Community

By Rick Dyer As I glide along a frozen lake carving long, graceful arcing gybes, I ask myself, “Is this an extreme sport?” “Ice Windsurfing” sounds extreme, but it feels more like figure skating! Then paradoxically realize I am wearing every bit of protective gear that I own, from helmet and kneepads to the padded seat harness affectionately known as a speed diaper. As anything, ice windsurfing can be taken to extreme, although it’s one of the…

By Tracy McNeil & Anne T. Converse Editor’s note: Our friends at the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, RI are celebrating their Golden Jubilee year – the 50th anniversary of the museum’s founding in 1971, and WindCheck is honored to be the official Jubilee Media Partner. The Herreshoff Marine Museum is located on the grounds of the former Herreshoff Manufacturing Company where more than 2,000 yachts were built over more than six decades, including eight consecutive America’s…

Radiosailing Takes Off with DragonFlite 95 at Nantucket Race Week 2020 By Tom Darling This piece brings you something old and something brand new, but both right in line with the sailing history of their day. In the deep summer of COVID, I stumbled into a mega-trend of sailors trying to figure out how to have fun with boats in the age of masks, social distancing, and PODS. It is sailing gone “small.” Bring your beach chair,…

By Anthony Pozun, RN Ahoy The first in a series of four-letter words commonly exchanged by skippers as they approach one another. Anchor Any of a number of heavy, hook-shaped devices that are dropped over the side of a vessel on the end of a rope and/or chain, and which are designed to hold said vessel securely in place until, a: the wind exceeds 2 mph, b: the owner and crew depart, or c: 3 am. Bar…

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…

By Joe Cooper Of all the aspects of sailing that are constant across every discipline of the sport, it is the community we find ourselves in that most often becomes the standout component. The mates, the stories, the highs and the lows, the fear and the high fives, the shared experiences are the fundamental glue we all have in common in the sailing milieu. Think for a moment on what other aspects of our lives offer the…