Every island summer has its rhythms, but a few come loaded. This one carries the weight of a 350th anniversary, a village restaurant lineup mid-reshuffle, and a single Saturday in August where three of the island's signature events land inside the same square mile. If you live on Conanicut Island, the calendar is worth reading closely before June turns into September.
The August 8 collision
The date to circle is Saturday, August 8. It is not a coincidence that it feels crowded.
The 48th Fools' Rules Regatta will be held on Saturday, August 8, 2026 on the Town Beach at East Ferry in Jamestown, with the rain date the following day. The Jamestown Yacht Club fires the opening cannon at 9:00 a.m., and entrants are allowed two hours to construct a sailing craft on the beach, which must be made of non-marine items only. Races begin at 11:00. If you have watched a Volkswagen-hulled sloop try to reach a downwind mark, you already understand the appeal.
What is different this year is the theme. The Frank Newman Judges' Award will give special consideration to vessels that incorporate a historical theme celebrating the 350th year of Jamestown. Expect more powdered wigs than usual, and possibly a rowable Rochambeau.
The same weekend, the Jamestown Arts Center hosts its island-wide studio tour. Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is a two-day, island-wide art tour where participating artists invite visitors into their studios across Jamestown. Which means, in practical terms, that East Ferry will be spectator-thick by mid-morning while North Road and the west side of the island fill with cars looking for driveways. If you are hosting weekend guests, this is the weekend that will feel like the island is showing off. It also happens to be the weekend Fort Getty is at its most photographable and Narragansett Avenue at its least parkable.
A short list, in the order you would actually move through it:
- 9:00 a.m. — East Ferry, cannon and construction
- 10:00 a.m. — first studios open across the island
- 11:00 a.m. — Class 1 race begins on the town beach
- Afternoon — the north end of the island for the studios you did not get to
- Sunset — Beavertail
14 Narragansett Ave, finally, again
Anyone who has walked past the shuttered building at 14 Narragansett has been waiting to see what would take root there. The address has been through a lot. It was Jamestown Fish for most of the 2010s, then Jamestown residents Seth Goldenberg and Elizabeth Newton opened Curiosity & Co., a bookstore combined with a wine bar, which closed in December.
A trio of restaurateurs is looking to make it three-for-three. Tony Lanni, Jeff Merlino and Anthony Quetta are hoping to open their newest restaurant at 14 Narragansett Ave. in early September. The three longtime friends already own Merlino's Pizzeria in Cranston, which opened in 2023, and Crudo Oyster Bar and Coastal Italian Kitchen, which debuted in March 2024 in Smithfield. A Yelp exchange with the restaurant itself put a soft opening target on the first of December, though the trio plans to open the outside portion first, using a canopy and heaters to utilize that area while finishing the inside.
The upshot for residents is that the village center gets an oyster bar with a coastal Italian menu at a location the community has been circling for two years. The name behind it comes with a Rhode Island track record rather than a New York transplant story, which matters if you have watched summer-only concepts try and fail on this stretch.
Meanwhile, the other village anchor is on the move. SALTY Restaurant & Wine Bar serves Mediterranean-style dishes focused on local, seasonal ingredients inspired by the surroundings in Jamestown, and is changing locations in 2026. No published new address as of this writing. If Salty is on your regular Friday rotation, watch their calendar.
The rest of the village lineup holds. Our Table Jamestown continues under Executive Chefs Marc Alexander and Marla Romash, who bring their culinary experience to Our Table with Chef Marc on the savory and Chef Marla on the sweet. Beech at 13 Narragansett Ave. serves dinner from 4:30 p.m. across five dining rooms that swing from bar to twinkle-light. The compact fact of village dining is this: three of your four main options are within a block of each other, and one of them is a construction site until the fall.
Beavertail, on your own timetable
There is a specific window the lighthouse is open, and residents tend to forget it until a guest asks.
Beavertail is the third oldest lighthouse in the US. The ones that are older: Boston Light on Little Brewster Island built in 1716 and Brant Point Light on Nantucket Island built in 1746.
That is the museum association's own framing, and it is worth repeating because the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum, located at the entrance of Narragansett Bay in Jamestown, Rhode Island, occupies the site of the third-oldest lighthouse in North America. The current tower dates to 1856. The two lighthouses older than Beavertail are Boston Light on Little Brewster Island, built in 1716, and Brant Point Light on Nantucket Island, built in 1746.
The museum is seasonal. Plan around the window: the museum can take groups of 25 or less from April 1 through November 15, with a minimum of two weeks' notice required to arrange group tours. The state park itself is open year-round for the cliffs and the tide pools, but the tower climb and the artifacts, including the original Fresnel lens, are a summer proposition.
A practical resident note: the parking at Beavertail thins out remarkably by 6:30 p.m. on July evenings, and the last hour of light on the south end of the island is the reason people move here in the first place.
The Historical Society earns its year
The 350th anniversary is doing what anniversaries do, which is prompt organizations to stop planning and start opening exhibits. The Jamestown Historical Society's new summer exhibit is Behind the Lines: Life in Jamestown in 1776, and it pairs with a program schedule that has more range than the usual clam-and-cannon fare. A Stopping Stone commemorating Orman Remington's self-emancipation during the American Revolution has been installed at Watson Farm, 455 North Road. A separate program, A Peaceful Patch of Earth: Blacks in Jamestown, Rhode Island, in a Time of Racial Turbulence in America, 1850–1920, is running at the Senior Center on Conanicus Avenue.
If your usual read on Jamestown history is limited to the windmill and Fort Wetherill, this is the year to spend a weekend adjusting that.
When the season quiets
September is when the island reclaims itself. It is also when the calendar produces its longest single sporting event.
The Jamestown Rhode Race will be held on Saturday, September 26, 2026, a half-marathon on Conanicut Island with a start time of 7:00 a.m. The course starts in Fort Getty, winds past Mackerel Cove, heads straight across the island before the decline into Jamestown Village, follows the east side of the island, cuts through a beautiful neighborhood before coming up the west side of the island where runners will see windmills, estuaries and farms before finishing back at Fort Getty. The 2026 race has already reached its registration limit and is offering a waiting list only.
For residents, that has a couple of practical implications. Fort Getty parking is spoken for that morning. Southwest Avenue, Beavertail Road, and Hamilton Avenue will see rolling closures through mid-morning. If you have a Saturday plan to get off the island, leave before 6:30 a.m. or after 11:00.
A compact planning calendar
| Date | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Through Nov. 15 | Beavertail Lighthouse Museum, seasonal hours | Beavertail State Park |
| Aug. 8 | 48th Fools' Rules Regatta, 9 a.m. cannon | East Ferry Town Beach |
| Aug. 8–9 | Around the Island artist studio tour, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Studios across Jamestown |
| Early September | Crudo Oyster Bar & Coastal Italian Kitchen, targeted opening | 14 Narragansett Ave. |
| Sept. 26 | Jamestown Rhode Race half marathon, 7 a.m. | Fort Getty |
| 2026, TBD | SALTY Restaurant & Wine Bar relocation | New village address |
The pattern that emerges when you lay it out this way is a season with more actual events than the usual rotation of farmers markets and yacht club races. The 350th has pulled institutional energy forward, and the restaurant turnover in the village has done the rest.
For those who want to be somewhere quieter
A last thought for residents who mostly want to know when the island is theirs again. The stretch from mid-September through the second week of October is the most under-appreciated window on Conanicut. The regatta is over, the studios have packed up, the race is done, the Crudo canopy is either open or not, and Beavertail is still open on shortened hours. The light on the west side of the island in early October is what convinced most of us to stay through the winters.
The team at ONE Residential lives and works on the island year-round. If you would like a quiet conversation about the market, a neighbor's estate, or how to think about a second-home purchase before next summer, Request a Private Consultation.
