Sun Nov 15th Bristol Bound Swap/Lunch/Meeting

NEIYA Annual Swap Meet, Lunch & Annual Meeting

Sunday, November 15, 2026 | 10:00 AM–3:00 PM YES SUNDAY
Cup Defenders Association
230 Wood St., Bristol, RI 02809
Lunch: Club subsidized price $20

This year, we begin another New England iceboating season in a particularly fitting place: Bristol, Rhode Island, a town where building fast sailing machines became both a craft and a tradition.

During the golden era of the America’s Cup, generations of Bristol craftsmen worked at the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company building some of the fastest and most innovative sailing yachts in the world. Shipwrights, machinists, patternmakers, foundrymen, riggers and sailmakers turned drawings and ideas into boats that made Bristol synonymous with the America’s Cup.

The boats became famous. Most of the men who built them did not.

Their influence, however, extended into the Bristol community. The Cup Defenders Association was formed in Bristol in 1935, when the great Herreshoff Cup era was not simply history, but still part of the town’s working memory. Herreshoff employees participated in the Association, and its bocce teams carried the names of the great America’s Cup boats built just down the road.

It is a spirit that should feel familiar to iceboaters.

Build it well. Make it light. Keep experimenting. And find a way to make it go faster.

Join us Sunday, November 15, for the NEIYA Swap Meet, Lunch and Annual Meeting. Bring the gear you want to sell, trade or give away and find what you need for the coming season. The official gathering runs 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, although some of us will be there earlier setting up boats, parts and gear.

After the meeting, we plan to carry that spirit down to the Herreshoff Marine Museum and Bristol waterfront, where generations of craftsmen turned wood, metal, canvas and imagination into remarkable sailing machines.

Before long, we hope to be doing much the same thing on our ice.

More details on the swap, lunch, meeting schedule and museum visit to follow.

Think Ice,

John
DN5023
John@neiya.org