NE Immersion Day 6: Herreshoff Museum and International Tennis Hall of Fame

NE Immersion Day 6: Herreshoff Museum and Lunch 

By: Matt Potolski & Nick DiPaola

On our sixth day of the New England Immersion trip, we visited the state of Rhode Island. Our two major destinations for the day were the Herreshoff Marine Museum and the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Upon waking up and making full use of the hotel’s continental breakfast, the group was all filed into the bus when 7:30 AM came around to get on the road to Rhode Island. The Herreshoff Museum, located in Bristol, was around an hour and a half trip. When we arrived, most of us couldn’t help but notice the boats located right outside of the museum, jump starting our interest for what would lay inside. Our tour guide Dan started by discussing the history of the Herreshoff family and their relationship to yachting and the America’s Cup. The brother’s strengths meshed perfectly with each other; John having the savvy business mind and Nathanael having the intellect to design boats resulting in an unprecedented yacht building company.

Exterior of the Herreshoff Museum

The beginning of the brother’s brilliance on display was in 1891 when they built a racing sailboat for E.D. Morgan. This boat, named “GLORIANA”, went on to win all eight races that it competed in.

America's Cup Trophy

When it comes to the history of the America’s Cup, the competition began back in 1851, making it the oldest contested competition in the world. The name comes from the fact that the yacht “America” beat the British that year and was where Queen Victoria asked who was in second place and was answered with “your Majesty, there is no second”. Following this victory, there was 132 straight years of Americans winning the Cup over any competitors or challengers. Because of the ships nature of needing 64 crew members, they didn’t have many uses after the races and only three winning ships since the 1930’s are still intact today. At this time of the sport, much like tennis, it was very much a leisure activity and its participants were mainly rich men.

One of the most interesting notes regarding the Cup dealt with Sir Thomas Lipton. While he never won the Cup, he was the first to introduce the idea of sports sponsorship and promotion on the participating yachts and having his company’s name constantly showing up in the news. Nowadays, advertising can be seen all over the yachts as this sponsorship is key for contemporary funding.  

The Hall of Boats

Aerial View of the Hall of the Boats

The most interactive and interesting section of the Museum was the Hall of Boats. Here visitors are exposed to over 60 restored yachts, many of which look to be in pristine condition. Something that only added to the neat experience was being able to go and walk on a couple yachts seeing their interior first-hand. What I found most impressive about the yachts that we could go on, such as the “CLARA” and “TORCH”, was the almost seamless ability to keep the tradition of the hundred plus year old yachts with modern-day renovations that appeal to today’s visitor. Our last doing at the Museum was taking a group photo in front of the 1992 America’s Cup Contender “Defiant”, which was able to successfully defend the Cup and was an extraordinary yacht that looked to be in terrific shape.  

The Defiant Yacht 

Today, on the 6th day of our New England Immersion experience, we visited the historic venue of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.  The Hall of fame, which has 229 inducted members, was purchased out of bankruptcy by James van Allen, who had the great idea of actually making the tennis venue into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1880.  From Arthur Ashe to Stephi Graff, the Hall of Fame recognizes the greatest Men and women's tennis -players from around the globe.  What varies this Hall of fame from other hall of fames, such as the Naismith Hall of fame, is that it is still an active venue that holds tournaments and matches for tennis on grass, clay, and hard court, as well as Court tennis, which only has 11 courts left in the world.  Court tennis is a game that was played by royalty in the monasteries, so it has the look of a courtyard.  It is played by using a curved racket, and a home-made tennis ball that does not bounce. During the day we were visiting the Hall of Fame, there was a court tennis match featuring the #1 and #2 player in the world, who happens to be the tennis pro at the hall of fame.  Our tourguide made us all laugh when she assumed that we all knew about Jon McEnroe’s on court antics, and when she went on a seemingly endless rant about the Stop n’ Shop that was killing the view from the best seats at the center court.  Also, a group of us have decided to 

Following the International Tennis Hall of Fame, we took the short drive to Tickets Bar and Grill where we ate lunch and watched the Syracuse vs. Maryland quarterfinal matchup in the NCAA Lacrosse Tournament. Unfortunately, we didn’t come out with the victory but we did get to enjoy a good lunch in a very cool environment. Lastly, we finished off the day by driving down Bellevue Avenue to sightsee and take in some Newport mansions before returning to the hotel for the night.

Something that I certainly took away from both Herreshoff Museum and the International Tennis Hall of Fame was that both respect the traditions and history of the great sports that they represent but both have continued to evolve and progress with the times.