Author: Chris Szepessy

By Gail M. Martin Editor’s note: You’ll find the first part of Gail’s article at windcheckmagazine.com/article/the-allure-of-the-candy-class/     The 13 ½-foot Candy class sailboats, first introduced in 1922, were popular sailing and racing boats for Narragansett Bay sailors until the 1970s. Designed by T. Elton Wood in 1921, the much-loved Marconi-rigged, easy-to-sail catboats’ popularity grew rapidly through the 1920s and so did their numbers. By 1930, there were twenty boats in the fleet, and over the next…

A lot is happening in Stonington to make it an even more attractive destination for boaters. By Michael M. Wiseman and Helen A. Garten Stonington, Connecticut has long been a favorite destination for cruisers. It is a beautiful and historic harbor, which proudly hosts Connecticut’s last commercial fishing fleet. The annual blessing of the fishing fleet is one of the highlights of the year in Stonington. Located at the eastern end of Long Island Sound and beginning…

  Thomas A. Toolin (1914 -1991) was a champion swimmer (Paramount Swimming Club 1931 – ‘39) as well as one-design sailor (1957 onwards). A cabinetmaker by trade, his first boat was an Indian class sailboat that needed rebuilding. He participated in NBYA regattas with that first boat, Hobomoco, and won a Class T championship. Later he went on to win Narragansett Bay Indian class championships with co-owner Charlie La Roue in Matoka. He was also chairman of…

By Dave Hemenway One of the goals of the Cape Dory Sailboat Owners Association (CDSOA) and the new Typhoon Class Association (TCA) is a program we are calling SOS – Save Our Sailboats. Our goal is to rescue as many neglected, often abandoned, boats and find new owners who are willing to restore them into the fine vessels they were and can be again. In the first six months of the program, we saved seven Typhoons and…

A true story of love, obsession, and shipwreck By Sophie Elmhirst Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC In the late 1960s, a young British middle-class married couple named Maralyn and Maurice were growing restless. She was charismatic and ambitious and he awkward and obsessive, though both shared a fear of wasting their lives as well as a dream of escaping from it all. After quitting their jobs, selling their house and Vauxhall Cresta and…

We tend to see report cards as documents focused only on the past. But the 2025 Long Island Sound Beach Report, released by Save the Sound just before Memorial Day Weekend, is as much about the future. Yes, the biennial Beach Report presents water quality grades from recent swimming seasons—2022 through 2024, in this case. It evaluates how water samples collected at roughly 200 public and private beaches around the Sound performed against state safe swimming standards…

By Buttons Padin This year’s Platinum Anniversary edition of Larchmont Yacht Club’s venerable Edlu Race, held Saturday, May 10, was a quick one. A predominantly northerly breeze let the fleet of fifty-one boats sail largely rhumbline courses to and from the single turning mark off Long Island’s Eaton’s Neck, 16 miles to the east. As they say, it was a “sporty” start to the race with winds in the high teens. Many boats started with reefed mainsails…

The 4th Annual CT Sea Music Festival will drop anchor in historic downtown Essex, CT the weekend of June 6-9. This family-friendly weekend includes a Symposium on the Music of the Sea, free daytime workshops and concerts featuring local, regional, and international maritime performers, a family stage, demonstrations of sailor skills, sails on the Connecticut River, a Sunday morning revival-style hymn sing, and late-night Chantey Sings in the Griswold Inn and the Essex Corinthian Yacht Club. Evening concerts…

Miller’s Launch opens its second TowBoatUS on-water towing port on Staten Island, helping recreational boaters get safely home 24/7 Miller’s Launch, a commercial marine service provider on Staten Island’s northeastern Stapleton waterfront has opened its second on-water towing and assistance port for recreational boaters, TowBoatUS Staten Island. Located directly on Upper New York Bay and within sight of the Statue of Liberty, lower Manhattan and Verrazzano Bridge, it’s the third TowBoatUS port in New York’s Five Burroughs,…

TEMO, the French manufacturer of ‘the lightest outboard motor in the world’, has released the TEMO 1000 in North America. The new electric outboard is a follow up to the very popular TEMO 450 released in 2018. “The innovative tubular design of the 450 is ideal for smaller vessels,” says TEMO co-founder and CEO Alexandre Seux. “The 1000 offers more power for larger boats and needs more flexibility in propeller positioning. That’s why we went for a…