Sailing

A boating tradition of years past was revived yesterday as replicas of 19th-century tuckup boats sailed the Delaware. After the Civil War - and before baseball and cycling took hold - boats crowded the Delaware on weekends. Three replicas of the old-time craft were made by the Workshop on the Water at Penn's Landing through the Philadelphia Maritime Museum. Yesterday's sailing marked the closing of "1986: Racing on the River. "

The stealth bomber of sailboat racing came to Philadelphia yesterday. Perched high overhead on a barge moored at Penn's Landing, the 132-long- foot sloop New Zealand, which arrived here yesterday for a four-day exhibit, seemed as dramatic in design as the black B-2 bomber - the so-called flying wing - unveiled Tuesday at an Air Force base in California. The New Zealand, which made a highly publicized but unsuccessful challenge for the America's Cup in court and on the waters off San Diego, was as cloaked in secrecy as the B-2 during its construction.

One of the first lessons a would-be sailor learns is that good beach weather doesn't necessarily mean good sailing weather. The second lesson is how to capsize the boat. What Mike Porter, 12, and his brother Dave, 10, of Moorestown, are learning to do this summer at the Riverton Yacht Club is how to sail, but on a recent Thursday one of the prime ingredients for sailing on the Delaware was missing: wind. Although the fleet of dinghies and prams was in the water, their limp sails on a sultry summer morning told the story.

David Dunn of Merion and Glenn Cook of Fort Washington have been close friends for years, but they don't plan to let that slow them down today, when each is set to race for a chance to compete in the national Interscholastic Yacht Racing championships in Annapolis, Md., next month. The high school sophomores sail their own Lasers - single-handed, 14-foot racing boats - in all seasons and all kinds of weather. About a month ago, Dunn raced through a snowstorm on the Delaware River.

"Who would have thought three guys from Philly would end up winging around on a 12-meter for the America's Cup?" - Jon Wright All right, so the Kensington and Allegheny Yacht Club is not an official entry here, and most people back in Philly wouldn't know a keel from a spinnaker. But if Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes manages to win back the America's Cup, the Philadelphia area should get to show it off for at least a month. The reason is simple: Despite a less-than-national reputation for sailing, three members of Stars & Stripes' crew are from the Philadelphia area.

One thing you don't see much on the water is wheelchairs. No, that's not a joke. The pleasures of boating are fully available to the handicapped, though few people seem to realize it. This holiday season, you could put some joy into the life of a disabled person by spreading the word. The National Ocean Access Project is a two-year-old nonprofit organization dedicated to getting "challenged sailors" into all forms of boating activities, including racing regattas, cruises and day sailing.

on Tuesday morning at 10:40, Mayor Street was in his cabinet room, greeting representatives from the Italian sailing ships who were visiting Philadelphia as part of the OpSail 2000 exhibition. Where he wasn't was Grays Ferry. That's where Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore was delivering a stump speech at Trigen Energy Corp. Not that the speech would have been all that interesting. It lasted 90 minutes in brutal heat and humidity and was one of a series of speeches that the vice president has and will deliver in Philadelphia in his quest for the White House.

Landlubbers have a new chance to gain sea legs. The New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden offers two-hour sails on the Delaware aboard the topsail schooner Jolly II Rover. On Tuesdays and Saturdays, sailors learn to navigate, tie knots and observe river life.

Chauncey Gray Willis, 60, a former sailing champion and chief executive of one of the oldest inland barge lines on the East Coast, died of pneumonia Tuesday at Beaches Hospital in Jacksonville Beach, Fla. Mr. Willis, who lived in the Philadelphia area for more than 25 years, was chairman of the board of C.G. Willis Inc., a tugboat and barge company based in Paulsboro. Mr. Willis, who moved to the Philadelphia area in 1955, was well-known in the East Coast maritime industry.

Next weekend will offer a return to the bygone era of finely crafted wooden boats sailing gracefully along the Delaware River in front of beautiful, elaborate mansions. You don't have to be a Biddle or a Vanderbilt to be part of all this, either. Reproductions of Tuck Ups and Duckers, two of the most common sailboats on the Delaware a century ago, have been painstakingly hand-built by wooden-boat fanciers and by workshops at nautical museums in Philadelphia and various coastal towns in New England.

LONDON - A cruise carrying relatives of some of the more than 1,500 people who died aboard the Titanic nearly 100 years ago set sail from England on Sunday to retrace the ship's voyage, including a visit to the location where it sank. The Titanic Memorial Cruise, carrying the same number of passengers - not including crew - as the Titanic did, cast off from Southampton, where the doomed vessel left on its maiden voyage. The 12-night cruise will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the White Star liner.

Now that cruising is undergoing great post-Costa Concordia scrutiny, this new website shines like a beacon. Name: www.CruiseWise.com . What it does: Gives the independent traveler more power to book a cruise online. If you like what Hipmunk has done for flight search, you will love what CruiseWise will do for cruises. What's hot: It's all about the visual map. Select your destination, departure port, and dates, then watch as your search results appear on a map on your screen.

For the Chester boys' basketball team, it's all about championships. So it wasn't surprising that Darius Robinson showed little excitement after the Clippers turned back Wissahickon, 67-42, Tuesday night in a PIAA District 1 Class AAAA semifinal at Temple's Liacouras Center. "That was just another game on the schedule," the junior guard said. "We'll show what we're all about on Friday. " That's when top-seeded and unbeaten Chester (26-0) will square off with second-seeded Lower Merion (25-2)

Meet Shaquil Keels. The senior at Randolph Technical High was recently accepted by the Naval Academy Preparatory School, a yearlong program that offers a gateway to the U.S. Naval Academy. "Class of 2017," he notes proudly. Shaquil introduced himself to me in an e-mail last week. He wanted me to know about his Naval Academy news. "I just thought this would be something good to send to you, being a teen in Philadelphia and all the violence and bad news with teens going on I thought it would be great for you to know this," he wrote.

THE GOOD Ship Gingrich, launched 10 days ago in South Carolina but scuttled last night in Florida, faces some rough sailing ahead if history is a guide. A peek at the GOP calendar suggests a near future not good for Newt. Not that he's having a terrific present. Mitt Romney's double-digit win in the first large, diverse state of the primary season blew Newt out of the water. In a victory speech, Mitt ignored Newt and went straight for President Obama: "My leadership will end the Obama era and begin a new era of American prosperity.

Jeffrey S. Chiesa, a longtime colleague and confidante of Gov. Christie, eased through the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning on his way to being confirmed as New Jersey's top law enforcement officer. Chiesa, who was unanimously approved by the committee for confirmation as attorney general, is to face a full Senate vote Monday. Last month, Christie appointed Chiesa as acting attorney general to replace Paula Dow, who is headed to a judgeship. The senators at Thursday's hearing asked a few questions but mostly praised Chiesa as fair, intellectual, and apolitical.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - We stood on the sidewalk waiting for the Santa Parade on Queen Street and took in the crowd around us; it was the usual mix of families, old-timers, and teens traveling in packs. One thing was different, though, for a December activity: Almost everyone was wearing T-shirts and shorts. This was our first Christmas season Down Under, where the calendar is turning the page from spring to summer and the holidays take place beneath palm trees and sunny blue skies.

Charles Augustus Ernst Jr., 98, a company executive and World War II Navy veteran, died Wednesday, Dec. 14, at Waverly Heights, a retirement community in Gladwyne. Mr. Ernst grew up in Ridley Park and graduated from William Penn Charter School. He earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1935 and then was an analyst at Eastman Dillon & Co. in New York City. In 1938, he married Jacqueline Walker, whom he had met at a dance. During World War II, he served in the Navy aboard the destroyer Bristol.

Despite having the apparent support of Congress, Sunoco's plan to transport ethane from the Marcellus Shale through the Philadelphia area is far from a sure bet. Energy analysts say that the Mariner project, which would pipe ethane derived from shale gas to a Sunoco dock on the Delaware River and then by sea to the Gulf Coast, is an unlikely path for the commodity to find its way to market. Ethane is a valuable raw material for manufacturing plastics. "There are other ethane projects that don't have as many hurdles, that don't require an act of Congress to get going," said Kristen Holmquist, an analyst with Bentek Energy L.L.C.