Publisher's Log

As the summer season gets going here in WindCheck land, it’s interesting to think about what good calls will be made this summer. I suppose bad calls should be counted too but we will save those for another time. So let’s muse. A very good call will be to read Coop’s article on hypothermia in this issue. The chart used resembles the one that used to be on the wall in the boathouse at the U.S. Merchant…

One of the great benefits of our region is the volume of waterborne activity. And despite hand wringing about most everything, this volume seems to be increasing. The recent CT Spring Boat Show, where you may have picked up this magazine, was larger than last year by 25%. The Ocean Race Newport Stopover, with boats expected to arrive May 10-12 and free admission at Ocean Park Live May 13- 21, is going to be a bigger event…

It is official. CT Spring Boat Show is on the horizon, boats are going into the water, baseball is happening and March Madness and the Frozen Four will soon be in the rearview mirror. At the time of this writing, WindCheck country was well represented, with UConn Men in the Final Four of hoops while the UConn Women sadly were eliminated (wait till next year!). Boston University AND Quinnipiac are both in the Frozen Four in hockey….

For most sailors in the Northeast, March really is when things get going in our sport. Sure, some lucky ones have snuck down to Florida or the Caribbean for a week, an enviable break. But for me, sneaking down to the boat to examine the bottom and muse on when the cover can come off gets the mind working. End-of-year frostbite regattas, spring breaks, and summer season planning all come to the fore, requiring executive function to…

Support your local race committee! This photo, taken the same day as this month’s cover shot, shows a Dyer Dhow start at the Larry Goodwin Trophy Regatta at Norwalk Yacht Club in Norwalk, Connecticut.  Photographer Rick Bannerot reports a temperature of 20°F with 20-knot gusts. That’s Principal Race Officer Ed Cesare shivering atop the NYC Frostbite Shack.   © Rick Bannerot/OntheFlyPhoto.net     Welcome to the first issue of 2023! And since it’s winter time and other than a…

I just got home from the boat yard. It’s early November and one of those sixty to seventy-degree days that make you wish you had not pulled the boat just yet. These sentiments are not shared by the team at the yard, of course. Pulling boats while it is sleeting is not much fun, and you should not “be that guy.” But I must say, we are lucky enough to have a boat that really looks sweet…

We don’t always cover sailing events after they have happened. We tend to prefer to provide previews, to help organizers boost the number of boats on the line. There are many outlets that report on the results, and sometimes we do too if there is enough “color” that we think is important to you. But there is one event we cover every year with great pleasure. While much is being said about creating opportunities for women in…

I am sailing with a friend in the Shields Nationals (hosted by Ida Lewis Yacht Club and Shields Fleet 9 in Newport, Rhode Island September 6 – 10); thus the lovely cover shot. It is being sailed the first full week in September in Newport. It is not particularly convenient for my family. It is the first week of school for our 9th grader. Fall baseball practices will undoubtedly be called while I am away, and other…

We are very proud of our efforts to promote the activities of women in our sport. We are coming up on a year and half of our regular feature, Women on the Water. Not that WindCheck needed to really increase our coverage, but Coop thought it would be cool to lock in a monthly bio of female sailors in the WindCheck area, from New Jersey to New Bedford. Our first victim was Martha Parker which of course…

I confess that on the first truly summer-like weekend of 2022, a couple of weeks ago from when you are reading this, I found myself totally uninspired to write. I was very much more inspired to be on the water, or playing tennis or golf with my son, or eating and drinking outside or playing Canadian doubles with the now permanent badminton set in the backyard. Even cleaning the disaster of a garage ranked much higher than…