‘Million Boat Float’ to protest waterway plans

On the day before the California legislature will hold an informational hearing on a package of water bills that provide a road map to the construction of a peripheral canal, boaters will converge on Sacramento in the first Million Boat Float.

The massive two-day flotilla from Aug. 16-17 is being organized to show that boaters and their allies are united in the defense of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta against plans by the governor and legislators to build the peripheral canal and destroy the largest estuary on the West Coast. The proposed canal would approximate the Panama Canal in width and length.

Click here to read the full report on Indy Bay

For updates and details, go to http://www.millionboatfloat.org

Sunken flagship replica destroyed by fire

A replica of the 17th century flagship of the Dutch East India Company was destroyed by a spectacular fire in the Netherlands. The three-masted Prins Willem had been a tourist attraction in the northern Dutch port of Den Helder since 2003.

The vessel, which was built in the 1980s, was moored at Holland Village in Nagasaki, Japan, for many years before it was brought to the Netherlands.

Click here for a report with photos.

Cutter conducts Arctic continental shelf research

A Coast Guard Cutter Healy boat crew, along with a scientist from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, recovered a sonobuoy Aug. 8 while on a scientific research mission in the Arctic Ocean.

The 1,100-pound sonobuoy spent nearly a year on the ocean floor at a depth of almost 1,000 feet measuring ambient noise at its location.

For photos of the operation, click here to visit the cutter Healy's Flickr photostream.

Seaport hosts championship model yacht regatta

East Coast 12-Meter class (EC-12) and J class model yachts will take part in championship racing Aug. 21-23 at the Model Yacht Regatta at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.

The races feature radio-controlled (R/C) models from five to nearly nine feet long in an event hosted in partnership with the Mystic River Radio Sailors and sanctioned by the American Model Yachting Association (AMYA).

More than 30 R/C models and their skippers will compete around race courses in the Mystic River laid out with marker buoys to facilitate highly-honed racing tactics. Skippers and some of the crew from the full-size Ranger and the full-size Velsheda are expected to join in the racing.

Mystic Seaport will serve as the location for the EC 12-Meter class' 2009 Region 1 Championship event. The top five skippers will earn a seat at the 2009 national championships which will be held in November in St. Augustine, Fla.

For information, visit www.mysticseaport.org.