12 m class yacht

12 Metre Worlds

Official website of the International Twelve Metre Class World Championships

NOW POSTED: 2024 12mR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP NOTICE OF RACE

Editors’ Note: To receive the 12 Metre Worlds blog, sign up here: https://12mRworlds.com

CONTACTS: Bernard Minvielle , ITMA Vice President, Southern European fleet;  Soazig Gueho , Porquerolles YC Press Officer; SallyAnne Santos , International 12mR Class (ITMA) Communications Director

2024 WORLDS NOTICE OF RACE POSTED: 12MR CHAMPIONSHIP RACING RETURNS TO THE MEDITERRANEAN

NEWPORT, RI (January 31, 2024) – The International Twelve Metre Association (ITMA) is pleased to announce the publication of the 2024 Notice of Race for the 12mR World Championship * hosted and organized by the Porquerolles Yacht Club (YCP) to be sailed in the harbor of Porquerolles (FR) from June 17-23, 2024. (*note: English version begins on PDF page 8/14)

According to a recent YCP press release: “ The 12m JI, historic class of the America’s Cup, for which they competed from 1958 to 1987, have become over the years the kings of the Cup. The Race Committee is planning “constructed” (windward-leeward or coastal) courses, very simple but technical to impose strategic choices representing the pinnacle of yacht racing for this high-level competition. ” (translated from French)

“It is a real source of pride for the Porquerolles Yacht Club to have been chosen to organize this world championship.” ~ Aurélie Lhuillier, Porquerolles Yacht Club Director

Originating as an Olympic Class in 1906, the International 12mR Class incorporates a number of age-based Divisions to accommodate the 116 years of evolution in yacht design, construction, materials and technology that is seen in the preserved and restored survivors of the premiere America’s Cup development Class.

Closely contested racing in both the oldest (Vintage: 1920-1939) and newest (Grand Prix: 1983-87) divisions is expected. In the Vintage division, the Baltic-based reigning 12mR World Champion Vim (US-15) will be on hand to defend their 2021 title; Flica II (K-14) , Jenetta (K-1) , Northern Light (US-14) and Thea (D-1) are also headed south with the Vintage Scandinavian squad from the Northern European fleet.

“We are looking forward to racing at Porqureolles and I am happy that we will have a good number of 12mRs from the N. European fleet participating throughout the Med this season.” ~ Patrick Howaldt , Vim (US-15) reigning 12mR Vintage Division World Champion (Helsinki, FI 2021)

French Kiss (F-7) helmsman, Marc Pajot said: “We anticipate great competition in the Grand Prix division with boats from the 1987 America’s Cup era.” These include: Crusader II (K-25) , Kiwi Magic (KZ-7) , Kookaburra II (KA-12) and South Australia (KA-8) .

“All of the crews are very motivated.; the site of the bay of Hyères and Porquerolles is very popular with everyone and we can’t wait to get back there” ~ Marc Pajot

Other World Sailing-sanctioned 12mR Divisions, identified in The 12mR Rule Appendix E are: Antique (1906-1920), Traditional (1950-1967) and Modern (1967-1983). Local favorite, France (F-1) will represent the Modern division. A 12mR Spirit group comprised of original but not-measured 12mRs of all divisions will be formed if more than 2 yachts of this description register for the event—these will be scored separately from World Championship competitors.

“It is fantastic to see the activity of the Southern European fleet in the Mediterranean. There is no better way to celebrate than the 12 Metre World Championship arranged by the Yacht Club De Porquerolle and the Yacht Club De France!” ~ Chris Winter , ITMA President

The 2024 12mR World Championship, the America’s Cup Legends 12mR Regatta and many other distinguished events are all part of the Yacht Club de France’s prestigious Coupe de France Series that spans the 2023-34 sailing seasons.

Event organizers strongly recommend early registration and booking of accommodation due to limited availability. Registrations received after March 15 will incur a 15% penalty.

Official Notice Board

The 2024 12 Metre World Championship is sanctioned by the International Twelve Metre Association (ITMA) and hosted by the Porquerolles Yacht Club with the Yacht Club de France.

THE PORQUEROLLES YACHT CLUB celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2016. Its founding President Sébastien Le Ber and his friends, passionate about sailing, created the Yacht Club in 1986 with a view to making the most of the magnificent body of water which surrounds Porquerolles.

THE YACHT CLUB DE FRANCE, founded in 1867, remains faithful to its vocation: to contribute to the development of pleasure boating in all its forms; in cruises and in racing, defend and promote the values of solidarity, courtesy and moral elegance that animate all seafarers. Recognized as a public utility on the eve of the Great War, the Yacht Club de France is proud to have counted among its members Jules Verne, Virginie Hériot, Alain Gerbault, Commander Charcot, Marin-Marie, Eric Tabarly. Respect traditions, bring together the sailors of tomorrow.

THE COUPE DE FRANCE by YACHT CLUB DE FRANCE was created in 1891 to develop the building of racing vessels in France. For its 55th edition, the challenge reunites the 12mR Class for twelve events throughout the Mediterranean Sea.

THE INTERNATIONAL 12 METRE ASSOCIATION encompasses a living history of racing yacht design by the world’s foremost naval architects including Olin Stephens, Clinton Crane, William Fife III, Philip Rhodes, Johan Anker, Ben Lexcen and more who pushed their designs to the very limits of innovation. The resulting boats represented the pinnacle of yacht development from 1907-1987 for the highest levels of international sailing competition– the Olympic Games (1908-1920) and the America’s Cup (1958-1987).

YCP CONTACTS:

Director: YC de Porquerolles Aurélie Lhuillier [email protected] +33 4 94 58 34 49

Press Officer: YC de Porquerolles Soazig Gueho [email protected] +33 6 62 08 74 44

ITMA CONTACTS:

Vice President: 12mR Fleet, Southern Europe Bernard Minvielle [email protected] +33 611 19 00 95

Communications Director: International 12 Metre Class SallyAnne Santos [email protected] +1 917-330-1730

Quicklinks:

12mR Worlds Official: https://12mrworlds.com

Porquerolles YC: https://yachtclubporquerolles.fr

Coupe de France: https://coupedefrance.org

International Twelve Metre Association: https://12mrclass.com

12mR Worlds Facebook: @12MetreWorldChampionship

ITMA Facebook: @12mRClass

12mR Worlds Instagram @12mRWorldChampionship

ITMA Instagram: @12metreclass

ITMA YouTube: @International12mR

#12mRClass, #12mRWorlds, #202412mRWorldsPorquerolles, #YachtClubdeFrance, #CoupedeFrance, #PorquerollesYC, #InternationalTwelveMetreAssociation, #12mR, #12Meter, #12Metre, #12mRracing, #PorquerollesFrance

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Porquerolles preview.

If past is prologue, the 2024 12mR World Championship to be organized by the Yacht Club de Porquerolles (Hyères, FRA) from June 16-24 will be truly spectacular! Recently six twelve metres built between 1929- 1986 representing a 57-year cross-section of 12mR development experienced the glorious sailing conditions and onshore hospitality of the venue. They were, Vintage: La Spina (I-1) ; Traditional: Ikra (K-3) ; Modern: France (F-1) ; and Grand Prix: South Australia (KA-8) , French Kiss (F-7) and Kiwi Magic (KZ-7) .

Sailing conditions were perfect with 8- 14 knots wind, air temperature 24°c and fantastic coastal scenery. Porquerolles is beautiful island 5 nm south of Hyères. It is a tourist attraction like Skagen in Denmark, Marstrand in Sweden and the Cape Cod area of the US. With only 200 year-round inhabitants, the island hosts up to 10,000 visitors on a summer day. It is a little paradise, known for the most sun hours in Cote D’Azur. The marina is huge and offers plenty of space for a regatta fleet of 70 boats. The little city is charming with small restaurants around the Square. The organizers were very good, everything worked out well including the social activities. It is a superb place for the Worlds in 2024, and we can highly recommend other 12mRs to come – you will love it! Johan Blach Petersen, Kiwi Magic (KZ-7)

Calling All 12mRs to the Med!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: SallyAnne Santos , ITMA Communications Director, +1 917-330-1730

Calling All Twelve Metres to the Mediterranean!

A message from itma president, chris winter and yacht club de france president, philippe héral:.

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, USA (June 6, 2023)

Please see the correspondence below from ITMA President, Chris Winter and Philippe Héral, President of the Yacht Club de France to the 12mR fleet worldwide.. It contains an invitation to all Twelve Metres to gather together in the Med to participate at the 55th Coupe de France regatta series and the Puig Vela Classica Barcelona and 12 Metre Reunion, AC Edition .

ITMA President Chris Winter added: “”This is an extraordinary time of rebuilding for the Twelve Metre Class worldwide, particularly in our Southern European fleet. We hope that you will share our excitement and join us in the Med for the exceptional series of events being planned over the next two seasons.”

For more information on the Series, please visit: CoupedeFrance.org

ABOUT THE 55th COUPE DE FRANCE

The   Yacht Club de France (YCF)   has announced a series of races for 12mR yachts throughout the 2023-24 sailing seasons; the winner will be awarded one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious yachting trophies; the spectacular  Coupe de France . Participating host yacht clubs along the glamorous Riviera– including Cannes, Porquerolles, Saint Tropez, Touloun, Hyères and Barcelona– will organize a comprehensive schedule of events featuring 40 days of racing, social events and festive celebrations for the 500+ crew members expected to compete. In 2023,  the Series will include events in both Europe and the United States  (Newport, RI) before moving exclusively to the Med in 2024 leading up to the 12mR World Championship at Porquerolles.

ABOUT THE YACHT CLUB DE FRANCE

Founded in 1867, the YC de France has been the Club of 100s of both famous and accomplished sailors including Virginie Hériot, Jean-Baptiste Charcot and Eric Tabarly. With its’ partner Clubs throughout the country, the YC de France represents a strong regatta organizing power in France.

ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL 12 METRE ASSOCIATION (ITMA)

The 112 year-old International 12 Metre Class encompasses a living history of racing yacht design by the world’s foremost naval architects including Olin Stephens, Clinton Crane, William Fife III, Philip Rhodes, Johan Anker, Ben Lexcen and more who pushed their designs to the very limits of innovation. The resulting boats represented the pinnacle of yacht development from 1907-1987 for the highest levels of international sailing competition– the Olympic Games (1908-1920) and the America’s Cup (1958-1987).

QUICKLINKS:

International 12mR Association (ITMA) https://12mrclass.com

#12mRClass, #12mRWorlds2024 , #CoupedeFrance

55th Coupe de France

Yacht club de france to award most prestigious trophy to 12mr winner.

The Yacht Club de France (YCF) has announced a series of races for 12mR yachts throughout the 2023-24 sailing seasons; the winner will be awarded one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious yachting trophies; the spectacular Coupe de France .

Participating host yacht clubs along the glamorous Riviera– including Cannes, Porquerolles, Saint Tropez, Touloun, Hyères and Barcelona– will organize a comprehensive schedule of events featuring 40 days of racing, social events and festive celebrations for the 500+ crew members expected to compete. This season, the Series will include events in both Europe and the United States (Newport, RI) before moving exclusively to the Med in 2024 leading up to the 12mR World Championship at Porquerolles.

A British team sailing at Cannes was the first to claim the impressive silver cup in 1898. Since then, the Coupe de France has been awarded to teams from Italy, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia and France. 12mR sailors from all of these nations plus Canada, Denmark, Finland, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the United States will compete for the privilege of raising this revered trophy in victory.

Learn more about the Series at the dedicated website: CoupedeFrance.org

ABOUT THE YACHT CLUB DE FRANCE: Founded in 1867, the YC de France has been the Club of 100s of both famous and accomplished sailors including Virginie Hériot, Jean-Baptiste Charcot and Eric Tabarly. With its’ partner Clubs throughout the country, the YC de France represents a strong regatta organizing power in France. Southern European Fleet

ABOUT THE SOUTHERN EUROPEAN 12 METRE FLEET: Sailing primarily in the Mediterranean Sea, this fleet includes yachts in France, Italy, Turkey and Portugal and also includes Oceania. Southern European Fleet

ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL 12 METRE ASSOCIATION (ITMA): The 112 year-old International 12 Metre Class encompasses a living history of racing yacht design by the world’s foremost naval architects including Olin Stephens, Clinton Crane, William Fife III, Johan Anker, Alfred Mylne, Charles E. Nicholson, Philip Rhodes, Ben Lexcen and more who pushed their designs to the very limits of innovation. The resulting boats represented the pinnacle of yacht development from 1907-1987 for the highest levels of international sailing competition– the Olympic Games (1908-1920) and the America’s Cup (1958-1987). To learn more, visit 12mRClass.com

2023 12 Metre World Championship: Serious Tight Racing, Challenge XII and Columbia Become Two-Time World Champions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Barby MacGowan , Media Pro International, +1 (401) 849-0220 or Peggy Hersam , 12 Metre Yacht Club, +1 (203) 807-1066

12 Metre World Championship: Serious Tight Racing, Challenge XII and Columbia Become Two-Time World Champions

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, USA (August 6, 2023) – After participating in a morning parade around Newport Harbor that was punctuated by cannon salutes from yacht clubs and other prime waterfront viewing spots, ten historic 12 Metres moved on to Rhode Island Sound for Saturday’s final race of the 12 Metre World Championship . To be named the World Champions at the end of the day, Jack LeFort’s (Winter Park, Fla./Jamestown, R.I.) Challenge XII (KA-10) had merely to finish better than fifth among Modern Division’s five entries if Takashi Okura’s Japanese entry Freedom (US-30) , close behind in the standings, were to win. The day prior, Kevin Hegarty/Anthony Chiurco’s (Newport, R.I./Princeton, N.J.) Columbia (US-16) already had mathematically sewn up the nine-race series in the five-boat Traditional/Vintage Division.

After waiting for two hours, a windward/leeward course was set (later shortened) for a seven-knot breeze, and  Challenge XII  handily sailed to victory while  Freedom  finished fifth to maintain its Modern Division podium position of second place.  Columbia  finished third, while the fleet’s oldest boat, Mark Watson’s (Newport, R.I.)  Onawa  (US-6 ) ,   built in 1928, sailed its way to a clean victory and a claim on second place overall for the Traditional/Vintage Division.

Both the Challenge XII and Columbia teams, homegrown with mostly local crews, won the Worlds in 2019 when it last was held in Newport.

“Conditions were light, heavy, medium…we went up the (Narragansett) Bay, out on the ocean – it was just a great across-the-board test for the fleet,” said LeFort, whose veteran team includes his wife Lisa LeFort as navigator and America’s Cup/Volvo Ocean Race veteran Ken Read as tactician. “The good news is that Sunday’s conditions – light air and lumpy seas – were good for us.”

Racing started Tuesday (August 1) with one race in light 8-9 knot breezes that gave Challenge XII (in Modern Division) and Robert Morton’s (Middletown, R.I.) American Eagle (US-21 ) (in Traditional/Vintage Division) an early boost for winning. Both teams, however, fell to second behind Freedom and Onawa , respectively, after two races on Wednesday, held again in light 5-8 knot air. For Thursday and Friday, 18-20 knot winds proved also to be good for Challenge XII , as the team won three of five races held in Modern Division while Columbia won all five held in Traditional/Vintage Division.

It’s not about being the fastest boat,” said Columbia’s Hegarty, who helmed at the starts and then became tactician while Chiurco drove. “Whomever performs the best, or messes up the least, is going to win. That’s why I love sailing 12 Meters; everything is manual, and it takes muscle and teamwork. There is no other class like it.”

Hegerty said it hit him in the middle of the night on Friday that he and his team – which like Challenge XII’s has been sailing together for over a decade – were now two-time 12 Metre World champions. “I woke up and just had a big smile on my face.” The smiles (and cheers) spilled over into Saturday night’s Awards Party, held at the IYRS School of Technology and Trades, which served as headquarters for the six-day event. Kudos especially were given to PRO Mark Foster and his Ida Lewis Yacht Club Race Committee team for their extraordinary acumen and patience.

“Conditions were all over the place and the Race Committee adjusted to them and so did the teams,” said Ida Lewis representative Guy Sanchez.

Other Modern Division teams competing were Peter Askew’s (Key Largo, Fla.) Enterprise (US-27) , Andrew Rose’s (Newport Beach, Calif.) Defender (US-33) and Dawn Riley’s Oakcliff trainees (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) sailing Courageous (US-26) .

Other Traditional/Vintage Division teams competing were Jack Klinck’s (Concord, Mass.) Nefertiti (US-19) and Steve Eddleston’s (Bristol, R.I.) Weatherly (US-17) .

The Ted Turner Trophy for most significant contribution to the 12 Metre Class went to Steve Eddleston,Commodore of the 12 Metre Yacht Club Newport Station, who subsequently presented the Tiedemann Trophy for best Vintage yacht to  Onawa .

The Worlds fleet included four boats that successfully defended the America’s Cup when it was sailed in Newport in 12 Metres from 1958 to 1983: Columbia – 1958, Weatherly -1962, Courageous – 1974/1977 and Freedom – 1980.

The 2023 12 Metre World Championship is sanctioned by the International Twelve Metre Association (ITMA) and hosted by the 12 Metre Yacht Club Newport Station in partnership with Organizing Authority Ida Lewis Yacht Club .

OUR PARTNERS:

Making the 12 Metre Worlds possible are sponsors Audrain Hospitality ; Clarke Cooke House ; Edge Realty ; Flux Marine ; Gill Marine ; Hammetts Hotel ; Jefferson’s Bourbon Lemon & Line ; North Sails ; Pallas Capital Advisors ; Palm Beach Motor Yachts ; PKF O’Connor Davies ; Seabags ; and Starkweather & Shepley Insurance .

Spectator and sponsorship opportunities are available. For more information, contact Peggy Hersam, 12 Metre Yacht Club Executive Director, [email protected] , +1 (203) 807-1066. Notice of Race and other race information available at www.12mrworlds.com .

Administration & Sponsorship: 12 Metre Yacht Club Peggy Hersam [email protected] +1 (203) 807-1066

Press Officer: Media Pro Int’l Barby MacGowan [email protected] +1 401-849-0220

Communications Director: International 12 Metre Assocation SallyAnne Santos [email protected] +1 917-330-1730

12mR Worlds Official: https://12mrworlds.com /

12 Metre Yacht Club, Newport Station: https://12myc.org

Ida Lewis Yacht Club: https://ilyc.org

International Twelve Metre Association (ITMA) https://12mrclass.com

12MYC Instagram: @12_metre_yacht_club

12MYC Facebook: @12MetreYachtClub

12MYC Twitter: @12myc_Newport

#12mRClass, #12mRWorlds, #202312mRWorldsNewport, #12MYC, #InternationalTwelveMetreAssociation, #12mR, #12Meter, #12Metre, #NewportRI

2023 12 Metre World Championship: At the Halfway Mark, Things are Heating Up

12 metre world championship: at the halfway mark, things are heating up.

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, USA (August 3, 2023) – With six races under their sailing belts, the 12 Metre sailors here for the  12 Metre World Championship  are more than halfway through their scheduled nine-race series. The ten-boat fleet of historic 12 Metre sloops – measuring 68-72 feet long and split evenly into Modern and Traditional/Vintage Divisions – started racing Tuesday (August 1), and though excruciatingly light winds on that day only allowed for a single race, Wednesday’s 5-8 knot breezes yielded two races, and today’s 10-12 knot breezes generously fueled three races.

“It was tricky and difficult for the first two days,” said New Zealander Murray Jones , who serves as tactician for Takashi Okura’s Japanese entry Freedom (US-30) , which was leading Modern Division going into today with a one-point margin over Jack LeFort’s (Winter Park, Fla./Jamestown, R.I.) Challenge XII (KA-10). “We’re not the fastest boat in light winds, so we were just happy to make it through in good shape.” Murray has sailed in six America’s Cups (1995, 2000 and 2016 aboard New Zealand; 2003, 2007, and 2010 Alinghi; and 2013 Oracle), winning all but one (2010).

Today’s relatively stronger winds showed that Freedom had legs, but Challenge XII had the better pace and tactics to turn in a full string of victories over the three races, with Freedom taking second in all three. “It was really fantastic 12 Metre sailing today,” said LeFort, explaining that Freedom is “extraordinarily well sailed” and in the second race the two boats were overlapped almost the whole time. “It wasn’t until the middle of the last leg (of the windward-leeward twice around course) that we were able to get inside them on a jibe.”

Serving as Challenge XII’s tactician was Ken Read (Middletown,R.I.), helmsman on two Stars & Stripes America’s Cup campaigns (2000, 2003) and strategist/coach for the Young America campaign in 1995. “Ken makes the decisions on where to go and the rest of us just try to get the boat there as fast as we can,” said LeFort. “Today’s were good conditions for Challenge XII ; we were right in our sweet spot.”

In Traditional/Vintage Division, Mark Watson’s (Newport, R.I.)  Onawa  (US-6 )  had the upper hand on Tuesday and Wednesday over Robert Morton’s (Middletown, R.I.) American Eagle  (US-21) , but only by a point going into today’s racing. Watson had said his team had done “a good job seeing where the wind was and getting into it” and Morton had been ecstatic over winning the first race of the series. Morton’s goal was to sail consistently and his score line of 2-4-2 today, added to his previous 1-4-2, allowed him to take the overall lead. With a 5-2-5 today,  Onawa  dropped to third place behind Kevin Hegarty/Anthony Chiurco’s (Newport, R.I.)  Columbia  (US-16) , which won all three races today.

racing schedule:

A total of nine windward-leeward races are scheduled over five days. (Four completed races shall constitute a regatta.) Yachts will sail either on Rhode Island Sound or north of the Pell Bridge on Narragansett Bay.

Tuesday, August 1 – Saturday, August 5. Rendezvous location announced on VHF Radio channel 72 at 9:00 a.m. with the first warning signal at 11:00 a.m.

Saturday, August 5 Rendezvous location announced at 9:00 with first warning signal at 12:00 noon following the boat parade. No race will start after 3:00 on Saturday.

2023 12 Metre World Championship: A Live-Action history lesson

12 metre world championship: a live-action history lesson.

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, USA (July 23, 2023) – The year 2023 marks exactly 40 years since the U.S. lost the America’s Cup to Australia on the world stage of Newport, R.I. That moment in sports history might not have gotten the attention it did had it not been for the breaking of the longest winning streak in sporting history (132 years) or the international intrigue surrounding the moment when Australia unveiled its “secret weapon” winged keel on its winning 12 Metre Australia II (KA-6) , skippered by John Bertrand , which prevailed four races to three over Liberty (US-40) , skippered by Dennis Conner . But there it was – on September 26, 1983 at Newport Offshore (now Club Wyndham Newport Onshore) – for millions across the globe to see by television and thousands in Newport to see in person: a bird-like appendage that contributed to a sporting upset bigger than any before, leaving 26-time (since 1851) America’s Cup Defender New York Yacht Club stunned and first-ever successful Challenger Royal Perth Yacht Club elated.

“What’s intriguing is that Challenge XII (KA-10) was built in 1982 for the 1983 Challenger Trials as a second boat for Australia (sailed by the Royal Victoria Yacht Club); it was a sister-ship to Australia II , except she had (and still has) a traditional keel instead of a winged keel,” said Jack LeFort (Winter Park, Fla./Jamestown, R.I.), who has owned Challenge XII for eight years and will skipper her in the upcoming 12 Metre World Championship, which starts Sunday, July 30. “No one on the outside knew what was giving Australia II an edge on speed, but Challenge XII was impressively fast, too.” (After losing in the Challenger quarterfinals, Challenge XII became the Trial horse for KA-6.

LeFort won the Modern Division at the 2019 12 Metre World Championship, also held in Newport, and says the competition this time around – among a total of ten historic 12 Metres (five in Modern and five in Traditional/Vintage Division) – will prove extraordinarily close on a world-class level. “In the Modern Division, the team aboard Takashi Okura ’s Freedom (US-30) (America’s Cup winner in 1980) has won the TP/52 Worlds twice and the Enterprise (US-27) team, skippered by Peter Askew , is well known for its winning Wizard campaigns. As well, Courageous (US-26) (Cup winner in 1974 and 1977) and Defender (US-33) have certainly proved themselves in recent regattas.”

“I was still in school in ’83 and was on the dock during the Trials in 1977 when Ted Turner and Gary Jobson rushed by with cameras following them,” said Courageous Skipper Dawn Riley , who would go on to sail in four America’s Cup races and two Whitbread Round the World races. “It made a big impression on a 13-year-old from Detroit!”

Riley will sail with a young and diverse crew from the Oakcliff Sailing Center she runs in Oyster Bay, N.Y. “No one other than me and one trimmer had ever stepped foot on a 12 Metre before this May,” said Riley. (The America’s Cup had moved on to other boats when Riley competed.) “ Courageous seems to be a very solid boat, and when we can sail away from other boats, we are good. When we get close to them, we have some learning to do. Hydraulic headstays and runners, check stays, overlapping jibs and dip pole jibes are all new to most of our team.”

According to Robert Morton (Middletown, R.I.), skipper of American Eagle (US-21) in Traditional/Vintage Division, “Everyone has to figure out how to beat Columbia (US-16) (Cup winner in 1958). She has a consistent record of winning each regatta, and although it is very close racing, she has a definite speed edge on the rest of the fleet. We feel that consistency is a key aspect of a long regatta like this, so our goal is to stay near the top in every race. We have not sailed against Onawa (US-6) very much, so she adds a new dimension to the racing during this series.” Nefertiti (US-19) and Weatherly (US-17) (Cup winner in 1962) are also sailing in Traditonal/Vintage Division.

Morton fondly remembers the times when the America’s Cup had a national interest (cover stories in Sports Illustrated and Time magazines) and Newport was the center of the sports world for that whole summer of 1983.

“I was there on the final day of the Cup in ‘83, and I will never forget the huge spectator fleet coming in past Castle Hill with all their running lights on because the days were shorter in September,” said Morton. “The 12 Metres turned out to be excellent boats for match racing and virtually all of the technical developments associated with gearing the boats up for the Cup trickled down to the average sailor and racer. Today, the America’s Cup is way too far from the experience of the average sailor, and those boats will never be around and sailing 40 years from now.”

Spectators can view the historic 12 Metres sailing either outside on Rhode Island Sound or north of Pell Bridge on Narragansett Bay (determined by weather) from Tuesday, August 1 through Saturday, August 5 when racing is scheduled.

“Onboard, the 12 metres are powerful and complicated,” said Dawn Riley about the single-masted sloops ranging between 68-72 feet in length, “but from off the boat, they are a majestic sight to see. I hope everyone can enjoy them all lined up and sailing at full power.”

12mR Worlds Official Facebook: @12MetreWorldChampionship

2023 12 Metre World Championship: Ready to Roll

12 metre world championship: ready to roll.

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, USA (July 11, 2023) – The 2023 12mR World Championship , sanctioned by the International Twelve Metre Association and hosted by the 12 Metre Yacht Club Newport Station in partnership with Organizing Authority Ida Lewis Yacht Club , starts Sunday, July 30 and will continue with five days of racing (Tuesday through Saturday, August 1-5). For those who may not know, this is one of the most significant events related to Newport’s heritage as an epicenter for world-class sailboat racing. The America’s Cup, one of the most famous competitions between countries, was held here in Newport 12 times from 1930 to 1983, and for nine of those times, from 1958 to 1983, the sailboat used to determine the winners was the 12 Metre, a single-masted sloop ranging between 66-72 feet in length.

Ten historic 12 Metres will compete in the World Championship, which was last held in the U.S. (in Newport) in 2019. They include four yachts that have successfully defended the America’s Cup: 1958, Columbia (US-16); 1962, Weatherly (US-17) ; 1974 & 1977 Courageous (US-26) and 1980, Freedom (US-30).

On the 2023 roster , all but Weatherly and Nefertiti (US-19) competed at the 2019 12 Metre Worlds, which saw Challenge XII (KA-10) and Columbia each winning their respective divisions – Modern and Traditional – with returning helmsmen Jack LeFort (Winter Park, Fla./Jamestown, R.I.) and Kevin Hegarty/Anthony Chiurco (Newport, R.I./Princeton, N.J.), respectively.

In the Modern Division, returning 12 Metres Courageous , Defender (US-33) , Freedom and Enterprise (US-27) all will be sailed by new groups. America’s Cup Hall of Fame member Dawn Riley (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) will skipper Courageous with a young and diverse crew from Oakcliff Sailing aboard. Andrew Rose (Newport Beach, Calif.) will take the helm of Defender , while Japan’s Takashi Okura will lead his team aboard Freedom , and Peter Askew (Key Largo, Fla.) will skipper Enterprise .

“This is a highly competitive group and we expect extremely close racing,” said 12 Metre Yacht Club Director Peggy Hersam. “You won’t want to miss it!”

In the Traditional Division, returning American Eagle (US-21) will be skippered by Bob Morton while newcomers to the Worlds Weatherly and Nefertiti will be skippered by Steven Eddleston (Bristol, R.I.) and Jack Klinck (Concord, Mass.), respectively.

In Vintage division, which will be combined with the Traditional Division for racing purposes here, Onawa (US-6) returns with Mark Watson (Newport, R.I.) at the helm.

12 Metre pre-worlds

Congratulations to Enterprise (US-27), sailed by Peter Askew (Key Largo, Fla.) for winning the 12-Metre Pre-Worlds in the Modern Division. Columbia (US-16), with Kevin Hegarty (Newport, R.I.) and Anthony Chiurco (Princeton, N.J.) leading the charge, won the combined Traditional/Vintage class. The Pre-worlds were part of Sail Newport’s 2023 Newport Regatta, held July 8-9 in Newport. Seven of the 10 Twelves registered for the Worlds competed over four races.

12 Metre parade

At 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 5, fans can cheer on their favorite teams during the Parade of 12 Metres. Led by Race Committee Signal Boat Casta Diva and dignitaries and VIPs aboard a special Palm Beach Motor Yacht, will consist of twelve historic 12 Metres (many of which sailed here during Newport’s America’s Cup days).

The 12 Metres will start east of Goat Island and parade clockwise around the harbor, past Newport Yacht Club , Bannister’s Wharf , Newport Yachting Center/Hammetts Hotel , the International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS), Ida Lewis Yacht Club , and New York Yacht Club where they will be saluted by cannon before heading out for their final race of the series. Catch them from these locations and just about every wharf on the east side of Newport Harbor. Give them a hip hip hooray, and look for Newport’s Boys & Girls Club kids who will be riding on Heritage (US-23) and Intrepid (US-22) . The latter Twelve is a two-time winner of the America’s Cup and one of the most famous yachts worldwide!

Tuesday, August 1 – Friday, August 4. Rendezvous location announced on VHF Radio channel 72 at 9:00 a.m. with the first warning signal at 11:00 a.m.

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December 5, 2022

A brief history of the famous “12 metre” class yachts.

The 12 Metre Class is a gorgeous showpiece on the regatta courses, both an ultimate cruising machine and an inshore prestige sled. Like capricious horses, the “12 Metres” have concise, beautifully short names. They are called “Anita”, “Anitra”, “ Cintra “, “Evaine”, “Flica”, “Heti”, “Sphinx”, “Thea”, “ Trivia “, “Vanity” or “Vim”. They are elegant, slender, and about 20 meters long. With their 30 tons of combat weight, they are true regatta warhorses. One should have sailing skills in order to compete with these bolides in fresh winds on the regatta course. Today, as the progressive sailing scene takes to the skies, kiting, surfing, and low-drag hydrofoiling across the water with ultra-light, high-tech bullets, the lead-heavy long keels seem more old-fashioned than ever. About a hundred of the 170 built still exist, see a list here . The most beautiful 12 Metres, the scene agrees, are the classic long-keeled ships of the thirties. But there are also lovers of modern designs, who is enthusiastic about Philippe Briand’s 1985 design “ French Kiss ” and sail it in the Mediterranean.

Historic Yachts

There is even a shipyard specializing in 12 Metres classes. At Robbe & Berking Classics, a completely new 12-Metre will soon be completed according to plans by Johan Anker from 1939, known as No. 434 . The Flensburg shipyard also has the Australian “ Gretel ” from 1962 and the recently restored English “ Jenetta ” from 1939.

Fascination 12mR

There are three reasons for the fascination for a „12 Metre” or “12mR”: a historical one, an aesthetic one and, most importantly, the sailing one. The nimbus derives from its function as a former America’s Cup class. Sailing history was written with the „12 metre” from 1958 off Newport to 1987 off Fremantle, Australia. The best yacht designers, boat and mast builders, hardware manufacturers, sailmakers, savvy sailors and shrewd tacticians competed in the class back then.

Elegant Beauties

The boats, especially the long-keeled examples of the thirties are elegant. You can look at them for a long time, from the massive stem to the stern that is lifted apart from the water.

And they are true thoroughbreds. It is an addictive pleasure to sail them. There is no other type of boat that takes to the wind with comparable frenzy and is similarly unyielding through the water. With nearly 30 tons and about 15 tons of lead under the bottom cheeks, the twelve-footer has a lot of power. Hardly any other class is built closer to the water and offers

But let’s tell the story from the beginning

America’s Cup contenders between 1958 and 1987 – the 12 Metre Class

Following a twenty-one-year hiatus, the America’s Cup resumed in 1958 with a new class of boats, the 12-Metre Class. Smaller in size, easier to crew, and more manageable on a race course, these 60 to 70-foot sloops were an improvement over the previous 135-foot America’s Cup racing class, the “J” boats. Like the “J” boats, the “12 Metre” class was designed according to a formula. In other words, “12 Metre” Class yachts can have a wide range of sail area, length, and speed production aspects. All “12 Metre” yachts are measured using the following mathematical formula:

This formula inputs the speed-producing factors: (length (L), sail area (Sa), freeboard (F), and girth measurement (2D). Yachts that meet this formula must not exceed 12 metres in length. Other restrictions on the design measurements of “12-Metre” racing yachts are in place to prevent one design from being vastly superior to another and to ensure a fair and competitive racing environment. In order to ensure that “12 metre” racing yachts do not differ too much, maximum and minimum mast heights, drafts, beams, and headsails are used.

International Rules

“12 Metre” yachts are probably the most fascinating racing yachts ever built. With their beauty and size, along with their America’s Cup history, they have attracted and intrigued yachtsmen since they were first launched. Powered by their massive sail areas, these 30 tons racing beauties reach speeds as high as twelve knots. They have main sails that are approximately 1200 square feet in size and jibs that range from 500 square feet to over 1200 square feet in size, with a height that cannot exceed 75 percent of the mast. Until 1958, “12 Metre” yachts were not raced in the America’s Cup. Nevertheless, the six, eight, and twelve metre rules date back over five decades. The International Rules for metre class boats were developed in 1906 by William Froude and the Royal Yachting Association in England. The “12 Metre” boats had significant racing success prior to their America’s Cup debut and were used in the 1908, 1912, and 1920 Olympic games.

The America’s Cup, the oldest Trophy

American yachtsmen first took up the 12 Metre Class in 1928 when they ordered six nearly identical boats from Starling Burgess, the renowned boat designer. It was in 1939 that American 12 Metre racing was elevated to a new level when Harold Vanderbilt, an accomplished America’s Cup sailor, “J” boat skipper, and the winner of the 1930, 1934, and 1937 America’s Cup, brought his new 12 Metre, the “Vim” (12 Metre US-15), to England for a race against the Royal Yacht Squadron. The Royal Yacht Squadron was in awe of “Vim” after she won 21 of 27 races against British 12 Metres while in England. From 1958 until 1958, “Vim” remained the standard by which all other 12 Metre yachts were measured until “Columbia” (12 Metre US-16) defeated her in the tie-breaking race of the America’s Cup defense trials by only 12 seconds. It would be the design standard for America’s Cup racing yachts until 1987, when it was retired.

The Auld Mug

“12 metres” were designed with one thing in mind – to win America’s Cup races. The design of their products reflects this in every aspect. America’s Cup twelves didn’t have room for an engine, anything below decks, or even a toilet when they were campaigning. The deck layouts of America’s Cup twelves are set up for optimal sail performance as well as for speed. When racing, the sails are the engine of the boat, so trimming them correctly and quickly was crucial to winning. America’s Cup “12 Metre” crews were also trained for efficiency. When it was their turn to compete in the famous America’s Cup, they had intensive training and practice to be flawless at sail handling and the best yacht racers in the world.

Despite their demise, America’s Cup “12 Metre” boats remain one of the most prestigious racing classes in the America’s Cup history. Many twelves have gone on to have successful ocean racing careers after their America’s Cup adventures. The largest fleet of “12 metre” boats in the world resides in Newport, Rhode Island, where over 50 years of America’s Cup racing have taken place.

During the summer months of August and October, many of these classic racers attend numerous sailing events on the French Riviera . Noblesse Yachts is the only company that offers sailing opportunities as well as yacht charters.

Come sail with us on a piece of America’s Cup racing history on these sleek racing beauties!

Available Dates are: 07.09. – 10.09.23: Vele d’Epoca di Imperia ( See Video here ) 13.09. – 16.09.23: Monaco Classic Week ( See Video here ) 19.09. – 25.09.23: Les Regates Royales de Cannes ( See Video here ) 24.09. – 08.10.23: Les Voiles de Saint Tropez ( See Video here )

Note about copyright: This text is copyrighted by us and you may copy and use it only with a link to our website along with a clear indication of our authorship. Thank you!

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Enterprise: Is this restored 12 Metre the best yacht to never contest the America’s Cup?

• November 19, 2019

Enterprise is a 1977 S&S-designed 12 Metre, originally built to defend the America’s Cup, and fully restored in time for this year’s 12 Metre World Championships in Rhode Island. Dave Powlison reports

Among the 21 elegant Twelves lining the docks at Rhode Island’s Fort Adams for this summer’s 12 Metre World Championship, sat a yacht that for many was a huge disappointment. Enterprise , built for the 1977 America’s Cup , had everything going for her, but never got the invitation to the Cup she seemed destined to receive. Today, she’s arguably the best set-up 12 Metre in the world.

Designed by Olin Stephens and David Pedrick at Sparkman & Stephens, and built of aluminium at the Minneford Yacht Yard, Enterprise boasted a number of firsts. She was the first design to be tank-tested on a large scale, with a handful of models measuring roughly 7m each, in tanks designed for the aerospace and military industries.

Results from those tests suggested that over a typical 24-mile America’s Cup course in an average 10-knot wind, Enterprise would be a minute faster than her rivals.  Enterprise was also the first yacht to pioneer laminate sails, using plastic films to stabilise the more conventional Dacron. Her sails included the ‘garbage bag’, a light airs genoa that (in colour, at least) suggested its moniker.

Enterprise posted two race wins in the 2019 12 Metre World Championships. Photo: Ian Roman

The 1977 Challenger matches were a rematch of the 1974 Courageous v Intrepid rivalry between upstart west coaster Lowell North and eastern establishment sailor Ted Hood.

At North’s right hand was sailmaking wunderkind John Marshall, who would be a dominant presence in Cup competitions for years to come. Many of Enterprise ’s crew had cut their 12 Metre teeth on Intrepid ’s successful 1970 Cup defence. In fact, Intrepid was brought out of retirement and trucked to San Diego to spar with the new design.

Yet it was Courageous , a 1974 design, that secured the spot to defend the Cup ( Courageous successfully saw off Alan Bond’s Australia in the Cup match). So what went wrong for Enterprise ? Anyone who knows the boat well won’t hesitate to respond. “ Enterprise had a foretriangle dimension that was about three feet shorter than what was conventional,” Marshall explained to me recently.

Enterprise hull is now painted battleship grey – the original colour was white

Most 12s have a 24ft foretriangle, give or take a bit. Enterprise ’s was 21ft. “Computer predictions that evaluated flow over surfaces suggested this would give us an edge,” Marshall recalled. But when it came to tacking, getting the stiff headsails quickly across was a challenge, as there was now 3ft more sail that had to pass around the front of the mast.

“The jib didn’t fill quite as quickly, and we didn’t accelerate quite as quickly coming out of tacks,” Marshall adds. In the early challenger races, Enterprise performed well. But as the summer progressed, Courageous got distinctly better. “Once the difference got down to being pretty small, and the boats were always close together, tacking performance became much more important.”

Consider that it wasn’t unheard of for 12 Metres to do over 50 tacks on a four-mile beat, and it’s clear why the writing was on the wall.

Article continues below…

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Back to her best

Fast-forward to 2019 and Enterprise is back in fighting form. After stints in the Med she had been donated to the US Merchant Marine Academy Sailing Foundation.

With the impetus of the forthcoming 2019 Worlds in Newport, a major refit was begun in earnest. Tommy Rich, from New England Boatworks, which carried out the refit, recalls: “The boat had been bastardised. They had put a flush deck on it and a bogus interior, and it was basically in a state of disrepair.”

The refit was done over roughly two years, and in that time virtually everything on the boat was upgraded or replaced, except the hull and framework.

The hull structure is one of the few parts of the boat that remains original

Rich explains: “S&S, along with David Pedrick, designed a new keel. The boat got a more modern spade rudder to replace the old, barn-door type, and a more modern deck. That included new cockpits and a spinnaker pole trough – basically all the working deck – as well as a new chainplate structure.”

The boat received a new rig: an aluminium mast, as per the class rules, but with carbon used everywhere else, as well as all-new Harken hydraulics. And, of course, the ‘J’ foretriangle dimension is at 24ft once again.

For this level of investment in time and money, there was just one goal: to win the World Championship. Enterprise was chartered by Clay Deutsch for the summer, but the race started even before she had hit the water. “The challenge for us has been the calendar,” says Deutsch. “We didn’t have the boat in a position to go sailing until the end of May. And it’s pretty humbling how long it takes to get these boats dialed in.”

Double wheels: outer one for steering; inner one for trim tab control

Nevertheless, her pedigree showed quickly. In her first competition in Newport this summer, Enterprise posted a pair of 1sts in the two final races. In the 2019 World Championship in Newport she finished a solid 2nd overall in the Modern Division to the more seasoned Challenge XII .

For Deutsch, the 12 Metre seed was planted long ago. “When I was a kid, while other kids had baseball and football cards, I had an Intrepid scrapbook, and I have always fantasised about 12 Metres. Then, out of the blue this past winter, North Sails’ Mike Toppa came to me with, ‘What about Enterprise ?’ It was the furthest thing from my mind, and I just figured we wouldn’t be there.”

But Deutsch was persuaded, and work shifted into a frenzied pitch at New England Boatworks. “I remember when I first looked at it, and it was in a million pieces, and I said: ‘I’m not a professional, but my amateur opinion is that this boat has no chance of being ready.’

Asymmetric foredeck hatches – the port hatch has a roller on the aft side for spinnaker take downs

“But Ben Quatromoni, the project manager, and his team jumped on it, working around the clock, and we made it to the starting line.” Today Enterprise ’s decks today are remarkably spartan for a 12 Metre: it’s 1977 meets 2019 technology, with lots of carbon. “The boat setup is complicated,” says Quatromoni, “but it’s very user-friendly.”

The port foredeck hatch has a roller on the aft side, TP52 -style, for the string take down spinnaker system. Once around the roller, the chute is pulled through a Dacron tube that runs to the stern. With the grinders working in unison, the sail disappears in five seconds.

Control lines run through custom-made carbon ‘trumpets’, allowing them move effortlessly out of sight. Carbon reels take up the halyards. These are ratchet system reels, where one control line spins the reel, bringing the halyard in, and another control line releases it. Unlike those reels, the spinnaker take-down reel is powered off the pedestals.

The spinnaker take down bag; the spinnaker comes down through the forward deck hatch and is pulled through this long Dacron bag

The aluminium cockpit has been lowered to get the grinders down and allow the boom to just avoid grazing the deck when fully sheeted in. But the boom is low. “Man, is it crowded,” says Deutsch. “I can barely fit under the boom – when we’re tacking, I’m literally down on all fours.”

The port and starboard jib trimmer pits have hydraulic controls for the jib tack and jib leads, which is standard for the Twelves. As on most 12 Metres, below decks is anything but simple.

The 150ft of mainsheet runs from the traveller car up into the boom, forward to the gooseneck, below deck, then aft to a turning block where it goes up into the mainsheet pod. Rather than using a winch for the traveller, the car is controlled by a Harken magic wheel below decks, with a 17:1 purchase.

With so many hydraulic systems, continual pumping is required to keep them pressurised, and the aft cockpit pedestal is set up to run a rotary pump, mounted below, for that purpose. For trimmers, there’s no downtime. Once they’ve finished trimming, it’s back to pumping to keep the hydraulics powered up.

The workmanship on many of the systems is truly extraordinary. The turning blocks for the spinnaker sheet and guy are so inconspicuous as to be barely noticeable. The traveller control line looks as if it has been simply laid on deck.  Enterprise ’s original white hull is now battleship grey. Coupled with black spars, the effect is stunning.

Specification

LOA: 20.15m (66ft 1in) LWL : 13.41m (44ft 0in) Beam: 3.78m   ( 12ft 5in) Draught: 3.78m   ( 12ft 5in) Displacement: 25.7 tonnes Sail area: 168m 2  (1,808ft 2 ) Design: Sparkman & Stephens Year: 1977 Builder: Minneford Yacht Yard, Inc.

About the author

Dave Powlison has been writing about sailing since the late 1970s and is currently an editor-at-large for Sailing World magazine. When not writing, he races Etchells and an RS Aeros in Vermont, USA.

First published in the November 2019 edition of Yachting World.

12 METRE RACING

Philipsburg, Sint Maarten

OUR HISTORIC VESSELS

Our classic sailing thoroughbreds, nearly seventy feet long with masts the height of an eight-story building, take you on an adventure of a lifetime and offer the glory of being the first to cross the finish line.

STARS AND STRIPES 86

Built to withstand the heavy seas and winds expected in Fremantle, Australia, this incredible vessel was designed with a different keel and more sail area than her predecessors. Join us daily for a memorable race on Stars & Stripes 86 in the warm blue seas surrounding St. Maarten.

TRUE NORTH IV

"Ivy" as she is affectionately named, is heavier and longer on the waterline. In fact, True North IV holds the record for the longest waterline length for a 12 Metre Class vessel ever. Ivy is in a league of her own within our St. Maarten racing fleet, and she offers you a race experience you'll never forget.

Generally regarded as being the fastest light-air 12 Metre Class boat in the world, Canada II competed in the 1987 Louis Vuitton Cup. She delivers a superb dose of speed as she takes on her challengers in daily regattas along the coast of Sint Maarten.

The NYHSF 12 Meter Program

Click here for the 2022 12 Meter Heritage Regatta

The New York Harbor Sailing Foundation’s  12 Meter Program  is an invitation to a select group of sailing enthusiasts to help support and preserve two America’s Cup 12 Meters. These yachts are important pieces of American yachting history.

The 12 Meter class has inspired many generations of sailors. They are iconic and majestic yachts which personify the beauty of sailing.  12 Meters are the pinnacle of American yachting tradition.

12 Meters & the America’s Cup

In 1907, the International Rule (also known as the Meter Rule) was established by the new International Yacht Racing Union to coordinate international racing. This rule led to the development of the many classes and the most popular were the 15 Meter, 12 Meter, 8 Meter and 6 Meter. 12 Meters were used in the Olympics from 1908 to 1920 and over the years, more than 300 yachts have been built under the 12 Meter rule.

In 1958, the 12 Meter class was selected to revive the America’s Cup Races. This catapulted the 12 Meter class into the limelight and they became the most iconic and famous yachts in American history.

12 Meters raced for the America’s Cup from 1958 to 1987. The names of yachts like Intrepid, Courageous, Australia II and Stars & Stripes helped define these generations.

12 Meters in the America’s Cup Finals, 1958 to 1983

When Australia won the America’s Cup in 1983, many tears were shed. But in fact, this loss would lead to the greatest America’s Cup in history, and the peak of the 12 Meter class. Here comes 1987 and one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.

1987 & the Greatest Year of the America’s Cup

America II (US 46) Comes to NY Harbor

On the 20 th Anniversary of the Manhattan Yacht Club in 2007, a group of visionary Members responded to the Commodore’s suggestion to commemorate the occasion by doing something special – acquiring a 12 Meter. This is how US 46 came to New York harbor. Read more about this story .

Acquisition of the Second 12 Meter

Frequently in life, the most interesting opportunities arrive at the most inopportune times. In 2015, the opportunity arrived to acquire a second 12 Meter, US 46’s sistership. The Foundation decided to “Go For It.”  Read more about this story. 

What our program is trying to accomplish:

The main goal of the New York Harbor Sailing Foundation’s 12 Meter Program is: to be a good caretaker of these important pieces of American yachting history.

This means raising enough money to properly restore, maintain and preserve these 12 Meters. This also means building an endowment so the 12 Meters continue to inspire after we are gone. And finally, this means sailing these iconic 12 Meters so they inspire and engage more people.

We accomplish these goals by inviting people who care about sailing and historic preservation to join our 12 Meter Syndicate  “ Syndicate Member ” and make annual donations to support this program. In addition to donations made by Syndicate Members, the Foundation generates revenue by selling tickets to paying passengers and offering private charters. Our main annual fundraiser is the 12 Meter Dinner before the Sailors Ball in April.

How You Can Get Involved

If you are a sailing enthusiast and would like to help with the restoration and preservation of these iconic 12 Meters, please consider this an invitation to join the effort. This is a rare opportunity to be part of something historically significant and special.

CLICK HERE to Join the NYHSF 12 Meter Syndicate

You do not have to be an experienced sailor to support this mission of historic preservation. If you are a novice sailor or just a sailing enthusiast, this is an opportunity to get more involved in the world of sailing.

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Beautiful boat - Flotilla Radisson Royal

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This was a surprise for me by my partner and daughter. Getting onto the boat was very orderly, and... read more

We did a lunch cruise, boarding at 1230hrs and returning to the dock promptly at... read more

Beautiful boat

Very impressed with the quality of this boat. The spec is top of the line and we'll maintained. The toilets are fresh & clean. The route on the river through Moscow takes in many of the iconic sites of Moscow and is a great introduction. The food was nice. Wide selection. Service was pleasant. Get the iPod with audio for some interesting commentary. I recommend the 2 1/2 hour trip.

Dear GrantHay, thank you for the feedback about your cruise on the yacht "Radisson Royal". Flotilla “Radisson Royal” has 10 perfectly equipped yachts designed for year-round entertaining excursion cruises on the Moscow River with restaurant service aboard. Our company organizes cruises 365 days a year. On our 2,5-3 hours cruise passengers will enjoy the most remarkable sights of Moscow: Kremlin, Novodevichy Convent, monument to Peter I, St. Basil's Cathedral, University and other symbolic monuments. We will be glad to see you again on Board our yachts! Best regards, Olga Tkacheva, brand-Manager.

We had it today. Nice views and a fun way to see the city. We also had some pasta and drinks, which were ok. Service was very nice. Shame we didn't know that the tour from Gorky Park is just half way - lasts about 1.5 hour. If we knew we would start at Ukraina hotel.

Dear Paweł S, thank you for the feedback about your cruise on the yacht "Radisson Royal". Flotilla “Radisson Royal” has 10 perfectly equipped yachts designed for year-round entertaining excursion cruises on the Moscow River with restaurant service aboard. Our company organizes cruises 365 days a year. The standard return route from Gorky Park Pier to Hotel Ukraina Pier lasts two and a half hours with the pivot closer to the business center "Moscow-city" to the Kotelnicheskaya embankment without any stops. On weekends the departure time is at four p.m. and eight p.m. The boarding starts thirty minutes before the departure.

When I got on Radisson's cruise boats, I thought that it's a normal, boring river cruise, but 10 minutes later I found out I was totally wrong. What a beautiful view of the historical buildings of Moscow!!!! The statue that hung in the middle of Moskva River is amasing. Service is acceptable and waiters/waitresses are freindly and the food is in good quality.

Hello, dear Milad1987! Thank you for the feedback about your cruise on the yacht "Radisson Royal". Flotilla “Radisson Royal” has 10 perfectly equipped yachts designed for year-round entertaining excursion cruises on the Moscow River with restaurant service aboard. Our company organizes cruises 365 days a year. Come on our thematic cruises and food festivals, you will discover still a lot. Let you offer a First class, respectable interiors, the attention of the stewards, privacy and comfort. And Royal-class – for anyone who knows how to relax, every Thursday, Friday and Saturday – live music. We will be glad to see you again on Board our yachts! Best regards, Olga Tkacheva, brand-Manager.

Went with business group on dinner cruise, with guide. Really enjoyed the views after dark - seeing Red Square/The Kremlin from this vantage was great. And being on the top deck to view with no obstructions was worth the cold wind ! Kind of hard to eat and see the views at the same time, but the food was nothing special so we focused on the views. Service fine but not notable. Guide might as well have been a pre-recorded piece as there was no attempt to engage us - and it was hard to tell what building or view she was referring to as she just sort of looked in the direction of the item and spoke with monotone voice. Go for the views, not the food or service.

Hello, dear lbes! Thank you for the feedback about your cruise on the yacht "Radisson Royal". Unfortunately, due to the nature of the rolling stock, the menu is presented on the yacht, may not be as diverse and exquisite in the filing, copyright in stationary restaurants. Flotilla “Radisson Royal” has 10 perfectly equipped yachts designed for year-round entertaining excursion cruises on the Moscow River with restaurant service aboard. Our company organizes cruises 365 days a year. Come on our thematic cruises and food festivals, you will discover still a lot. We will be glad to see you again on Board our yachts! Best regards, Olga Tkacheva, brand-Manager.

Great boat ride - see all the sights. The food is way better than you expect on a riverboat. This is a great 3 hour ride through Moscow with too many sights and views to name individually - take your camera!

Hello, dear TimT1947! Thank you for your feedback about Flotilla Radisson Royal. It’s very important for us to know the opinion of each guest. Our company organizes cruises 365 days a year. Ice class of yachts allows not stop navigation in winter: they move on the ice so smoothly and quietly that only the changing landscapes of Moscow historical centre can remind you that you are in the cruise. We will be glad to see you again on Board our yachts! Best regards, Olga Tkacheva, brand-Manager.

It would be great to arrive before departure time inorder to enjoy your dinner. And spend the rest of the trip enjoying the scenic views. Our waiter was a gentleman. He spoke broken English. But he made great effort to explain some of the important buildings as we passed by. He made sure that our little girl was treated like a princess. If we travel back to Moscow we will have a day trip and an evening trip. We selected the Royal class.

Hello, Ameena S! Thank you for your feedback about your cruise on the yacht "Radisson Royal" . Flotilla “Radisson Royal” has 10 perfectly equipped yachts designed for year-round entertaining excursion cruises on the Moscow River with restaurant service aboard. Our main goal is to provide high quality services that will allow you to fully enjoy your trip and come back to us again. Come on our thematic cruises and food festivals, you will discover still a lot.A professional animation team specialized in children's entertainment attend our young guests at all daily cruises of Flotilla "Radisson Royal". Departure at 13:00 and 15:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. Under their leadership the younger generation will be able to conquer the water expanses of the Moscow River, without disturbing the other passengers. We will be glad to see you again on Board our yachts! Best regards, Olga Tkacheva, brand-Manager.

High School Sports | PIAA 1A boys basketball: Bethlehem Christian…

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High school sports | piaa 1a boys basketball: bethlehem christian bows out with loss to linville hill.

SHILLINGTON, Berks County – The end of the season could be just the beginning for the Bethlehem Christian boys basketball team.

Linville Hill defeated Bethlehem Christian 83-57 Tuesday night at Governor Mifflin High school in a PIAA Class 1A second-round game.

But coach Matthew De Jesus looks to use the experience as a building block for a team that won its first state playoff game in just its second season as a PIAA team.

“We’ve got a young team, we lose two good seniors,” De Jesus said. “It was a big accomplishment. I’m excited for how they did with a 20-plus win season. We would have liked to get farther but I’m happy with how they competed all year.”

Miles Harris scored 25 points and Amari Williams scored 15 for the District 11 No. 3 seed Panthers.

District 3 champion Linville Hill ran out to a 26-14 lead after one quarter. But Bethlehem Christian kept within striking distance until Linville Hill outscored the Panthers 24-14 in the fourth quarter.

“I was proud of how we responded,” De Jesus said. “We never stopped playing until the end.”

Giovanni Sejuste scored 27 points and Stephen Smucker scored 22 for Linville Hill.

Brian Rippey is a freelance writer.

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Patrick Healy

Deputy Opinion Editor

R.F.K. Jr.’s Possible V.P. Picks Are No Joke

Soon after the professional-wrestler-turned-Reform-Party-candidate Jesse Ventura became governor of Minnesota in 1999, I spent a few days with him there to write a profile . I opened it with a telling moment: Ventura holding a bullhorn and facing off against college students protesting for more state financial aid. At one point, as they called for support for single parents taking classes, Ventura questioned the idea of raising a child alone.

“Is that the government’s job — to make up for your mistakes?” he said. Heckling followed.

This was 16 years before Donald Trump started running for office and speaking his mind with comments that people either loved or hated. But Ventura made that comment and other ones with ease. He knew his bluntness, provocations and anti-politician vibes were part of why he narrowly won office, and as a celebrity self-promoter from his wrestling days, he saw all of this as being on brand for an independent.

I thought about Ventura’s remark as I read my colleague Rebecca Davis O’Brien’s great reporting about how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is eyeing Ventura and the N.F.L. quarterback Aaron Rodgers as possible running mates for his independent presidential bid. Kennedy was already on my mind after I helped moderate a focus group of Trump voters who don’t support the former president anymore; some of them talked up Kennedy and were familiar with some of his political positions.

That left me taking Kennedy more seriously than I did before. Some voters are giving this guy a real look, and a few see him as the new Trump — outsider, anti-establishment, his own person (regardless of the dangerous and fact-free views that he holds).

And that he’s looking at Ventura and Rodgers only makes me take him more seriously. Kennedy knows what he’s doing in considering partners who speak in unfiltered ways, for better or for worse, and they have star power and an ease with crowds. A lot of voters will see them as regular people.

Now, those two may have so much baggage that they never get anywhere, or they might conclude that they shouldn’t join the ticket. And Kennedy may yet flop. But the whole Kennedy-Ventura-Rodgers thing is no joke, in my book. I doubt President Biden and Trump are laughing about it.

Adam Sternbergh

Opinion Culture Editor

Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ Payday Rewards His Artistic Boldness

The triumphant story of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which hit a high note last Sunday with seven Oscar wins, got a lucrative coda this week, with reports that the director will also receive a $100 million payday — or roughly the equivalent of the reported budget for the film itself.

The payout — said to be a combination of salary, profit participation and bonuses for the awards and the box office performance — is eye-popping but not out of line with other jackpots for talent involved in hugely successful films; Tom Cruise reportedly earned an estimated $100 million for “Top Gun: Maverick.” This windfall is more notable for a director, but not unheard-of, particularly if the director is a name-brand talent considered crucial to a film’s fortunes. Michael Bay, for example, earned a reported $75 million after the box-office success of the first “Transformers” film.

Nolan has long been ensconced in the very small club of film directors (along with Steven Spielberg and James Cameron) whose name alone is considered enough to sell a movie to a general audience. It’s not surprising that, in a remunerative sense, he’s treated like a star. What’s sometimes forgotten, though, is that, for Nolan, “Oppenheimer” was not a surefire blockbuster — in fact, it represented a significant creative risk.

Despite having made big movies like “The Dark Knight” and “Inception,” Nolan was on a bit of a cold streak. His space epic “Interstellar,” released in 2014, made $731 million worldwide but was seen as a box-office disappointment, underperforming his previous films. His follow-up, the critically acclaimed World War II drama “Dunkirk,” from 2017, made $530 million worldwide. “Tenet,” a thriller released into the pandemic summer of 2020 among widespread theater closures, made only $365 million worldwide.

At that point, a different director might have retreated to another superhero film or a reliable job-for-hire like making an installment of James Bond. Instead, Nolan made a three-hour, R-rated historical biopic about a theoretical physicist. That film, having earned nearly $1 billion worldwide, is now the highest-grossing best picture winner since “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” in 2004.

So Nolan’s payday might be seen simply as a return on investment for Universal, his grateful studio. But it also rewards an audacious artistic gamble — a welcome confirmation of the value of artistic boldness and near-foolhardy creative risk.

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Charles M. Blow

Opinion Columnist

Racial Justice Should Include Survivors of Sexual Violence

Black Voters Matter, the Georgia-based voting rights and community empowerment group, had an unlikely partner at a get-out-the-vote event held Tuesday in Atlanta: Me Too International , the global movement to end sexual violence.

While I’ve always thought of all quests for justice as somewhat related, I’d never considered the deep intersectional relationship between the movement for racial and political justice, and the effort to pursue justice for survivors of sexual violence.

But Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo movement, made a strong case at the voting event. “You know, people talk about violence in communities, and they always leave this issue out. We talk about gang violence and gun violence and other forms of violence, but sexual violence is a form of violence that plagues our communities,” she told me, adding, “Particularly Black communities. And we love to call on Black women when it’s time to save the democracy, when it’s time to vote. But Black women are the second-largest group of survivors in this country. So if we are going to call on Black women to save the democracy, we have to start addressing the issues that affect Black women.”

Cliff Albright, a co-founder and the executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund, explained later that the power dynamics and oppression present in racism are the same ones present in patriarchy.

This is true. All oppression is about the creation of a human hierarchy — whether by race, religion, gender or sexual orientation — with those at the top of it exerting control over those below them.

Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist who was raped in jail after being arrested while trying to integrate a whites-only lunch counter, said in a 1971 speech :

“Now, we’ve got to have some changes in this country. And not only changes for the Black man, and only changes for the Black woman, but the changes we have to have in this country are going to be for liberation of all people — because nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

I would argue that Burke is a modern version of Hamer, and her words ring just as true.

David Wallace-Wells

Opinion Writer

For Washington, TikTok Has Become a Propaganda Tool

It’s been a dizzying week for TikTok. Last Thursday, on a bipartisan basis, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously advanced a bill that would force the app to be sold by its parent company, ByteDance — or be dropped from app stores in about five months.

The bill’s prospects for a vote in the full chamber on Wednesday aren’t entirely clear because, as The Washington Post notes , what once looked like pretty straightforward xenophobic politics has gotten a bit more scrambled.

Just six weeks ago, steadfast testimony under one-note questioning from Senator Tom Cotton made Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive of ByteDance, a kind of resistance-lib social media star for the day . Donald Trump, who once tried to ban TikTok, citing data security concerns, now opposes the bill , presumably because the billionaire Jeff Yass, who holds a large stake in ByteDance, lobbied him against it. On the other hand, President Biden, who reversed Trump’s ban, now supports an effort to ban TikTok again, though his campaign just joined the app last month (after banning it for federal workers last year ).

In a certain way, this all resembles how so much of public policy is performed in the post-2016 years: A former president stakes out what seems like an outrageous position only to watch his successor embrace some version of it once in office.

But it also signals a pretty significant conceptual shift. The country’s lawmakers are for the first time openly treating a social media platform as a propaganda tool, and subjecting it to public scrutiny and legislative action on that basis. It matters, of course, that this particular platform is owned — at least sort of — by the Chinese, and that Beijing has effectively censored content it wants suppressed while promoting content we’d probably prefer Americans not be force-fed.

The principle is not limited to TikTok, however. If the core problem is that algorithmic content is a manipulative threat to the public, or even a form of psychological warfare against the youngest users, well, it’s not just TikTok.

Jesse Wegman

Editorial Board Member

Republicans Should Have Thanked Robert Hur. Instead, They Yelled.

If there’s one thing you can count on from Republicans these days, it’s their refusal to take yes for an answer.

On Tuesday they spurned an easy win once again, during testimony before the House Judiciary Committee by Robert Hur , the now-former special counsel who investigated President Biden’s retention of classified documents. The bottom line of the report Hur issued last month was that Biden broke no laws and Hur would not recommend any charges against him. But, of course, the juiciest part of the report came in Hur’s gratuitous characterization of Biden’s mental state — calling him a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”

This was gift-wrapped campaign fodder for Republicans, and yet somehow it still wasn’t enough.

“You are part of the Praetorian Guard that guards the swamp out here in Washington, D.C., protecting the elites,” Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin said to Hur, a deputy U.S. attorney general in the Trump administration.

Tom McClintock of California used his allotted time to complain about the classified-documents prosecution of Donald Trump, charging the Biden administration with using the rule of law as “a weapon to wield against political rivals and a tool of despotism.”

And then there was Jim Jordan of Ohio, the committee chairman, who just yelled. That appears to be the only way he is able to form sentences.

Where, a viewer might wonder, was the gratitude to Hur?

Put aside for the moment that Hur could not explain why he needed to speculate at length about Biden’s memory and cognitive functioning, since he admitted he didn’t have sufficient evidence to recommend charges in the first place. Or why, if it was so important to consider how a jury might be influenced by the president’s memory, he failed to report his own statement that Biden seemed to have “a photographic understanding and recall” in at least one instance.

All Republicans had to do was sit back and enjoy Hur’s one-sided report and the political damage it has inflicted on Biden. Why wouldn’t they?

Because, as has become clearer with every day of the Trump era, they don’t actually want to win. They don’t even care about classified-document retention. All they care about is their endless list of grievances about the swamp, the “deep state,” the elites — whatever today’s term is for the government that they control half of.

Farah Stockman

Why Are Aid Workers Getting Killed in Gaza?

A day after President Biden announced last Thursday that Americans would build a pier to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, the logistics coordinator of an American nonprofit organization that has delivered aid to Gaza for 55 years was killed by an Israeli airstrike, according to the organization .

The Palestinian coordinator, Mousa Shawwa, a former truck driver who rose to an influential position as a key problem solver in aid delivery for American Near East Refugee Aid, known as Anera, was killed at an apartment building where he was staying with his family near Deir al Balah in the central Gaza Strip, the group said. (The cause of death has not been independently confirmed.) His wife and three children were injured.

The death appears to illustrate the abject failure of Israel to protect aid workers from becoming collateral damage. The airstrike took place just two days after the arm of the Israeli Defense Ministry that coordinates activities in the occupied territories requested information about the locations of Anera’s dozen staff members to ensure that they would be protected from an attack. Anera initially provided that information in October, and Israeli coordinators called again on March 4 to reconfirm and asked for more details, which they received on March 6, according to Sean Carroll, Anera’s C.E.O.

“It’s very alarming,” he told me. “They asked for our coordinates of our distribution centers, our offices and our staff shelters. They said they put it into their system.”

Anera is now requesting a formal investigation from both American and Israeli officials to determine the intended target of the attack and why providing information to the Defense Ministry did not prevent the death of Shawwa, who was not a U.S. citizen.

Now Anera is in a bind. It must work closely with Israeli coordinators to get food and medical supplies into Gaza; it has been instrumental in helping more than 40 organizations, including the World Central Kitchen , deliver millions of meals in Gaza since October. But now its staff members are feeling exposed and betrayed.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington said more time was needed to gather information about the circumstances surrounding Shawwa’s death. Attempts to reach the coordination office have been unsuccessful.

In the wake of this death, two things are clear: Anera deserves answers, and without brave and resourceful aid workers like Shawwa, American aid will be undeliverable, stuck on a makeshift pier.

An earlier version of this article misstated when President Biden announced that the United States would build a pier for delivering aid to Gaza. It was last Thursday, not last Friday.

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Taxes Are a Big Gray Area in Biden’s Budget

President Biden has promised that people earning under $400,000 a year won’t pay a penny more in income taxes than they do now. But the budget he released on Monday doesn’t include the significant cost of that promise.

That’s because extending tax cuts enacted during the Trump administration for lower- and middle-income Americans past their expiration dates will be expensive, and the administration hasn’t yet come up with plans to prevent a spike in the deficit by offsetting the cuts with tax increases elsewhere in the budget.

The budget released on Monday shows an increase of nearly $300 billion in individual income tax revenue between fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026. (Look at Table S-4 , under receipts.) That’s largely because the White House assumes — for now — that the cuts in Donald Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for people earning under $400,000 will be allowed to expire on Sept. 30, 2025.

The Biden administration isn’t trying to pull a fast one. I believe that the president really is committed to his not-a-penny promise. (Whether that’s wise is a different question.)

I think what’s going on is that the administration is trying to match tax cuts with tax increases to keep a lid on budget deficits. Biden’s budgeteers don’t want to build the middle-class tax cut extensions into the budget before having the offsetting increases lined up. Otherwise, projected budget deficits would appear to be bigger than the administration actually intends.

It’s worth pointing out that Biden hasn’t been shy about proposing tax increases. He wants to raise the corporate income tax and raise tax rates on individuals earning more than $400,000 a year, among other measures.

Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, emailed me that Biden’s plans on this point are “beyond vague.”

That’s true. But he’s hardly the only one who does this. On the Republican side, the House Budget Committee blueprint , which promises to wipe out budget deficits in 10 years, is even vaguer. It hinges on a rosy scenario for economic growth, some budget cuts that are probably politically impossible because they would fall hard on disadvantaged Americans and other budget cuts that are completely unspecified.

Any budget put forth at this early stage is more of a manifesto than an actual plan, so I don’t fault Biden and his people for not spelling everything out yet.

Kathleen Kingsbury

Opinion Editor

‘We’re All Living in Oppenheimer’s World’

On Sunday night, accepting his Oscar for best actor in a leading role, Cillian Murphy offered the usual notes of gratitude and then said in closing: “We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb, and for better or for worse, we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world. So I would really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere.”

Murphy’s words left me disappointed that more of his fellow cast members, crew or his famous director, Christopher Nolan, did not use their own acceptance speeches to raise the alarm about the dangers of the weapons that define the world that J. Robert Oppenheimer created. Those dangers are not only in the past, but, as Murphy reminded us, still very present today and growing .

Oppenheimer’s Cold War perspective could not have imagined a geopolitics where the theory of mutually assured destruction needed to be expanded to encompass not two but multiple nuclear superpowers, as ours does today with the rise of China .

At the same time, the race for new weapons technology is heating up again, as Times Opinion is exploring in detail in our series “At the Brink.” The United States is pouring billions of dollars into modernizing Oppenheimer’s technology and revitalizing the lab infrastructure he started building in Los Alamos, N.M. And nuclear weapons need not be used in warfare to be dangerous.

Nolan, to be fair, has said in past interviews that he is concerned by how little attention there is today to the world’s nuclear threats, one of the reasons he made the film. There is also an argument that Nolan and his cast, working in cinema, owe the world no activism around preventing nuclear destruction. A version of that argument was certainly invoked as a defense when Nolan was criticized for not including any footage of the horrifying devastation the United States wrought on Japan with Oppenheimer’s creation.

Yet hearing Murphy’s dedication of his award to “the peacemakers” reminded me of a speech that the real J. Robert Oppenheimer gave in 1945. He argued in it that scientific innovation was inevitable, urging his fellow scientists to never stop pushing forward their efforts to understand and control nature. Alongside that work, however, if peace were to be sustained, must come an equally committed pursuit to govern atomic energy. That, Oppenheimer warned, would require moral certitude and leadership.

As the planet faces a new nuclear age, and thus the next iteration of Oppenheimer’s world, who will step up to provide that leadership?

Lindsay Crouse

Opinion Writer and Producer

The Price of a Very Royal Scandal

On Sunday morning, the world was served an important new photo of Catherine, the Princess of Wales, surrounded by her three happy-looking children. It was a virtuous reminder that baseless speculation about whether there was a sinister reason for her extended public absence, rather than the official “abdominal surgery,” was unhelpful.

The internet pounced on the photo. At first, the questions felt overly judgmental: Why wasn’t she wearing her giant engagement ring? A few hours later, reports of actual fabrication emerged: stretch the photo and Princess Charlotte’s sleeve and Prince Louis’s sweater hem are uneven. Within hours, The Associated Press had retracted the photograph, which had been issued by Kensington Palace. (The princess has since claimed responsibility for the manipulated photo and apologized via a social media post.)

This is how you destroy a brand — with a doctored photograph that promises to fuel the very conspiracies it was meant to extinguish.

There are two issues at play: first, that the royals lied at all (why are they lying?) and, second, that they lied so spectacularly poorly. They weren’t caught by an investigative journalist; they were caught by anyone who knows how to pinch an Instagram photo with two fingers and zoom.

It’s fairly well understood that this family — an institution upheld by millions of tax dollars — has always survived by manipulating public trust. But whenever the machine of that manipulation shows, trust weakens. Maybe Catherine really is spending her convalescence on Photoshop altering family photos, but who would believe that now? A modern monarchy cannot lie this sloppily and get away unscathed.

The royals are adamant that they are not celebrities, that they possess an inherited right to superiority. But their foothold has grown so fragile that they no longer have room for error. If the fantasy is based on the idea that royals are better than regular people, the monarchy must not be so careless as to make mistakes any common influencer would know to avoid.

By casually opening themselves up to legitimate accusations of lying, the royals undermine Queen Elizabeth II’s dictum that royals “have to be seen to be believed.” They reveal to the public, which pays for their existence, that the royals’ expectation of public adoration is not an entitlement. It’s that desire to have adoration without visibility that risks their legitimacy.

Should the royals be serious about retaining their inherited power, they must remember that their power is predicated on institutional trust. Their brand is supposed to mean prestige, not careless fakery that invites public scrutiny. These mistakes reveal the chinks in the armor, amassing over time. The public may begin to wonder why an amateurish institution with all its inherited and conscripted wealth warrants public interest, let alone public support.

David Firestone

Deputy Editor, the Editorial Board

The Big Debate Over Retirement Benefits Officially Begins

There still seem to be many people who don’t see enough difference between the candidates to get excited about voting for President Biden in November. Editorial board members will highlight those differences throughout the campaign, and a debate on one key difference began on Monday: How will each candidate prevent Social Security and Medicare from running out of money?

Donald Trump did nothing about this issue while in office, and he has always tried to pretend that he has some magical secret formula to prevent shortfalls in Social Security or Medicare. (The Social Security trustees say their shortfall will begin in 2034 if nothing changes, and the Medicare shortfall will start three years earlier.) But on Monday morning, in a slightly unguarded interview with CNBC , Trump uttered the word “cutting” in a way that the country will hear in many Biden ads and speeches to come.

“There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements,” he said.

It was mostly Trump’s usual foggy blather, but cutting benefits in various ways is a longtime goal of many of the Republicans who slavishly support Trump. Even Nikki Haley talked about raising the age to get benefits, which is a form of a cut.

In his State of the Union speech last week and in greater detail in his proposed 2025 budget on Monday, Biden made it clear he will tolerate no cuts of any kind to Medicare or Social Security. Instead he proposed a sensible idea that the editorial board has long advocated : raising taxes on the wealthy to close the gap. The Biden budget would raise the Medicare tax on those making $400,000 or more a year to 5 percent from 3.8 percent and extend the higher tax to additional types of income.

He should have gone further and revived one of his earlier proposals to raise the amount of income that is subject to the Social Security tax, which is currently capped at the absurdly low level of $168,600. But the point is that none of these fundamental increases will ever be acceptable to any Republican, including the party’s likely presidential nominee, inevitably leading to cuts. Democrats must make that extremely clear in the months to come.

David French

A Conservative Court Rebukes Republican Censorship

Those who don’t pay close attention to the right-wing civil war might miss the extent to which the political and legal wings of the conservative movement often find themselves on opposite sides. For example, classical liberal Federalist Society judges and justices have blocked the new right time and again — from turning back Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the election, to halting red-state attempts to implement college and corporate speech codes.

This month, the classical liberals prevailed again. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit unanimously upheld a lower court injunction blocking parts of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s notorious “Stop WOKE Act.”

Two of the three members of the appellate panel are Trump appointees, and a Trump appointee, Judge Britt Grant, wrote the majority opinion. The opinion itself is short and direct.

Florida barred mandatory diversity training programs that endorsed ideas its Republican leaders reject. Prohibiting the private expression of ideas the state dislikes is textbook viewpoint discrimination, what Judge Grant calls “the most pernicious of dividing lines under the First Amendment.” Judge Grant is correct — “No matter how controversial the ideas,” she writes, “allowing the government to set the terms of the debate is poison, not antidote.”

Judge Grant’s opinion is particularly notable for another reason. Its opening paragraph is a subtle rebuke of the entire new right mind-set. Grant writes:

This is not the first era in which Americans have held widely divergent views on important areas of morality, ethics, law and public policy. And it is not the first time that these disagreements have seemed so important, and their airing so dangerous, that something had to be done. But now, as before, the First Amendment keeps the government from putting its thumb on the scale.

To understand the significance of that paragraph, one has to understand how much the new right adopts a framework that desperate times call for desperate measures. It even uses the question, “ Do you know what time it is ?” to indicate that America is allegedly facing an unprecedented challenge and teeters on the brink of destruction.

Yet the answer to division is dialogue, not censorship. Or, as Judge Grant writes, “Intellectual and cultural tumult do not last forever, and our Constitution is unique in its commitment to letting the people, rather than the government, find the right equilibrium.”

The case is merely the latest example of conservative judges rejecting red-state authoritarianism. One hopes Republicans get the message eventually. If not, the legal losses will continue until Republican commitment to the Constitution starts to improve.

Nana Asfour

Opinion Staff Editor

What an Oscar for ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ Reveals About Hollywood

The most galvanizing category at the Academy Awards this year wasn’t any of the major ones — best picture, best director and the acting awards — but rather the often under-the-radar award for best documentary feature film. Mstyslav Chernov’s win on Sunday for “ 20 Days in Mariupol ,” about the war in Ukraine, should be viewed as a rebuke to the concerns that emerged within the American documentary world when the nominees were announced.

This year’s nominated films were all international ones — from Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, Chile and India — sidelining American heavy hitters like Davis Guggenheim’s “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” and Matthew Heineman’s “American Symphony.” Some in the industry saw the final selection as a rebuff of streamers that have released celebrity-focused films and spent large sums trying to earn them award nominations. Others put it down to the current makeup of the documentary branch, the most diverse ever, representing 52 countries.

Whatever the case, the main worry apparently was that already shrinking budgets for nonfiction films would be doled out to foreign directors, at a time when many American filmmakers struggle to stay afloat.

Where cinema is made and what language it speaks is not what defines its influence. While the selected films take on traditional big-theme social, political or health-related subjects, their approach is far from uniform. Even the widely predicted win for “20 Days in Mariupol,” a joint production of The Associated Press and PBS’s “Frontline,” showed how vital documentary films are to the industry itself, for they — better than any other sort of film — confirm that hard-hitting cinema is still urgent and necessary.

Chernov’s acceptance speech was a stark interruption to the festivities and, perhaps, the most memorable one of the evening. “Probably I will be the first director on this stage who will say ‘I wish I’d never made this film,’” said Chernov, who collected harrowing footage about the Russian siege of Mariupol. “I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine.”

And then he reminded the audience of film’s greatest asset: “Cinema forms memories, and memories form history.”

The Oscar Night Hollywood Needed

There was only one real surprise at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, sort of, which was Emma Stone beating Lily Gladstone, though most Oscar watchers had the best actress race at even money. In the other big categories, the favorites won every time, resulting in a sweep for “Oppenheimer.”

The evening felt satisfying, even necessary, the kind of night Hollywood needed.

As you may have heard , the film industry had a rough go in 2023, and 2024 promises more adversity. But the ace in the hole this year was an unusually good slate of awards contenders, and the telecast showcased them to excellent effect. The night’s big winner, “Oppenheimer,” might not have been everyone’s personal favorite, but it was hard to root against: a high-gloss, high-achievement film that the industry can stand proudly behind.

The tweaks to the telecast mostly worked: Having five past winners personally celebrate this year’s nominees in the acting categories, for example, tied past and present together elegantly. (Compare it with the Emmys, which trotted out cast members from old classic shows and eventually succumbed to a kind of “Night at the Museum” vibe.)

In a year when other award shows faced next-day headlines about a fresh host’s rough night, Jimmy Kimmel, having piloted the Oscars three times already, was a safe and solid choice — and, for good measure, the telecast showcased his presumed heir, John Mulaney, who killed with a bit about “Field of Dreams” while presenting the award for best sound. The “I’m Just Ken” performance, featuring a game Ryan Gosling and a surprise cameo by Slash, was the most rousing such number in years. Starting the show an hour earlier was an excellent idea. The evening actually ended on time. Overall, there weren’t many huge risks but the safe choices were smart ones that routinely paid off.

It’s hard to recall that three short years ago the Oscars was broadcast from inside Los Angeles’s Union Station with cafe-style tables, a mid-pandemic pall and a jittery, “should we even be doing this?” feel. But this year, the Oscars really only had one job when it took the stage: Deliver. And it did.

Three Steps That Biden Needs to Take This Spring

Every Monday morning on The Point, we kick off the week with a tipsheet on the latest in the presidential campaign. Here’s what we’re looking at this week:

President Biden heads to New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Michigan this week as part of a new phase in the 2024 campaign: trying to persuade swing voters to give him a second look, even if they don’t think he’s up to a second term. For presidents seeking re-election, this phase usually lasts through the spring and involves three steps. Importantly, it’s a phase that Donald Trump, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter each bungled, going on to lose re-election in November.

The first step in this phase is defining the presidential election on your terms. Trump failed at this in the spring of 2020 because of the pandemic: He kept telling us we would wake up one day and it would magically end, but that was a lie — and the pandemic became the issue that defined him.

By contrast, Biden got off to a good start last week at the State of the Union, defining the choice between “my predecessor” and his backward ideas, versus Biden’s embrace of popular positions on abortion, stronger border security, lower drug costs and standing up to Vladimir Putin.

The second step is harder for Biden, I think: persuading more people to feel good about giving him another four years.

Now, lots of New York Times readers like Biden; as deputy opinion editor, the most frequent complaint I hear is that Biden deserves more positive coverage because of his performance and because Trump is a horror show. But Biden needs to win over voters who feel, for whatever reason, that he doesn’t “get it” — that he doesn’t really understand their concerns. The economy is Issue No. 1 here, and Biden only needs to look at Bush’s example from 1992 for what can go wrong.

Bush was coming off a surge of popularity over the first Iraq war, but he couldn’t define the re-election campaign on his terms as a foreign policy president. Instead, to quote the campaign that beat him in 1992, “It’s the economy, stupid.” In the spring of 1992, Bush increasingly seemed out of touch on the economic headwinds hitting voters, while Bill Clinton began convincing enough of them that he felt their pain.

The third step for Biden may be the hardest: persuading more people to get excited about his re-election, particularly young voters and Black and Latino voters. Carter flopped at this in the spring of 1980 with so many problems at home and abroad; many Democrats just weren’t as enthusiastic for Carter as the Republican base was for Ronald Reagan. The crucial March-June test is fully underway this week.

Once Again, Thank God for ‘Barbie’

It is deeply, deeply ironic that Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken” was one of the Oscar ceremony’s few truly entertaining moments on Sunday.

The night was otherwise dripping with the most boring version of pretension, so much so that the relatively short ceremony felt as if it would never end. Former Oscar winners emerged, “Iron Chef”-style, from behind giant portraits of themselves to say sweet nothings about this year’s nominees, before anointing the chosen one with Oscar gold. I stopped counting the number of winners who pulled crumpled pieces of paper out of their pockets — usually a faux pas but apparently acceptable in 2024. And then, of course, there was the slate of simpering ballads that were nominated for best original song. (Dua Lipa could’ve been there instead!)

So, once again, the movie industry had billion-dollar “Barbie” to thank for some respite from its all-too-common pablum.

In a campy performance that married “Magic Mike” with “Brokeback Mountain,” Gosling, draped in a sparkling Barbie pink suit, danced and sang his little plastic heart out, with an army of pageant queens — oops, Kens — as wingmen. For three and a half glorious minutes, the supposedly feminist movie’s ode to semi-non-toxic masculinity took center stage. The audience cheered, the viewers at home stirred from bored slumber and — ever so briefly — the camera turned to the women who made Barbie what it was: America Ferrera, Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig.

Granted, “Barbie” probably didn’t deserve the night’s top honor. But it’s notable that the film’s only win was best original song, for Billie Eilish’s dreary “What Was I Made For?” “Barbie” made a billion dollars, brought the entire country back to the movie theater and provided ample coattails for “Oppenheimer” — which did win best picture — to ride right to the bank. The Academy doesn’t particularly care; it got its Ken doll, with his Mojo Dojo Casa House and fragile display of masculinity, regardless.

The world can do better than the Academy. Don’t forget that Sunday’s performance of “I’m Just Ken” couldn’t have happened without Gerwig, who reportedly had to fight the studio to even include the song in the final film. Her singular vision saved Hollywood last summer, and, thank God, she saved this year’s Oscars too.

Deputy Opinion Editor, reporting from Los Angeles

When Oscar Winners Have a Bigger Point to Make

When I was politics editor at The Times, and before that the deputy culture editor, I was always curious to see how political issues would surface in speeches at the Oscars. I grew up with actors like Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore and Sean Penn making fiery statements that became some of the biggest news out of the ceremony. And I always wondered how those speeches played in the hall at the Oscars — whether the Hollywood audience in the room liked or loathed them as much as viewers at home.

Tonight I’m at the Oscars — a dream come true — and I was both struck and moved by the two big political speeches at the ceremony so far: an impassioned plea about the attacks in Israel and Gaza, and a cry from the heart about the Ukraine war.

Jonathan Glazer, the director of “The Zone of Interest,” which won for best international feature, found a receptive audience in the Dolby Theater to his remarks on the war in the Middle East: “Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”

The remarks drew pretty solid applause in the hall, where many people in the crowd wore red buttons in support of a cease-fire in Gaza.

A bit later came a speech about the war in Ukraine by the winners of “20 Days in Mariupol” for documentary feature. “I wish I’d never made this film,” said the director, Mstyslav Chernov. “I wish I’d been able to exchange this for Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our cities.”

He added, “But I cannot change the history. I cannot change the past. But we all together … we can make sure that the history record is set straight and that the truth will prevail.”

As with Gaza, the Ukraine remarks drew an impassioned reaction in the hall, and it brought me back to some of those earlier speeches where stars of Hollywood wanted to make a big point that went beyond their movies.

It’s Destiny, as a star freshman leads Clarksburg to the state final

Md. 4a girls’ basketball semifinals: clarksburg 55, c.h. flowers 46.

Destiny Turner stood in the paint with her hands high in the air and watched her Clarksburg teammates zip the basketball around the court in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s Maryland 4A state semifinal. She waited patiently as the ball exchanged hands, then sprang into action when it came to her to continue her barrage of buckets with another easy layup.

Tuesday was Turner’s night against No. 18 C.H. Flowers at Wise High in Upper Marlboro. The freshman forward scored a game-high 29 points as the Coyotes downed the Jaguars, 55-46, to advance to the state championship game.

“She’s tough,” Coyotes Coach Sissy Natoli said. “The kids were trying to feed the hot hand, and that’s exactly what they needed to do. … And she just lit it up.”

In this weekend’s 4A final at the University of Maryland’s Xfinity Center, Clarksburg (22-3) will take on Bethesda-Chevy Chase (26-2), which knocked off North Point in the other semifinal Tuesday. The Barons and Coyotes will face off in a rematch of the Montgomery County championship from late February , when B-CC stormed back from a 17-point deficit to stun Clarksburg.

Turner’s confidence Tuesday was evident from the opening tip, when she scored her team’s first basket and quickly found her shooting rhythm. She scored 17 of the Coyotes’ 25 first-quarter points, using her smooth midrange jumper to make the Jaguars (21-3) pay from the wing.

Asked when she realized she had the hot hand, Turner said “It was after …” then paused to reflect, “probably like the first five points.”

By halftime, Turner had scored 24 points, and Clarksburg held a 24-point lead over the Jaguars, 41-17.

Even when the Coyotes wavered in the second half — Flowers held Clarksburg’s offense to five points in the third quarter — Turner stayed aggressive. She and her sister, junior London Turner, combined for all but two of their team’s second-half points as the Coyotes fended off a late surge.

River Hill falls in 3A semis

In the Class 3A girls’ semifinal played at Wise, River Hill fell to top-seeded Baltimore Polytechnic, 49-29. The loss ended an impressive season for the Hawks (21-3), who entered the game on an 11-game winning streak and proved to be one of the top teams in Howard County.

The Hawks kept within striking distance for most of the game — Poly (26-1) took a 32-25 edge into the fourth quarter — but the Engineers’ size and swarming defense proved to be too much. River Hill scored just four points in the fourth quarter.

“I’m very proud of my team,” Hawks Coach Teresa Waters said. “Today wasn’t what we wanted; we didn’t execute and some of that had to do with the fact that they defended really well.”

Oxon Hill can’t withstand surge

No. 19 Oxon Hill fell to Oakdale, 43-35, in the Class 3A girls’ semifinals at Montgomery Blair High, ending the Clippers’ season one game shy of the state final again.

The Clippers (22-5) took a 10-point lead into halftime, but Oakdale quickly erased Oxon Hill’s advantage early in the second half. The Bears scored 14 straight points in the third quarter and pulled away.