St Augustine Marina at sunrise
Equipment Notes: Hasselblad 907X 50C Anniversary Edition | Hasselblad XCD 3.5/30 (Click on an individual image for a Lightbox view)
RECREATIONAL BOATING
Around 1650, the English Royal Family sent Charles II of England to Holland to avoid his enemies. By then, the Dutch were using small boats – jaghts –initially to guard the ports against smugglers and pirates and later for recreational purposes by the uber-rich. In 1660, Charles II returned to England and became the king, and citizens of Amsterdam presented him with a sixty feet long yacht named Mary with twenty crew members. He frequently sailed on the Thames, and soon, his brother James, Duke of York, caught the bug too. In 1661, Charles II and James raced Katherine and Ann, respectively, and it is the first documented regatta (in Venetian, it means “contest”). Charles II is likely the first recreational boater. Till then, the cities only had ports to handle the larger ships. Over the following centuries, recreational boating became increasingly popular, and marinas were developed.
HISTORY of RECREATIONAL BOATING:
The EARLY 1700s: Boating enthusiasts formed the world’s first boating club – The Water Club of the Harbor of Cork on the southern coast of Ireland.
1903: First international motorboat race, the Harmsworth Cup, or the British International Trophy for Motorboats, begins
1910: Engineers started manufacturing the outboard motors
In the 1910s, John L. Hacker produced a boat known as the Kitty Hawk that became the first boat to travel at a speed of 50 miles/hour.
1940’s: Consumers could buy the fiberglass boats
1950’s: The Boom. Up until then, recreational boaters had registered about 450,000 motorboats. By 1959, boaters were purchasing that many boats in one year alone.
1977: KEN WARBY | 511.11 KILOMETRE(S) PER HOUR20 NOVEMBER 1977 | AUSTRALIA (BLOWERING)
The official world water speed record is 275.97 knots (511.09 km./h, or 317.58 mph) by Ken Warby in the unlimited-class jet-powered hydroplane Spirit of Australia on Blowering Dam Lake, New South Wales, Australia, on 8 October 1978. However, it is estimated that Warby reached an estimated 300 knots (555 km/h., or 344.86 mph) unofficially at the same location on 20 November 1977.
BOATING FACT
142 million Americans (36% of US households) went boating in 2016 . Sixty two percent of those belonged to the households had incomes under $100,000.
The average age at their first boating experience was 12 years of age.
Read more about this study.
Once people started sailing and yachting for recreational purposes, the ports were neither enough nor safe, which likely led to the development of marinas.
A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo from freighters.
St Augustine Municipal Marina offers 96 slips for vessels up to 200 feet and 100 moorings and has facilities for both sail and power boats. It is very photogenic and I often go there to make photographs. You can see the St Augustine skyline and unique views of the Bridge of Lions. (Click on an individual image for a Lightbox view)
You can often see fishermen fishing under the bridge. (Click on an individual image for a Lightbox view)
Boats of different types and color provide excellent foreground objects. (Click on an individual image for a Lightbox view)
I often find interesting objects for close up photographs. This morning, I found the hooks to tie the ropes to tie the boats down. (Click on an individual image for a Lightbox view)
And there are other image making opportunities too. (Click on an individual image for a Lightbox view)
There is a nice ramp that leads to the St Augustine Downtown. It glistens in the early morning sun.
Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe Me.”
Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.—HAFIZ
As you exit the marina you see beautiful downtown buildings.
There liest thou, little city of the deep,
And alway hearest the unceasing sound
By day & night, in summer & in frost,
The roar of waters on thy coral shore.
But softening southward in thy gentle clime
Even the rude sea relents to clemency,
Feels the kind ray of that benignant sun
And pours warm billows up the beach of shells.
Farewell; & fair befall thee, gentle town!
The prayer of those who thank thee for their life,
The benison of those thy fragrant airs,
And simple hospitality hath blest,
Be to thee ever as the rich perfume
Of a good name, & pleasant memory!