castine yacht club

Castine Golf Club

Golf | tennis | yacht.

The Castine Golf Club welcomes you to enjoy the salt water and sea air in one of oldest communities in North America.

The Castine Golf Club welcomes you to enjoy the salt water and sea air in one of oldest communities in North America. Perched at the mouth of Penobscot Bay, the Club offers members and visitors access to golf, tennis, and yachting with programs tailored for youth and adults.

A challenging and beautifully maintained 9-hole par 35 course designed by Willie Park Jr. in 1921.

Boasting a challenging and beautifully maintained 9-hole par 35 course designed by Willie Park Jr. in 1921, the Castine Golf Course offers stunning views of Castine Harbor and Blue Hill.

Featuring four Har-tru tennis courts and youth and adult lessons daily, the Castine tennis program is appropriate for all ages and skill levels.

The Castine Yacht Club offers members and their guests a broad range of activities.

The Castine Yacht Club offers members and their guests a broad range of activities on the water with access to the largest bay in Maine. A summer-long junior and adult sailing program is open to all levels of sailing ability. Five moorings are available for visiting yachts with access to showers.

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Castine Yacht Club

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Rates / Policies

Rates Guest moorings (#1-5) request $30 per night. Overnight tie up (between 1700 to 0900) at the float is $40 for yachts 30ft or less and plus $1 for each foot over 30ft. Showers are $5 per person. Trash disposal is $3 per bag. There is a sign in sheet requested for yacht information and staff to help with any questions.

Policies This is a yacht club and does not have slips. Please see above rates with mooring and float tie up information.

Additional Information

• Latitude:  44.391
• Longitude:  -68.79435

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Local resident David Bicks at The Yacht Club, Castine, Maine

Photographer: Peter Frank Edwards

Castine by Pentagoet

David Bicks under the burgees strung inside the Castine Yacht Club.

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• 63 Water Street,  Castine,  ME 04421
• 207-326-9231
• http://castineyachtclub.org

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Castine Classic Yacht Race

1 august 2024, about the race.

Gleam and Jax lead Castine Classic Yacht Race

The fleet in the 25th annual Castine Classic yacht race struggled with a pea soup fog in the morning and light, dying wind conditions in the afternoon. None of the yachts in the two smaller classes were able to finish the race within the six hour time limit. Black skies threatened thunderstorms, resulting in a few light showers. Some sun and fickle light wind dying off almost completely towards the end. Only eight yachts finished out of a fleet of 23.

Gleam , a 68’ 12-meter design built in 1937 and sailed by Dennis Gunderson, led Classic A, besting Black Watch , last year’s winner, by less than two minutes on corrected time. Black Watch is a 68’ Sparkman and Stephens yawl built in 1938, skippered by Kyle Dufur. Third place was taken by Siren , a 45’ Sparkman and Stephens New York 32 sloop built in 1936 and skippered by Peter Cassidy.

In the Spirit of Tradition class, the three top boats were all built by Brooklin Boatyard. Jax , a Botin 43’ sloop built in 2023, and skippered by Oivind Lorentzen, took first place honors. Second was Tink , an Eggemoggin 47 built in 2022, skippered by Jack LeFort. Third was Outlier , a Botin 55 built in 2019, skippered by Harvey Jones.

Gleam , the overall winner in the classic classes, was awarded the Ames Cup, given in memory of the Ames family which hailed from Castine. Their two sons were lost off the Grand Banks in an unsuccessful effort to save their father, who was washed overboard in the 1935 Newport to Bergen, Norway, race.

This year’s race was preceded by a symposium on Maine’s extraordinary boatbuilding activities now in progress. It featured representatives from Artisan Boatworks, Brooklin Boatyard, Front Street Shipyard, John’s Bay Boat Company, Lyman Morse and Rockport Marine. A large audience at the Maine Maritime Academy auditorium was treated to an exposition of a tremendous variety of boatbuilding projects and techniques ranging from the traditional to ultra high tech.

Final results for 2024

• View race results online
• Download race results as PDF

Castine Classic 2024 Photos

(The below pictures are by noted maritime photographer Kathy Mansfield and may by used with appropriate credit and copyright.)

The Classic C race start

Spirit of Tradition start, Jax in foreground

Black Watch chasing Gleam to finish line

Gleam , winner of Ames Cup and Siren

Fickle weather

Jax , winner of Spirit of Tradition

What Octane Is Marine Gas? (Marine Gas vs Premium Gas)

Marine gas usually has an octane level of 89 to 90 and is ethanol free, which is more than enough octane to power a boat. Using the right marine fuel in your boat’s engine, whether that be inboard, outboard, or sterndrive makes sure that your boat will perform well all season.

If you have any queries regarding the oil and fuel requirements for your boat’s engine, the owner’s manual should be your first port of call. It’s important to make sure you adhere to the fuel and oil specifications in the manual.

Not only to keep your boat running smoothly, but also so you’re in compliance with the warranty requirements.

But is marine gas better than premium gas? What is the difference between them, and what’s the best choice for your boat? We answer those questions below, as well as tell you all you need to know about ethanol and fuel stabilizers. 

What Is Premium Gas?

The difference between premium gas and regular gas is that premium gas has a higher octane rating. Octane is a chemical component found in petroleum, and how much octane a fuel has will determine how effective it will be in higher compression engines. 

Lower octane fuels are available, but can cause ‘knocking’ when added to your boat or car. ‘Knocking’ is when the combination of fuel and air in the engine’s cylinder head doesn’t burn correctly. This causes the engine to make a rough, pinging noise when it’s running.

At worst, lower octane fuel can damage your engine completely. 

What Is Marine Gas?

It may surprise you that boats actually use the same gas as cars do! However, the big difference is how much you’ll pay for gas. The gas you’ll find at a gas station costs a lot less than the gas you’ll find at the marina because of supply and demand.

You can also use the same diesel you’d put in your car in your boat with a diesel engine too. 

But bigger boats like ships will use different fuels depending on the engine design and type. These could be HFO (Heavy Fuel Oil), IFO (Intermediate Fuel Oil), MDO (Marine Diesel Oil), or MGO (Marine Gas Oil).

These fuels are the heaviest commercial fuels you can obtain from crude oil, meaning they’re heavier than gasoline and naphtha. 

You can save a couple of cents if you fill up your small boat at a gas station instead of the marina, especially if you use a trailer to take your small boat to the marina. 

What Kind Of Gas Should You Use In Your Boat?

Personal boats: As we have mentioned above, smaller, personal boats use the same gasoline as your car. You can use 87 octane unleaded gas, 89 octane mid-grade gas, or 93 octane premium gas or diesel.

The most important thing to remember though is that the gasoline shouldn’t have any ethanol in it (we’ll discuss that more below).

Larger boats: Larger boats have more specific fuel types and have a totally different classification to smaller, personal boats, which we have mentioned above. Marine Gas Oil (MGO) is a combination of light cycle gas oil and aromatics, and sometimes contains waste products such as used motor oil.

Meanwhile, Marine Diesel Oil (MDO) is a type of diesel that is made of heavy fuel oil. This is a totally different type of diesel to the type you would use to power your car.

Is Ethanol Safe To Use To Fuel Your Boat?

There is some confusion about ethanol and whether it is safe to power your boat with it. Ethanol is tempting because it’s often cheaper than other types of fuel, but it’s recommended to not use ethanol if you can.

Ethanol can lead to a wide range of issues with your boat’s engine such as carbon deposits, moisture, and phase separation. 

However, if you have to use ethanol-based gasoline, try to go for E10. If you’re unsure, you can take a look at the pump in the marina to confirm that you’re filling up your boat with ethanol-free gasoline, especially because some states like Missouri are not legally required to label their gas as containing ethanol. 

What Are Fuel Stabilizers?

Fuel additives (or stabilizers) don’t have the best reputation, and are often compared to snake oil. But what is a fuel stabilizer?

You may have seen gasoline that is very dark, or you may have opened a gas can and noticed a strange smell. You may have even seen gasoline that just looks like varnish. All of these are the result of a chemical reaction that destabilized the fuel. Heat, light, and oxygen can all negatively affect your fuel. 

Still, fuel stabilizer can’t fix gasoline once the chemical reaction has happened. But what it can do is prevent it from being destabilized in the first place, especially when it’s left to float for an extended period of time.

What Are The Advantages Of Using Gas To Fuel Your Boat?

• Gas is often less expensive than diesel.
• Gas produces less smoke than other fuels such as diesel.
• Combining ethanol like E10 with gasoline decreases smoke pollution.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Using Gas To Fuel Your Boat?

• Keeping ethanol gas in the tank for an extended period of time can corrode the fuel lines and even the tank itself. 
• It can be dangerous, as exhaust gases from gas engines contain carbon monoxide. 
• E15 ethanol combined with gasoline causes more pollution. 
• Gasoline motors do not produce the torque needed to run a bigger boat.

What Are The Advantages Of Using Fuel Oil In Big Ships?

• Fuel oil is sometimes cheaper than gasoline.
• Fuel oil produces 6.3 MMBTU/Gallon energy per gallon, while gasoline only produces 5.25 MMBTU/Gallon per gallon.
• As gasoline can be a fire hazard, fuel oil is safer to store than gasoline.
• Big ship engines turn at a significantly lower RPM and are not built to run on gasoline.
• Fuel oil is thick and heavy, which not only powers the ship better, but it’s also more compact and leaves more room for cargo.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Using Fuel Oil In Big Ships?

• Big ship engines are more expensive to get repaired, and fuel oil is more expensive to replace.
• The thickness of the fuel makes it messier.
• While fuel oil is less of a fire hazard than regular gasoline it does have its dangers. Bunker fuel is a low quality fuel that can cause particular harm to humans, such as serious illness or even death.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, boats, and smaller boats in particular, are powered by the same gasoline as cars, but it costs you a lot more to refuel at a marina than it would at a gas station. This is due to the supply and demand at the marina, which causes the marina to increase its prices.

While you can also use the same diesel to power your diesel engine boat as you would your car, gasoline is better for a smaller boat as it’s powerful while producing fewer emissions than other types of fuel.

However, this is not the case for bigger boats and ships, as they use different fuels and their own specific kinds of gas and diesel such as IFO, HFO, MGO, and MDO. These are heavier commercial fuels when compared to gas, and are obtained from crude oil.

Ships use fuel oils such as HFO and IFO because it is safer to use this type of fuel than the gas you’d use to fill up your car or smaller boats. All marine fuels, except for LNG, are legally required to have a flash point greater than 60C.

Petrol vapor is thicker than air, and any leaks would form in the lower parts of the ship. One spark could cause the engine room and the boat to explode.

But fueling your boat isn’t just about selecting the cheapest fuel and hoping for the best, you have to consider what the optimal fuel for your engine would be and what your engine requires.

You should always check your owner’s manual for the exact oil specification, but most manufacturers will require you to power boats with a four-stroke engine with oil that meets the FC-W certification.

You can check whether oil has this certification by looking for an FC-W symbol on the label. Oil that is FC-W certified protects from rust, which engine oils for cars cannot. It also imposes an increased minimum viscosity level.

This means that FC-W oil will not thin out like automotive oil with a similar viscosity when exposed to the same temperatures and RPM conditions. Meanwhile, Two-stroke outboards require oil that meets the TC-W standard.

So while you can use the same gasoline you would use to fuel your car to also fuel your boat, you should always consult with your owner’s manual in order to make sure you’re using a fuel that won’t damage your boat over time.

Premium oil isn’t better than marine gas either, as it simply just has a higher octane level.

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