Boston Seventh Strangest City in U.S.
Sunday Happenings
Gordon Willis, the Man Who Plays Peekaboo
The Volvo Ocean Race is in town and Bostonist was lucky enough to spend a few days with the Puma Ocean Racing team. We covered the race’s arrival to Boston in a previous article here. Boston, the race’s only North American stop, has been hosting the teams for 2 weeks now at Fan Pier in the Seaport District. The crowds have been large thanks to some good weather and a unique opportunity to view these incredible boats.
Puma Ocean Racing’s Boston based entry, il mostro, is magnificent to behold. Skippered by Newport, RI native Ken Reed, il mostro is a 70’ long, 14,061kg beast. Built of carbon fiber with a 105’ mast and carrying over 812 meters (squared) of sail, il mostro is of the fastest class of single hull sailboats in the world. With Puma’s eye on excellence in design, il mostro not only is a functional marvel but also a feast for the eyes. With a shoe-centric design its sleek red and black design is unlike any other boat on the water. When it comes to style, Puma has it down pat.
The other thing we learned about the folks at Puma is that they know how to have a good time. In addition to il mostro, Puma brought with them Puma City, an 11,000 square-foot building made from twenty-four, 40’ long steel shipping containers. With retail shopping on the lower level, offices in the middle and a bar and deck on the third, Puma City is an event itself. Designed to resemble a large ship, this 660,000lb behemoth was designed by the shipping container gurus & NYC architecture standouts at Lot-ek. The impressive design allowed for hundreds of sailing fans to gather on the 3rd floor deck to watch Sunday’s Pro/Am races in Boston Harbor while thousands more took up positions along the outside of Puma City and along Fan Pier.
Puma invited Bostonist to jump in a rib boat and photograph the race from out in the harbor. With wind gusts up to 40mph the speeds were to be fast, and the times would be short. In fact it was so windy that the boats had to sail the Pro/Am races without their sails at full mast. In the end the Boston fans had something to cheer for as il mostro posted the day’s best time beating out Ericsson 3 & Delta Lloyd. In addition, Puma’s il mostro won a prize for the best 24-hour run on this leg, crossing an impressive 498 miles which averages out to just over 20mph(23 kts).
The race wraps up its Boston stopover on Saturday as the fleet departs for Galway, Ireland. The racing will resume at 1pm on Saturday with the start line just off of Fan Pier. Good viewing spots for watching the race will be any of the piers on either side of Boston Harbor, Castle Island, Spectacle Island, the north side of Long Island, and the east side of Deer Island (assuming the course is not changed due to wind conditions).
More information for can be found at www.volvooceanraceatfanpierboston.com
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