Publisher's Log

  One of the fun things about working on and reading a periodical that covers a region, as opposed to an entire country or indeed the world, is that when something cool happens “next door” and you had not heard about it that day, it’s almost more fun! WindCheck fills this role in our region. We like to say that the shoreline and waters from Manhattan to New Bedford is our region. And indeed, that is basically…

  White Sands Beach, Old Lyme, Connecticut © Save the Sound   I have mentioned this before. I like to beach. I remember as a junior sailing kid, we used to call the less proficient kids, or adults for that matter, “beachers.” And of course, ugly boats were called “beacher craft.” “Can you believe that beacher tacked on us? So un-cool!” Or, “Check out that beacher craft in the channel…thing is soooo ugly!” I suppose it was…

Well April was busy, just like we said it would be. CT Spring Boat Show was a blast despite a typical spring mix of sun, rain, breeze on and decent 60s temps. The Annapolis Spring Sailboat Show had much of the same. But with that all out of the way, it’s time to get serious about the prep-and-go time of year! This is a Marion Bermuda Race year as well as Storm Trysail Club Block Island Race…

Buckle up, because here…we…go! Our Godmother, Mary Ewenson, heads up the Annapolis Boat Shows and their Spring Sailboat Show is April 25-27. As it often does, that event lands right on top of our CT Spring Boat Show, which is the first in-water show of the year in New England. Decisions, decisions. Well, you could go down on the Thursday night, check out the Annapolis Show on Friday with their forty-plus sailboats and make it back in…

© Sharon Green / ultimatesailing.com Craig Leweck, Editor of Scuttlebutt, put out a great opinion piece in the February 11th issue, “Losing Site of the Magic Formula.” The topic always hits me like banging my funny bone. It stings like hell and has no obvious cure! The issue is should classes, in this case the J/70, outlaw techniques that can really only be mastered by professional sailors. If classes can figure out a solution, they would maintain,…

© Rick Bannerot We have a long room in our house, the long side of which faces south. We try not to heat that room in the winter. The bummer is that my office is in this room. The other bummer is that there is a two-and-a-half-story house about 30 yards to the south. But the other day, fully a month past the solstice, the sun heated the room up to 68! Unassisted! Alas, it only lasted…

Amazing? Sure. The professionalism of the teams, the astounding level of thought, effort and yes, the money spent, that was put into the boats and everything surrounding them, from the branding to the crew equipment to the support craft, to the base camps were truly impressive. The modern era, post-12 Metre, has seen the professionalism curve go continuously upward. But this edition, with its add-ons like a Women’s and Junior America’s Cup, sailed in one-design foiling monohulls,…

I did two back-to-back one-design keelboat events in September. The first was the Sonar World Championship at Noroton Yacht Club in Darien, CT and the second was the 60th Shields Nationals at Larchmont Yacht Club in Larchmont, NY. There were definitely some pros and cons observed regarding the health of the sport. Team Racing seems to rule. At both clubs, these events were obviously for the select few who still enjoy longer course racing where speed and…

I cannot help myself. I am writing yet another ode to weather in New England. If you ask some folks, they say it has been a great summer…June was fantastic. If you ask others, this summer has been hot, sticky and wet! Just look at record-setting July and the first week of August. These opinions vary greatly depending on where you live. If you are near the water, the big sea breezes in “The Bays” have been…

So, I guess the whole purpose of WindCheck is to celebrate and enjoy activities on the water in words and pictures. And a big part of that of course is that we celebrate the traditional skills, confidence and sense of accomplishment we get from being proficient at our sport. And while we sing ad nauseum about how great it is for kids, I am going to do it again. The other day, I was running some magazines…