Thank you for visiting Project Cheers, a website dedicated to the book of the same title.
You will find on this site, the photos from the book in better resolution than is possible in a paperback, links to videos and sites related to the book subject matter, and updated information about The Boat, The Team that created her, and The Event that continues to make history.
The new release of the book Project Cheers is now available on AMAZON.
Explore! ..and let us know what you think!
Cheers is a 40ft Proa designed by Dick Newick specifically as an entrant in the 1968 OSTAR, a single handed transatlantic race. Cheers was given an award by the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, Newport Rhode Island, for being the first U.S. yacht to finish a Transatlantic Single Handed Race and the Amateur Yacht Research Society honored the team with a special award for research.
Where is Cheers today? Here is one video from Victor Laurent.
The book, Project Cheers, details the concept, construction,
testing, and subsequent voyages from 1967 to 1968. There are three story tellers, three parts of the book; Jim Morris, Dick Newick, and Tom Follett, each detailing their specific points of responsibility and experiences during the project.
more to come…
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The core team of Project Cheers in 1968, was Jim Morris, Dick Newick, and Tom Follett. The book adds details on the contributions of many others. 
Jim Morris, Dick Newick, Tom Follet as photographed in 1968 by Fritz Henle in St. Croix, USVI.
About Jim Morris: A Postscript authored by Halsted Morris, one of Jim and Tootie’s two children can be seen HERE:
About Dick Newick
Additional commentary/anecdotal contributions from friends and family will eventually be added to this website. There is presently a good page created by Joseph Oster, that is full of links and info on Dick Newick’s work. You can link to ‘dicknewickboats’ here.
About Tom Follett
More on the team soon…
It was called then, the Observer’s Single-handed Trans Atlantic Race, or OSTAR of 1968; This was the event and year that Cheers was designed and built for and raced in. For sailors and spectators alike, this event, under various names, remains an exciting event. This page contains related links and if you find more, please let me know!
Official OSTAR website of the Royal Western Yacht Club – The U.K. side of the race, @020 is the 60th anniversary of the race and it starts in MAY! Follow the OSTAR and the TWOSTAR also on Facebook.
Newport Yacht Club – the U.S. side of the race.
WIKIPEDIA overview of individual OSTAR races
TRANSAT– the latest website of the race, once called the OSTAR
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by three men dedicated to an idea which many thought crazy. That idea was a fantastically fast twin hulled craft called Cheers, designed specifically by Dick Newick to win the Single Handed Transatlantic Race in 1968. In the hands of Tom Follett, one of the most capable (and modest) small boat sailors in the world, who endured great discomfort and danger, she put up an astounding performance in the race, sometimes reaching quite hair raising speeds, to finish a very close third. The fact that she did not win can only be attributed to bad luck. —quote from the original book jacket of “Project Cheers”, first published in 1969.
Read a book review of Project Cheers HERE
Buy a soft cover copy of the new edition of Project Cheers, by Jim Morris, Dick Newick, and Tom Follett. Available NOW. You can also pick up a copy at the NW Maritime Center Chandlery in Port Townsend, and get one while visiting Small Craft Advisor Magazine, or Port Townsend Watercraft.
A hard cover copy of the new edition of Project Cheers, by Jim Morris, Dick Newick, and Tom Follett is being considered if there is adequate interest. You can contact ptwatercraft @ gmail.com to express interest. (no spaces in email address)
Project Cheers 