The Public’s Radio — Watch Hill Cove: How Congress changed the law to benefit private interests

The view of Watch Hill Cove from Napatree Point Conservation Area in Westerly. The cove was once a federally authorized anchorage area, where U.S. law required access be open to all boaters on equal terms. Alex Nunes

Nov 2, 2022

By Alex Nunes — The Watch Hill Yacht Club controls more than half of the moorings in Westerly’s exclusive Watch Hill Cove, a flashpoint for public access to Rhode Island’s coast. A new investigation found local, state and federal officials worked to change U.S. law to help keep it that way.

If Watch Hill Cove is anything, it’s highly desirable. Boaters, kayakers, swimmers, fishermen, tourists, vacation homeowners, and year-round residents of Westerly all want to get to the sheltered inlet at the end of the Pawcatuck River, right by the open waters of Block Island Sound.

It’s where the Watch Hill Yacht Club has its imposing three-story clubhouse atop an array of pillars and luxury pleasure vessels and sailboats dot a postcard-worthy view from Napatree Point across the water to Watch Hill’s central village.

But this coveted spot now lacks federal regulations meant to protect public access, thanks to the work of government officials at the local, state, and federal levels that benefited private interests in Watch Hill.

When town officials learned in recent years that federal law required public access to boat moorings in the cove, they did not use that as an opportunity to expand access to the water. Instead, an investigation by The Public’s Radio found officials lobbied Rhode Island’s congressional delegation to change federal law and keep the moorings in use by private hands.

‘A high crime’

Watch Hill Cove looks the way it does today because of work done by the federal government decades ago.

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