It has taken a long time to get here, or so it seems. In just one year we’ve gone from making big plans to lockdown, to grumpy adaptation. But along the way, parts of our sport flourished. Go figure.
Of course our predecessors would scoff at the idea of grumbling over just one year of hardship. Perhaps it’s the era of non-stop cacophony, the loudness of the “news,” generating forced opinions and divisiveness that made it seem longer. So to kick off 2021 at WindCheck, to start our journey out of the darkness as it were, we are particularly pleased and honored to be invited to take part in a yearlong celebration of historic maritime accomplishments.
WindCheck Magazine is proud to be named Official Media Partner for the Herreshoff Marine Museum’s Golden Jubilee, the 50th Anniversary of its founding. The Herreshoff Jubilee encompasses a yearlong calendar of fresh content and compelling events (both virtual and in-person, COVID-permitting). Throughout 2021, WindCheck will feature articles on iconic Herreshoff fleets and their owners as important stewards of Herreshoff boats, both originals and replicas. This month, we focus on a design that has to be counted as one of the top three in popularity of all of Captain Nat’s creations, the H 12. It is so appropriate to start this year with a back-to-basics celebration; the beauty, simplicity and pleasure of this iconic twelve and half-foot (LWL) boat.
Another celebration we enjoy covering in this issue is also unique to our neck of the woods. This past fall, the undergrads at Yale Corinthian Yacht Club hosted a Zoom version of the venerable Snow & Satisfaction Regatta. First run just five years after the opening of the Herreshoff Marine Museum, it was conceived as a way to convene the best of the best from America’s college dinghy racing scene, which at the time were largely from New England. Then they added luminaries who may or may not have come from that cradle. The tradition has continued and expanded, just as college sailing has. It has been an enormously enduring event with countless All -Americans, Olympians, ocean racers, coaches, successful yacht designers and builders and of course the friends who put up with them, passing through.
It’s worth having a look at the first entry list from 1976. Many of these dinosaurs are still roaming New England and can be seen in the wild. Some have moved to exotic locales. And yes, many of the last names have changed. In no particular order:
Steve Taylor, Sally Lindsay, Steve Benjamin, Catherine Stoere, Liz Hillyer, Cara Worthington, Gary Jobson, Janice Jobson, Angelica Braestrup, Susan Daly, Nell Taylor, Laurie Gabriel, Kathy Contildes, Cindy Paladino, Jennifer Berk, Andrea Isbrandston, Kathy Kelley, Karen Horning, Craig Gilbert, Andy Langford, Dave Perry, Ken Legler, Neal Fowler, Carl Fast, Gary Knapp, Steve Cucchiaro, Paul Cucchiaro, Rusty Langdon, Bill Critch, Skip Whyte, Peter Isler, Dave Penfield, Sam Johnson, Ed Adams, Marc Siegal, Linda Penfield, Konrad Marchaj, Stan Honey, Roger Martin.
So please enjoy this first of 2021 edition as we explore both the revered and the newly adapted. It seems inevitable that it will be a great year!
See you on the water.
Publisher
Benjamin V. Cesare
ben@windcheckmagazine.com
