New "Live Chart" Plots Activity Areas

In 2019 tragedy struck when a life-long racing sailor -- Sandra Tartaglino -- was hiked out sailing her catamaran, when a powerboat struck her from behind and ran over her, killing her instantly. The Better Bay Alliance (BBA) was formed shortly after this accident by a group of concerned boaters with a broad background of boating experience.

The purpose of BBA is to provide specific information where sailboat regattas, and other boating events, such as poker runs, rendezvous, kayaking and other events are being executed on the Bay. The BBA has cataloged 400 boating events, plus 63 cruise ship passages on Narragansett Bay from May until October.

That information was plugged into proprietary software developed for the BBA website to display all of the scheduled events on the bay on maps (not for navigation) every four hours for the duration of the season. The new functionality is also available on smart phones.

On July 20th, at 12 noon, the five boats involved in the Around the World will have a short around the buoys race for spectators both on the water and on land at Fort Adams and Goat Island.

The following day, May 21, from 12 noon to 4pm the boats will have their start racing north to round a buoy north of the Pell Bridge, then will sail out the bay followed by a spectator fleet expected to be in the hundreds. The boats will then head east across the Atlantic to Denmark.

 On Saturday June 3, there will be five events going on simultaneously all over Narragansett Bay, including a "Sail Newport Youth Challenge" and a Bristol Foil Racing Series.

Charts such as the one above can be found for each day at four-hour intervals for the entire season. It is the hope of BBA that by alerting the boating community of events, boaters will get in the habit of checking their smart phones to see what will be happening on the bay before planning their day's outing.