Author: Chris Szepessy

As Program Director with a non-profit organization in Warren, Rhode Island called Eating with the Ecosystem, Kate Masury loves her work. “I grew up in Kittery Point, Maine and spent a lot of time in the summer on an island off the coast near Damariscotta,” says Kate, who lives in Newport. “I’ve been interested in the ocean my whole life. My favorite food from the time I was a toddler has always been lobster, and I spent…

By Ronnie Ross On patrol are Gary Silberberg – the leader in Singles Under Sail’s search for balloons – and Teresa Nilla.   © singlesundersail.org Singles Under Sail, an active group of sailors and folks who love Long Island Sound, has been busy fishing. No, not for fish, but for balloons!!! Every time one of our boats is out sailing, we look for and scoop up balloons – the number we find is astounding! Last Saturday, five people…

“There’s something very therapeutic about being our on the ocean with the salt water running through your hair and your veins,” observed U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1C Marc Harrell of Niantic, Connecticut. “My whole idea is to get guys and gals who served our country out there on the water and let them experience that through hard work, and through understanding how shellfish grow and how kelp is developed, I can be a part of their…

Our friends at 11th Hour Racing, a Newport, RI-based organization that establishes strategic partnerships within the sailing and maritime communities to promote collaborative, systemic change benefitting the health of our ocean, have announced three new grantees within its Ambassador Program. The 11th Hour Racing Ambassador Program comprises a community of marine industry professionals committed to ocean health, and representing many sections of the sport of sailing.   The East Bay Sailing Foundation was chosen by Ambassador John Mollicone, the…

A Doomed Ship, a Violent Storm, and New England’s Worst Maritime Disaster By J. North Conway Published by Lyons Press, an imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 201 pages hardcover $26.95 This reviewer must confess to never having heard about the storm that became known as “The Portland Gale,” nor the story of “New England’s Titanic,” the passenger steamer Portland. A perfect storm formed off the coast of New England in November 1898. When…

By Christian E. Hoffman MIDN USN, Varsity Offshore Sailing Team Captain Being the skipper of a service academy racing yacht, particularly on the United States Naval Academy Varsity Offshore Sailing Team (VOST), provides both challenges and hardships, but results in incredible reward. Each summer VOST crews depart from Annapolis, MD in vessels ranging from a Reichel/Pugh 66 to Navy 44s. Whether you are competing in an offshore distance race from Marion to Bermuda or buoy racing in…

By Nick Bowen The Twenty Hundred Club is a vibrant and growing sailboat racing club on Narragansett Bay that has a wide range of races including island circumnavigations, destination races and pure adventure races (spoiler alert – “Twenty Hundred [hours]” refers to the starting time of the club’s first race in 1946). The club is experiencing a growth spurt, with 60 boats participating in the 2018 season.   The season begins with the Around Aquidneck Island [Newport]…

By David Dellenbaugh There are certain scenarios that always seem to play out when you get near a layline. Somebody tacks on you, or you have the chance to tack on somebody. The wind shifts so you are no longer on the layline. You have to make a choice about whether to do two more tacks or sail straight, but slowly, toward the mark. In each of these situations, the decision you make usually has a significant…

Anderson Reggio, described by our friend and regular contributor Sam Crichton as “Newport’s Go-To Sailing Professional” in an article she wrote for NewportThisWeek.com, checks a lot of boxes for WindCheck Magazine. He could easily be an On Watch candidate as he hails from “The WindCheck Community.” He could write a Sound Environment column drawing on his environmental experiences and as an Ambassador for Newport-based 11th Hour Racing. For this regular feature of our interviews with New York…

By Robyn Earley, J/Fest New England Publicity and Marketing Chair   The third annual New England J/Fest Regatta was hosted by Sail Newport the weekend of August 9-11, 2019 in the beautiful waters of Narragansett Bay. This regatta was open to all J/Boat owners and crews in both racing and cruising classes. The one-design classes included both J/109s and J/80s, with an equally competitive PHRF class. Narragansett Bay is considered a special “home waters” venue for the New…