintenance for the buoys, they will be taken to the unit and inspected. The ones that are in good condition will stay in the buoy yard for the winter, but some of the buoys that are more worn will be sent out for rehabilitation. This rehabilitation includes sandblasting, patching and repainting the aid. If the aid has lights, its batteries will be recharged and stored through the winter.

Two crewmembers bring aboard a buoy as part of Operation Fall Retrieve. Once brought aboard the buoys will be taken to the buoy yard where they will be inspected. Photo by PA3 George Degener.

Another unit participating in the operations is Station Saginaw River, which is a unique station in that it is responsible for both search and rescue and aids to navigation, giving it the abbreviation of “STANT.” The ATON department at STANT Saginaw River maintains over 100 aids to navigation including floating aids, lighthouses, fixed lights and ranges.

“The time that these buoys are taken out of service is an opportune time to do maintenance on the buoys,” said Seaman Francis Armstrong, a member of STANT Saginaw River’s ATON department. “We inspect the lighted portions of the buoy to make sure they have the correct flash characteristics, that all of the component parts are in working order, that the power source is in working order, and that the light flashes with the correct intensity.”

As a seaman at the unit, Armstrong is responsible for doing a lot of the hands on work that keeps the station running. When asked what work at the station is like day to day, he replied, “In a word: exhausting.”

“The job can be quite exhausting when you are hauling out buoys for eight to ten hours a day during the spring and fall buoy runs,” said Armstrong. “If I am not dirty by the end of the day then I clearly have not been working hard enough.”

 

 

Coast Guard Cutter Starts 2010 Ice Breaking Duty On-Hudson

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/100104-coast-guard-begins-hudson-river-ice-breaking

Coast Guard Begins Hudson River Ice-Breaking

By ARUN KRISTIAN DAS / MyFox New York

MYFOXNY.COM - With temperatures are dropping and water starting to freeze on the Hudson Rover, the Coast Guard has begun its annual ice-breaking operations. Five cutters will help maintain waterways open to commercial vessels from New York City up to Albany until the mid-March, the Coast Guard said.

"An average of 300 vessels transit the Hudson River during the winter months, carrying over 5 million barrels of petroleum products to the communities of this northern region," said Lt. Cmdr. Edward Munoz, of Coast Guard Sector New York . "This includes home heating oil, which impacts hundreds of thousands of people in our area."

The Coast Guard Cutters Line, Wire, Hawser, Morro Bay, and Sturgeon Bayare assigned to ice-breaking. Other vessels are standing by in case any of the ships go down for maintenance or the ice season gets worse, said Petty Officer Third Class Barbara Patton.

The Coast Guard breaks ice on the river to keep it clear for commerce and travel, as well as for safety and security reasons. Coast Guard, police, fire, and other official boats need to be able to carry out search and rescue, law enforcement, homeland security, and other emergency missions.

"In addition to our icebreakers, the Coast Guard Auxiliary conducts daily reconnaissance flights, providing updated information about ice conditions which is then transmitted to waterway users," Munoz said.

The public can get daily ice reports from the Coast Guard online at:

•  HOMEPORT.USCG.MIL 

Ice Sailors Enjoy What The Hudson Has To Offer This Season

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/travel/escapes/13Iceyachting.html?8dpc

On a Sheet of Ice and Under Sail on the Hudson

Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

Ice yachting on the Hudson off Athens, N.Y.

By DAVID G. ALLAN

MORE than 100 years ago, people regularly congregated at the Hudson River for winter entertainment and recreation. It was not uncommon to see thousands of people gather on the frozen river for carnivals of music, dancing, food, skating and, most thrilling, ice yacht races.

The enthusiasm for the sport a century ago is not surprising, given that the boats could reach speeds well above that of the trains running along the river.

The sepia-toned era of winter sports on the Hudson is largely dead, not because of advances in home entertainment or newer extreme sports, but mainly because of a pattern of warmer winters, the river simply doesn’t freeze over as often or as deeply as it once did. The long seasons of yesteryear, with dozens of ice yachts and large crowds of onlookers, has turned into the occasional weekend outing, with a small but dedicated group of enthusiasts keeping history alive.

The last day of January marked the start of the ice sailing season on the Hudson this year, but could just as easily mark its end. There are spots elsewhere that more reliably ice over, but for New York’s longest river, where the sport earned fame, the opportunities are now fleeting. In a typical year there might be a two-week window. Last year, there was no ice sailing on the river.

“You may get three years in a row, and then you may not be on it another five years,” said John Sperr, one of the organizers of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club, a group of about 60 members founded in 1869 by John A. Roosevelt, Franklin’s uncle.

On this particular day, the four main elements needed for good ice sailing came together: ice (or “hard water,” at least four inches thick), consistently cold weather, not a lot of snow and, of course, wind. When these stars align and the ice boats, some of which began sailing on the Hudson in the late 1800s, reappear, it’s like a wintry Brigadoon.

“You have to have a lot of delayed gratification for this sport,” said Jack Weeks, a physician in Kingston, N.Y., as he assembled the 100-year-old, two-man Greyhound ice boat at the public boat launch in Athens, about 120 miles north of Manhattan.

A mile-or-so stretch of water beside the small town has the advantage of being cut off from the wider river by an island, creating shallow depths good for forming ice and safe ice sailing away from traffic on the main channel.

Reassembling an old boat, which can be left in storage for years, can take two or more hours. “You don’t want to rush,” Mr. Weeks said, “because once you get up and start getting fast, you don’t want to have any breakdowns. It could be harmful to your health.”

These antique vessels of timber and canvas sail cloth function similarly to their “soft water” counterparts, and there is some shared terminology, but the boats themselves look nothing alike. The hull of an ice yacht looks like a balance beam laid perpendicular onto a bench with a flag pole rising from where they meet. This wooden cross is held together by cables and turnbuckles all sitting on three machete-size skates.

During assembly and between sails, the sailors love to pore over the details of the boats’ graceful construction and how they manage difficult repairs to these 100-plus-year-old vessels. As a matter of principle, repairs are made with materials available to the original craftsmen. “Sometimes just fixing and taking care of them is as fun as anything,” Mr. Weeks said.

There are newer boats that come as well, like the DN class two-man racers that get their name from a Depression-era design contest held by The Detroit News. There’s no palpable snobbery between those keeping up vintage wood boats and those sailing fiberglass descendants. Up close though, it’s the old, handcrafted ice yachts that draw attention.

In the newer ice boats, the sailor sits toward the back and controls direction with a steering mechanism in the bow. But on the older ones, they travel head-first and steer by reaching back to a tiller in the stern, like small soft water boats. You lie down on the cockpit, a small sled of bedding, and travel only a foot and a half off the ice, at highway speeds. One onlooker described a successful ice sail as akin to “riding a motorcycle, with no brakes.”

Even when everything goes smoothly and nothing breaks, you’re exposed to temperatures that threaten frostbite.

The premier boat out that first full day of the season was the Vixen, built in 1885 with a speed-enhancing sail, called a lateen rig, that so impressed John Roosevelt he bought it on first sight.

The Vixen’s current owner (or as he puts it, “it kind of owns me”) for the past 35 years is Reid Bielenberg, a longtime restoration craftsman in the Hudson Valley. He sees a long life for his boat. “She’s 120 years old and has at least that in her,” he said.

Despite its advanced age, the Vixen is a smooth flight, especially when you quietly glide on a clean straightaway. Full speed on choppy bits, on the other hand, rattles the frame and tackle into a thrilling roller coaster clatter.

Throughout the day more boats arrived. With them were families with small children, groups of friends and solo enthusiasts. The regulars largely know each other, many being members of the dues-short ice yachting clubs of the area.

Then there were the gawkers. Local photographers shooting the boats, new enthusiasts patiently waiting for an invitation to ride and others who just happened by and stopped for a closer look. The last stream of onlookers marveled, some even tiptoeing out on the ice to ask a few questions before leaving.

At the end of a day of hard-water sailing, after the sun set and the wind died down, food arrived, beer and wine were poured and a fire stove was lighted, building a living tableau of Hudson winters past.

“As long as we have ice on the river, Mr. Bielenberg said, “we’ll be out here.”

Hudson River Ice Yachters Enjoy Near Perfect Conditions

http://www.thedailymail.net/articles/2009/02/09/news/news04.txt

Ice yachters spread their wings on Hudson

By Hilary Hawke

ATHENS - The thought of slipping and sliding on icy roads strikes fear into the hearts of landlubbers everywhere who often dread ice storms even more than snowstorms.

But reports of an 8-inch ice cover on the Hudson River drew ice yachters from as far away as Long Island and Montreal to the Athens Boat Launch this weekend.

According to the 2000 Travel Journalist of the Year, Peter Guttman, ice yachting is one of the top ten most thrilling adventures in North America.

“Fly across tide warped floes as frigid wind gusts power classic ice yachts and yank the tears from your eyes,” he writes on his website.

Saturday's conditions were near perfect. The day was crisp and bright, warming temperatures hadn't yet turned the ice to slush and the wind was just strong enough to allow craft to speed along without a yachter losing control.

”Conditions like we've had this winter only come about maybe once every ten years,” said ice-yachting enthusiast and “Boating on the Hudson” editor John Vargo. “And perfect conditions happen only three or four times in one's life.”

A tall man, striking in his coyote-skin hat, Vargo lamented that he wasn't able to be out on the ice himself this year because of a recent hip replacement, a bad ankle and a knee injury. But that didn't prevent him from cheering on others from the sidelines.

When asked what it was about the sport that draws people to it, Vargo responded, “It has a sense of freedom, of goodwill, of camaraderie. Everyone cooperates with one another. There's no yelling and screaming. And it's one of the few sports left that bureaucrats can't regulate.”

Most of the enthusiasts who showed up for the Athens event were either from the Shrewsbury Ice Yachting Club or the Hudson River Ice Yachting Club.

With the help of modern technology, the National Weather Service, websites and e-mail, members know up to a week ahead of time whether conditions are right in any particular spot.

Yachters anticipated the near-perfect conditions at Athens as early as mid-January with this announcement from their website:

“Several days of subzero temperatures have added some welcome thickness to the ice sheet on the river. This bodes well for us — the sheet is locked in place, gaining thickness, and snow is on the way. The snow will eventually saturate from above and below forming more ice and leveling the surface. Look for good ice around the middle of February.”

Enthusiasts check the websites regularly. So many headed to Athens this weekend that the launch area couldn't accommodate all the cars and some had to park along the Route 385 shoulder.

Warm weather over the past few days has been great for ice conditions, leveling the snow and making the gliding smoother.

“A strong sun improves the river ice, as long as it's not too hot,” said Vargas.

Many of the yachts at the Athens Event were restored bow-steering or stern-steering craft and carry crews of up to three or four.

Traveling at speeds of up to 40 to 70 mph, clubs and individuals often hold races strictly for bragging rights.

Because of what look like promising weather, the Athens boat launch may host the ice yachters again next weekend.

For more information on ice yachting go to http://hriyc.org orhttp://www.nsibyc.com.

No Let-Up In Frozen River

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/February09/04/Hud_icebreak-04Feb09.html

Coast Guard meets the challenge of frozen river

HUDSON RIVER – The winter’s extremely cold temperatures pose a serious problem for ships and barges going up and down the Hudson River and that’s where the US Coast Guard comes in. The cutter Penobscot Bay goes up and down, breaking up the ice to allow for passage of vessels, and on Tuesday, Congressman John Hall took to the wheel of the cutter to see firsthand what its crew of 19 does to help commerce move. “Not only keeping the shipping lane open so we can get fuel oil, which comes by barge to the Newburgh waterfront as well as further up the river to other sites, but also for shipping ships and barges that go all the way to Troy and the Port of Albany,” he said. The Coast Guard also patrols the Hudson for homeland security purposes and for Indian Point security.

Coast Guard Cutter Keeps Hudson River Flowing As Ice Envelops The River

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=762214&category=REGION

ABOARD THE USCGC PENOBSCOT BAY -- Just before 8 a.m., with the air temperature trying to climb out of the single digits, Lt. Marshall Griffin and his crew of 21 prepared Wednesday to perform their daily angioplasty on one of Upstate's main commercial arteries. The 140-foot U.S, Coast Guard Cutter Penobscot Bay is targeting the near-constant encroachment of ice in the dark 32 waters, which threatens to bog down Hudson River traffic and, among other things, the flow of barge-borne home-heating oil to the region. The ship sat moored in the shadow of the cargo-ship Hamra at the Port of Albany where, overnight, an inch-thick skein of plate ice had grown around the ship. For the Bayonne, N.J.-based Penobscot Bay, which helped the Canadian government free the ice-bound St. Lawrence Seaway last spring, this is like a skilled martial artist trying to chop through a saltine. No sweat. But several miles south of Albany, where 4 and 5-inch thick chunks of broken plate ice bob and bunch up and refreeze, and the navigation channel closes to only a couple-hundred yards, the ship's true mission becomes clear. "Commerce would come to halt, as it does with the Great Lakes in the winter, if it weren't for the guys in the Coast Guard," said Richard Hendrick, port general manager. The concern is not so much that a renegade chunk of ice will gash a ship and send it Titanic-style to the river bottom, but rather the ice's choking grasp will bog vessels down, clogging shipping lanes and exposing their barges to crosswinds that could push them aground. "The power of the ice, especially when it gets thick, is pretty sobering," said Lt. James Collins, the ship's executive officer, who originally is from Kinderhook. Collins said the ice wreaks havoc on navigational buoys, dragging them around despite cement sinkers weighing between 8,500 and 12,500 pounds to anchor them in place. "This year seems to be considerably thicker," said Capt. Patrick Kinnier, port captain for New York City-based McAllister Towing, a tug company that hauls barges up and down the Hudson. Kinnier said he's received reports of ice as thick as 6 to 10 inches at the river's notorious chokepoints World's End, near West Point, and Crumb Elbow in Dutchess County where the river bends. Despite this winter's frigid temperatures, the ice isn't necessarily thickest to the north. The shape of the river and movement of the water affects the conditions. One of a tug captain's biggest concerns, Kinnier said, is that the ice dramatically slows a boat's speed, leaving it vulnerable to the heavy, slow-to-stop barge behind it. With a bottom shaped like a football and a 5/8-inch steel ice belt around its waterline, the 662-ton Penobscot Bay may heave wickedly in open seas but is uniquely suited for chugging through ice as thick as 30 inches without needing to back up and ram it. The ship's engines push the bow up onto the ice, forcing the stern lower. But, naturally buoyant, the stern rises, pushing the bow back down on the ice and sounding like a grinding steam engine as it surges forward. "The ship wants to stay at neutral, on an even keel," explained Griffin, the ship's captain. What you don't see is the "bubbler" system that bathes the hull in low-pressure air bubbles, lubricating its path through the water. The ship also is designed to cut a wide, rolling wake to further shove aside the broken ice, breaking "a path for a ship much larger than yourself," said Griffin. The crew is expected to patrol the river, based loosely out of Kingston, until early next week, Collins said, before ceding the ice watch to their sister ship, the USCGC Sturgeon Bay. "There's no place better than the Hudson River," said 1st Class Petty Officer Patrick Haney, who originally is from New Jersey but has spent five years on the river. "It's beautiful country up here." Jordan Carleo-Evangelist can be reached at 454-5445 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Worst Ice Season On -Hudson River In Five Years

The Newburgh-Beacon ferry sits idle in the frozen waters of the Hudson River at the Newburgh Ferry Terminal on Wednesday. Service to the Beacon Metro-North station has been suspended.

Times Herald-Record/CHET GORDON

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090115/BIZ/901150314/-1/NEWS

Ice disrupts ferry service on Hudson

By Judy Rife

Times Herald-Record

What is shaping up to be the worst ice season on the Hudson River in five years forced the suspension of commuter ferry service Wednesday.

Both the Newburgh-Beacon and Haverstraw-Ossining ferries will remain in dock until at least Tuesday. Buses will be used in the interim to transport commuters between the parking lots on the west side of the river and the Metro-North stations on the east side at no extra charge.

"Just show up like always," said Pat Smith, a spokesman for NY Waterway, which operates the ferries for the railroad. "We'll get you there and back."

Smith said buses were on stand-by Wednesday morning but the ferries were able to deliver 450 commuters to their trains without incident. The decision to suspend service was made as soon as the morning rush ended.

2 ice breakers on the river

"Newburgh is one of our worst areas right now," said Chief Warrant Officer Darren Pauly, who supervises the U.S. Coast Guard's ice operations in the river. "And the ice is generally much worse than last year, when we had a pretty mild winter. We're thinking this could be the worst ice season in five years."

Pauly said the high volume of ice has caused the Coast Guard to deploy two ice breakers to keep the commercial shipping channel open to Albany. He added that he expects at least one, if not both, of the ice breakers will remain on the river for the next month.

The effort, however, doesn't aid the ferries since they are small boats vulnerable to damage from the big, fast-moving floes. In addition, the natural design of Ossining's harbor is notorious for trapping ice, making it impossible for the ferry to get close to shore.

Buses operating smoothly

Since the Haverstraw-Ossining ferry debuted in 2000, ice has stalled its operation six of the subsequent eight winters — for as long as six weeks. Newburgh-Beacon, now in its fourth winter, has a better record despite being farther north.

Commuters, however, have no quarrel with the temporary use of buses and report the substitute service operates smoothly.

[email protected]

Hudson River Ice Yacht Club Exhibition Thru January 3rd 2009 @ Franklin D Roosevelt Presidential Library

Reprinted From : http://www.sail-world.com:80/USA/Winter-Buzz---Ice-Sailing-on-the-Hudson/52303

Winter Buzz - Ice Sailing on the Hudson

'Ice sailing on the Hudson - photo by Times Herald-Record - Tom Bushey'    . Down, far below the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, up-river from New York city, the vessels skittered across the frozen Hudson River like giant praying mantises. Bob Wills turned to his friend.  'What are those?' he asked.  Ice yachts.  He made his friend turn her car around in the middle of that very long bridge. Wills had carried a set of speed skates with him that day, and he now took them and headed for the river. The Hudson had frozen hard that winter, capped by 8 inches of black ice. Wills could see the fish swim below his blades.  He raced on to join an audience of about 200 people. Some 100 years before, it would have been 2,000 people. The New York Times would have recorded it. A Roosevelt or two probably would have captained boats or at least watched. But Wills hadn't yet learned about that long history. All he knew is he'd seen a glimpse of the yachts and he had to see more.  Over the next two decades, Wills, of Rhinecliff, would see much more. He's now secretary of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club and was once the club's commodore. He tries to explain the feeling of lying on your stomach, 12 inches above the ice, flying down a frozen river at highway speeds.  'The ice chips are flying in your face,' Wills says. 'It's a great sound.'  The feeling is such that club members work year-round to maintain century-old boats on the off chance a cold snap will freeze the river deep enough to sail on top of it. Just four of the past eight winters have met the standard, and that's considered good.  Club members displayed their yachts Saturday on the lawn of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. The exhibition will continue until Jan. 3.  Wills' boat, the Kriss, once belonged to John Roosevelt, uncle of Franklin. John was the founding commodore of the club and helped introduced his young nephew to the sport.  FDR became such an enthusiast he is said to have rejected a New York senator's bid to use icebreakers on the Hudson, solely because it would hinder ice yachting.  Such enthusiasm has faded from the sport, except in those who have lain flat, inches above the ice and let the wind take the sails. Wills and the others are just waiting for the river to freeze deep enough to sail on top of it.  For those who live in the vicinity, the ice yachts will be on display daily through Jan. 3, except Jan. 1, at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, also on the Hudson River. For more information, to join the club or donate that old ice yacht in your barn, go to www.hriyc.org.  To contact the author: [email protected]

Ice Boaters Hopeful For A Good Season On-Hudson

Reprinted From : http://www.ulster.net/~hrmm/museum/newsletters/2003rivernews/mar2003-6.html

Hudson River Iceboating

The Incredible Winter of 2002—2003

Ice boating on the Hudson River has finished one of the most remarkable seasons in recent memory. The cold weather created a thick and beautiful ice sheet from Rhinecliff to Astor Point, near Barrytown, an expanse of about 5 miles of smooth ice perfect for ice boating. 'Hard water' sailing continued throughout February and into March.

The setting was just perfect! Sunny days with moderate temperatures and breezes, a backdrop of the Catskill Mountains, tug boats in the river channel pushing barges, and Amtrak trains sounding their horns while passing.

Sailing under the massive Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge was exciting. You had to watch for thin ice near the bridge piers as well as the salt run off from the roadway above. While sailing on the river, a coyote was seen running out in the middle on the ice.

Ice boats were launched onto the ice at the Rhinecliff Amtrak station and Astor Point. Astor Point is on the east bank of the Hudson, about one mile north of the Rhinecliff-Kingston bridge, by the Rokeby estate in Barrytown. Ice boat owners were more than happy to take interested spectators on rides out on the ice, and many took advantage of this opportunity to experience ice boating for the first time.

Hudson River Ice Yacht Club

The Hudson River Ice Yacht Club (HRIYC) was started in 1869 by Commodore John E. Roosevelt, FDR’s uncle. Commodore Roosevelt raced the ice yacht Icicle, which is 69 feet long and carries 1,070 square feet of sail.

Today, the Club is dedicated to preserving and sailing these historic gaff rigged ice yachts of the Hudson River, and many of the ice boats sailed on the river this year are over 100 years old. The antique ice yachts can weigh up to 3000 lbs., span 50 ft., and do 80 miles an hour with a good wind.

Hudson River Ice Yacht Club

Van Nostrand Cup

The Van Nostrand Challenge Cup had been raced only twice since 1889, when a wealthy Hudson Valley ice yachtsman, Gardiner Van Nostrand, donated a Tiffany silver cup to be kept by the winning team of each year's race. At that time, ice boats were the fastest vessels on earth, reaching more than 100 miles an hour in a strong wind.

But the first and only winner of the cup, the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club, had been loath to risk it after winning in 1891. After defending it successfully only once, in 1978, the club kept the cup locked away in a jeweler's safe. The commodore of the New Jersey club shocked many of his members by accepting a challenge from the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club. The Hudson boatmen had long resented the New Jersey team's refusal to risk the cup. They were eager for their chance to win it back.

The two teams had agreed to race only the old-fashioned wooden boats known as gaff rigs, some of them a century old. From a distance, the rigs resemble 19th-century schooners, with dark spruce masts and tall parchment-colored sails.

New Jersey took the first race, and then the second. The heavier Hudson boats were lovely, but they seemed unable to match their competitors. The wind picked up as the third race began, and for a moment it looked as though the lead Hudson boat might win. But the New Jersey boats overtook him, and the North Shreswbury Club maintained its hold on the cup.

From the New York Times
January 30, 2003
By ROBERT F. WORTH