June 2025

  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…

Zim Sailing has announced that production of the ISCA® (International Sunfish Class Association™) sailboat is underway in Bristol, RI. Extensive testing both on and off the water is complete, and the first boats will be delivered to customers and dealers nationwide in the coming weeks. Interested sailors are encouraged to request a quote and place a deposit now to get on the water this summer.   Offered alongside the new boats are ISCA sails and parts, now…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

When your position in the race suddenly takes a nose dive, it’s time to re-focus your gameplan. Don’t discard your well-planned strategy, but consider making a few adjustments. Take a deep breath. Before you follow a knee-jerk reaction (which seldom works), pause for a moment and assess your situation. Think about questions like: • Is it early or late in the series? • Do you already have a throwout? • How good is your boatspeed? • How…

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…

I’ve written often about hurricanes, great and small. This column is about rip tides, rip currents and undertows – which are what distant storms often leave us. Lest one of us comes to grief… Undertow v Rip Tide v Rip Currents Anybody that has ever been to a beach understands undertow. It is the backwash as gravity returns a breaking wave to the sea. All but small children can stand against it – and its effect ends…

There are things in life I still haven’t figured out, which – for a late middle-aged guy – speeds past embarrassment into the badlands of WTF-is-wrong-with-you. I still can’t get sports conferences right and too many terms remain muddled. Why can’t Duke play Kansas in the regular season? And what the hell is a pick and roll? Maybe I’m less so encumbered when it comes to sailing, boating and the salty ennui that follows time on the…