Boats come from the dreams of many people - the designers, builders, and owners. They range in size from just a few feet to many hundreds of feet long. Boats serve many purposes and the designs differ to meet different objectives. One of the interesting aspects of traveling the waterways is the constant parade of a wide variety of boat designs. The silver boat above was entering Long Island Sound at the same time as Last Dance. Both boats designed as pleasure craft but, obviously, with different design parameters.
Another silver pleasure craft, this one with an unpainted aluminum superstructure. Boats perform better, particularly in rough waters, if the majority of the weight is low. Reducing the weight up high by using light-weight materials helps that design criterion. Aluminum is rare in a sizable cruising boat. Leaving the metal bare is a common practice on aluminum work boats, but not on sleek cruisers.
Commercial boats ply the waters of the sounds. People living on the northern shore in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts have a long, long drive from their area to Long Island, including having to negotiate New York City. The quicker method is to take a ferry across the sound. There are a number of cities on the Connecticut shore that have ferry service across Long Island Sound.
In Rhode Island and Massachusetts, fast ferries carry tourists to Block Island, Martha's Vinyard and Nantucket.
Sailing is an important sport in Rhode Island. The America's Cup was based in Newport, RI, and conducted on Rhode Island Sound from 1870 through 1967, when a challenger from Australia defeated the American boat. As Last Dance traveled through the sound, three different sail competitions were being conducted within close proximity to each other.
Boats that have an AIS transmitter, broadcast many items of information including their position. That information can be displayed on a chartplotter. In this image a gaggle of boats, the sailboats racing, are tightly clustered on the left, zoomed out chart. The green icons are more than two miles away, the red ones less. On the right side chart, zoomed in closer, the individual boats can be identified. The triangle with a stick indicates boat position and direction. The dotted line with an icon of a sinking boat indicates that the boat is on a collision course with Last Dance. A lot of collisions could occur in the next few minutes. Fortunately, they are all headed for a turn marker, making a port turn and heading away. The uppermost boat, Mutiny, has made the turn and is leading the race.
The harbor located between New Bedford and Fairhaven, Massachusetts, is home to over 100 scallop boats. They are based there, bring their catch back for distribution, and have necessary maintenance accomplished. These boats look large on the water, and even larger when out of the water.
How do they get those large boats out of the water and sitting in the boat yard? A travel lift, much like the one that is used to move Last Dance out of the water - only bigger, much bigger. This one is rated at 400 metric tons. That's over 880,000 pounds. Quite a machine that can move that big and heavy a load.
Scallops are not the only fruit of the sea harvested in this area. Lobster boats were beginning to place their traps for the season.
Recreational fishing is a big sport in the Sounds. Boats from small skiffs to large party fishing boats are always seen on the waters. This boat, an Everglades built in Florida, is powered by three 350 hp outboards. The fish in the Sounds must be really fast if it takes 1050 horsepower to catch them.
There is a long history of boats in these waters. New Bedford, MA, has a whaling museum documenting the long history of the whaling industry that was based there. Just across the harbor, in Fairhaven, the citizens have erected a monument to Joshua Slocum.
Slocum was the first person to sail around the world single handed. He sailed a 37' oyster sloop that was given to him since it was to derelict to be sold. He rebuilt the boat and left Fairhaven close to the spot where the monument stands.
