To the Sailing Capital

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary, in GoLocal24.com

‘This is as it should be: The National Sailing Hall of Fame will move from Annapolis, Md., to Newport, where the institution will be housed in the Thames Street Armory Building, most of which will be owned by the Hall of Fame. The city will retain ownership of the Newport Maritime Center in the basement but the retail operations in the old building will have to go.

As a major international sailing and yachting center, the former long-time base of the America’s Cup races, one of the two homes of the New York Yacht Club and a storied port dating back to the 17th Century, Newport should have always been the home of the Sailing Hall of Fame. And, after all, the City by the Sea is on the, well, breezy sea, and not, like Annapolis, on the inner reaches of fetid Chesapeake Bay, much of which is virtually inland.

The city will retain ownership of the Newport Maritime Center in the basement.

So now Newport will have two major Halls of Fame, with the National Sailing Hall of Fame joining the International Tennis Hall of Fame - institutions honoring two sports traditionally associated with wealth in a city with a long romance with great private riches.