Yachts

CHESTER -- Fire destroyed three 50-foot yachts docked at a marina in this Queen Anne's County town early yesterday. Investigators estimated total damage at $750,000.Deputy State Fire Marshal W. Faron Taylor said three other boats and the boathouse at the Piney Narrows Marina were damaged.Firefighter Robert Feitz, 43, slipped on ice and fell from one of the yachts, fracturing his ribs when he landed on the pier.Mr. Taylor said the cold weather and ice along the 300-foot pier hampered the 50 firefighters.

One might assume that even the most discriminating big sedan buyer could find satisfaction from one of the nine versions of BMW's flagship 7-series. One would be incorrect. For that ultra-discerning person, there's the BMW Alpina B7: more power, more athletic handling, more exterior styling, more cabin cosseting and, with only 2,000 produced per year, more exclusivity.  Alpina, a limited vehicle production company in its own right, has been partnering with BMW for 40 years to make already exceptional vehicles even better.

An Annapolis man was charged yesterday with selling yachts without a license and with stealing a licensing sticker from one boat to use on another vessel, Department of Natural Resources police said. If found guilty of the illegal sales charge, John J. Regan, who owns Associated Yachts of Annapolis, could face a $500 fine, said Cpl. Ken Turner, a spokesman for the Maryland Natural Resources Police. A court date has not yet been set for the theft charges, he said.

Maryland's boating industry suffered badly in the economic downturn and has yet to fully recover, so it's no surprise that many in the boat business are once again looking for help from Annapolis. Unfortunately, the latest proposal - to cap the vessel excise tax at $10,000 - could do more harm than good. That's not just some knock against millionaires and their yachts - although they would be the primary beneficiaries of such a tax policy. Since the excise tax is set at 5 percent, that means only boats worth more than $200,000 would be affected.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - How do you spend upward of $100 million on a sailboat race? That question is foremost on the minds of the syndicate backers here, where budgets for America's Cup yachts have climbed to staggering levels and money flows like water. Four of the nine challengers are spending more than $60 million each, and nearly all privately grumble that the others are spending more. "There are a lot of different ways to distribute your money, and only one of them is right," Bill Erkelens, the chief operating officer of Larry Ellison's Oracle-BMW team, said, explaining why he would not give out his team's numbers.

Eastport Yacht Club's annual Lights Parade of Yachts is Dec. 11, and to help anyone interested in participating the club will offer a free decorating seminar tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the clubhouse at 317 First St. in Annapolis.EYC's Lights Parade, the oldest in Maryland, welcomes all participants, whether they be individuals, businesses, clubs or associations or neighborhood groups. Club membership is not necessary, and there is no entry fee.Boats of all kinds and sizes are welcome, and this year one of the most unique entries is sure to be the Maryland Federalist, a 19-foot replica of a miniature three-masted ship presented to George Washington in 1788.

Preparations for the America's Cup in San Diego have been drawing the attention of sailors around the world for a year or more. And as often happens when the focus of a sport's following is concentrated, there are those on the fringe that manage to get some time in the limelight.Last weekend, the World Yachting Grand Prix circuit got its chance on San Diego Bay, sailing a three-day regatta in 52-foot Formula One yachts that drew increasing interest from America's Cup crews and skippers.The regatta was won by Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes, which was skippered by John Bertrand.

You'd have to say John R. Kaiser Jr. knows his way around a boat.During his 30 years, the Annapolis resident has watched his father custom-build yachts, learned the craft himself, sold and refurbished vessels, run charters in the Florida Keys and sailed alone from Annapolis to Maine.Now he's capturing boats on Super VHS and Beta SP videotape.Last summer, Kaiser left his job as a yacht broker to navigate an uncharted course in the marine industry. With sales of new, large boats hurting from the recession and federal luxury tax, Kaiser believed he'd found an innovative way to show buyers stocks of lower-priced, usedboats.

Some were dreamers. Some were sailors. Some were both. A few visitors among the crowds who flocked to see the sleek yachts of the Volvo Ocean Race Round the World yesterday had raced before, and some wanted to race someday, and others would not even set foot on a sailboat for money. But nearly all of them seemed fascinated by the daily lives of sailors squeezed into tiny hulls - braving sickness, cold, heat, tankers and untold other obstacles for nine months on the open ocean. An estimated 100,000 people came to see the yachts and other attractions yesterday, the fourth day of the fifth annual Baltimore Waterfront Festival, said Bill Gilmore, executive director of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts.

Twelve identical 72-foot, steel-hulled yachts are slicing through the western Atlantic today en route to Buenos Aires from Boston on the second leg of a wrong-way round-the-world race. The east-west circumnavigation follows a course against the prevailing winds and currents, giving this race, the BT Global Challenge, its claim to being the world's toughest ocean race. But the deliberately adverse conditions aren't all that make it unique. The $1.1 million yachts are crewed by amateurs, each of whom paid $40,000 for the chance to sail round the world.

Tidewater Yacht Service Center in Port Covington was named winner of the 2012 Maryland Clean Marina contest in the large boatyard category. The business was commended by the Department of Natural Resources for taking steps to protect the environment such as: having a recycling program for plastic shrink wrap, oil, cardboard, glass and plastic; taking part in oyster aquaculture to help clean the water; installing fixed and portable pump out stations; and...

J. Dennis Carper, a Baltimore County marina owner and yacht builder who was a decorated World War II veteran, died of stroke and dementia complications Dec. 25 at his Essex home. He was 91. Born near New Castle, Va., he worked on the family farm at Meadow Creek outside Roanoke. While at a church function, he met Gertrude Esther Hanks, a girl from nearby Covington who was a minister's daughter. They married in 1942. The couple lived in Virginia while he attended a school for aircraft mechanics.

One of the great summer pleasures that comes with living in Maryland is the opportunity to get on a boat and paddle, motor or sail your way around the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Few places in the U.S. are better suited for boating, and the state's geographic blessing has produced economic rewards for its citizens - an estimated 35,000 jobs produced by a $2 billion industry. But these are not the best of times for those in the boating industry. The economic recession of 2007 hit hard, and the recovery has been slow.

Robert Tomkies raced yachts in his native New Zealand, with a reputation respectable enough to be hired to work for a fellow named Ted Turner. But as Tomkies' dreams grew, so did his family, until he figured that he had to do something else to take care of his wife and four kids. Tomkies opened a shop in Wellington selling lighting and electrical parts, and bought a small farm off Moonshine Road. Tomkies never got rid of the racing bug, designed and built a 30-foot yacht he named the "Moonshine Express" and tried to pass his passion for fast boats and the open sea on to his brood.

Lately in Mount Vernon, especially in the vicinity of the Washington Monument, there's the faint but unmistakably syrupy aroma of barbecue in the air. Follow the trail and you'll find yourself at an unexpected place - the Midtown Yacht Club. The perennial after-work bar, Midtown, a staple in Mount Vernon under various names since the '80s, long-known for its peanut-shell-covered floors, has been redubbed Midtown BBQ & Brew. It's still a bar, but now it's also a barbecue restaurant, all under one roof.

"Mr. Beverage" is back at the Midtown. Nathan Beveridge, who owned the Midtown Yacht Club in Mount Vernon from 1998 to 2005, is back at the helm, the interim operators having jumped ship. And that's the last of the nautical references, because the Midtown Yacht Club, as Erik Maza reported on Midnight Sun, is now Midtown BBQ and Brew . You can just call it "Midtown," Beveridge says, as many folks always did anyway. In the 1990s, Beveridge earned a following, along with, inevitably, the "Mr. Beverage" nickname, at the bygone Conservatory, high atop the Peabody Court Hotel, where the views of Mount Vernon were giddy.

The Chrysler family owned one. The DuPonts owned several. And a storied 1925 pleasure yacht named the USS Sequoia served eight U.S. presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter.Legendary for their elegant designs and excellent craftsmanship sealed with an ornate gold insignia on their bows, the mahogany yachts custom-built in Eastport's Trumpy boatyard have long represented a bygone era of perfection, wealth and living the high life. They were the venues of lavish summer parties with free-flowing champagne and caviar.

With white water crashing over their 70-foot yachts, Volvo Ocean Race sailors are closing in on Baltimore. The first of the six sailboats is expected as early as today. While the yachts are docked for three weeks in Maryland, race organizers expect a half-million tourists to see the boats and pour $50 million into the economy. "We have a U.S. boat in the race. We're hoping for two nice sunny weekends," said Lee Tawney, the secretary of Ocean Race Chesapeake, the group hosting the boats here.

Update : The new Midtown Yacht Club, or rather, Midtown BBQ & Brew, will have its soft opening Monday Thursday Friday, said co-owner Nathan Beveridge. Beveridge's projection last week to open Monday had been "overly optimistic," he wrote in an e-mail. On Wednesday, Beveridge moved the opening again to Friday. Beveridge has been renovating the bar, a Mt. Vernon institution since the 1980s, since November, when he took over the bar from the previous managers because they owed back taxes.

Following several years of tax problems, Midtown Yacht Club's landlord has taken over the business from its most recent managers. On Monday, Nathan Beveridge confirmed he repossessed Midtown earlier this month because the previous managers, J.G.J. Center, Inc., owed back taxes. He aims to re-open the bar in December with a new concept and name, Midtown BBQ and Brew. The Comptroller of Maryland also said Monday J.G.J. Center owes the state nearly $50,000 in back taxes. The company could not be reached for comment.