Yesterday’s Island/Today’s Nantucket
Vol. 47 No. 15 • YesterdaysIsland.com
of a carpenter on the island sailing with someone whose father is a hedge fund manager in New York City...on the water, they are all the same,” said Brown. In addition to the social events, Nantucket Race Week has another special event, the Classic Yacht Exhibitionon Saturday, August 19. The exhibition features dozens of wooden boats along the docks of the boat basin. There will be between five and tenboats that are over 100 years old and many others over 50 years old. This collection may be “one of the best collection of wooden boats anyone will ever see.” “Some of the boats that come to the Opera House Cup are some of the most beautiful boats in the world,” said Brown. “They are antiques that have been lovingly restored at a huge cost and the owners do that because they just love these boats.” Brown says she does not know any other regatta that hosts an exhibition like theirs. Boats at the Nantucket Race Week exhibition showcase a part of sailing history. Tickets to the exhibition are available at NantucketRaceWeek.org and give participants the opportunity to go down below on the boats, talk to the captains, and learn about the historical boats. “Nobody ever gets to go aboard these boats, so you get to see them on the water and they're beautiful but to get to see them even up close at the dock is even more of an experience,” said Brown. Another well-known event for the community is the Rainbow Fleet Parade. The Rainbow Fleet Parade, which attracts thousands of onlookers, is held Sunday, August 20 at 9:40 am at Brant Point. The parade is comprised of a fleet Beetle Cats, known as Rainbows, with brightly colored sails circling back and forth along the shores near Brant Point. If you go to the Brant Point beach, you can watch the boats sailing and parading through the waters. The Rainbows have a long history on Nantucket. They are a type of boat that was used on-island since the nineteenth century. The Nantucket Yacht Club reintroduced the boats to Nantucket in the 1920s so children could learn to sail in safe, fun manner. The sails of the boats were all different colors so when the children were on the water racing, their families could differentiate one child from another. Today, the sails in the parade sport not only colors, but also stripes, clouds, stars and flag designs. “Watching the Rainbow parade and the beautiful sailboats heading out of the harbor on Opera House Cup race day is truly a Nantucket tradition and continued on page 30
August 17-23, 2017
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