News

Salem has entry in a great ocean race

By Tom Dalton and Chris Cassidy
STAFF WRITER
Published: July 3, 2009

SALEM — The intrepid Atkins boys are heading to sea this weekend.

Fred and George Atkins, the yacht yard owner and his lawyer brother, leave Sunday in one of the area's great annual sailing adventures: the Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race.

They will sail as part of a crew of seven aboard "Wester Till," Fred's 48-foot wooden yawl that was built in 1946 in Germany.

This is the same crew that goes to Bermuda every year in another sailing adventure.

There are more than 100 boats in the Halifax race, all set to depart Sunday from Marblehead on a 360-mile ocean jaunt.

They are going rain or shine.

As we said, intrepid.

Palmer party

There was a lot of crazy stuff happening out on the water last weekend, and it had nothing to do with the weather. It was the Palmer Cove Yacht Club just having fun.

The Boating Blast weekend, part of ongoing 75th anniversary festivities, included a blindfolded canoe race, an officers' dunk tank and a big boat parade led by Commodore Rich Morneau's "Duke of Oil" followed by event chairman Tom Tetrault on "Facet."

The prize for most outrageous boat went to John Devine's "Rascal," a racing sailboat converted into a pirate ship with a crew in pirate garb.

Gary Moore's "Caroline" was named "tackiest" boat after it was decorated with foul-weather raincoats. But with this weather, who can blame him?

The award for classic decorations went to Norm LeBlanc's "Maverick," which had nautical flags and bunting, along with banners to commemorate his grandfather, one of the club's founders back in 1934.

Rain, rain...

Stop complaining about all the rain. It could be worse.

In fact, it was a lot worse a few years ago, according to Arthur Francis, Salem's favorite weatherman. In June 1998, Francis measured 13 inches of rain at his backyard weather station.

That's about three times as much as this June.

Boy on a mission

An incredible event took place last Sunday at the Salem Mission.

Matthew Rich, a 16-year-old from Topsfield, came to the homeless shelter with a dozen others to install nine bunk beds.

Actually, "install" is the wrong word. Matthew designed the beds, purchased the materials and built them for his Eagle Scout project for Troop 81 in Topsfield. Over the past six months, he led a group of adults and boys in a project that took 400 hours.

Not bad for a young man who just finished 10th grade.

"I was blown away," said Jill Brown, a day-shift supervisor at the Mission. "He's just an incredible kid."

These are the first bunk beds for the 34-bed shelter and create a lot more open space.

Matthew chose the Salem Mission because Troop 81 frequently serves dinner there.

New voter

Ward 7 City Councilor Joe O'Keefe and his wife, Camille, welcomed their second great-grandson into the family: Decionis Antonio Mataragas, who is called Damon, was born June 15 at Salem Hospital.

Bye Bye, Bernie

This was the week that scam artist Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison.

This was also the week that Robert Lappin, whose Salem-based charitable foundation was wiped out by Madoff, announced that he will be paying back all of the 401(k) funds lost by his employees at the Lappin Foundation and at Shetland Park, the office park he owns on the waterfront.

Who will manage the funds this time?

"Fidelity will be the trustee of the 401(k) plan," he said.

Green Day

Tuesday was a busy day for environmentalists.

A group called Environmental Massachusetts demonstrated in front of Salem Harbor Station to trumpet a new report, "The High Cost of Fossil Fuels: Why American Can't Afford to Depend on Dirty Energy."

That night, North Shore clean energy activists gathered at The Lyceum restaurant to view a new documentary about the Salem power plant. The video, commissioned by "A Vision For Salem," a local group opposed to the plant, will be posted on YouTube.

Final days

The Masonic Building on Washington Street just lost one of its longtime tenants.

The New England Newspaper Association, a trade group, moved out after more than a quarter-century.

The building is losing not just NENA but the organization's executive director for all of its 28 years. At 84, Morley Piper is a legend in the industry and a story in himself.

Among many accomplishments, he is a World War II veteran who landed on Normandy beach on D-Day.