Publisher's Log

Praise whatever deity you wish or simply physics; but, spring is finally here! And with it comes some serious planning. I just spent the morning with my wife, mapping out our summer schedule. Unfortunately, we don’t have big events like Marion Bermuda or Block Island Race Week on the list. But it is packed all the same. We are looking at the minutiae of the regattas in Newport balanced against the local cruising we want to do…

When you get ready to go frostbiting on a March day, a number of things hit you that are big pluses. The sun’s up for around seventy minutes longer, but it feels like hours compared to December. Birds are singing. Baseball has begun in Florida. Even though the water’s really cold, the sun actually works, so 35 degrees feels like 40 and 45 feels like 60! It is also a time of year when the breeze ranges…

This issue rocks! Call me biased and yes, I nearly broke my arm patting our team and all the contributors on the back in December. But this one has content that the WindCheck Community truly represents from cover to cover. I’m thinking about adding distribution at ski areas this month so folks have something to relish in between runs, over a cup of chili. Just don’t stuff it in the boot bag at the end of the…

Hmmmm…so much to talk about. Let’s begin with the issue you’re holding in your hands. It is the last WindCheck of 2018. It’s also the shortest in terms of pages. But it might be the best one of my tenure. We tackled a number of large projects for this “two-month” issue and I am extremely proud of the WindCheck team on how they came out. First up, we put a ribbon on the “Optimist vs What” conversation…

I think the Optimist stinks as an early trainer. Here is why. Like all sports, we are introducing our kids to sailing at a younger and younger age. It used to be 9 years old, and now programs start as young as 6. What does a typical 9 year old like? They tend to like other kids and want to be in close proximity to them. They don’t like to be scared. They don’t really have a handle on “seamanship” nor, unless they are gifted, the physics of sailing. And finally, sad to say, they may be a bit more spoiled than prior generations and like quick satisfaction (digital!) so menial chores, like bailing, turn them off more quickly.

I guess it’s natural to worry about the lack of growth or progress in anything we are passionate about. There is certainly no lack of hand wringing about how hard it is getting kids involved in sailing and keeping them engaged. Almost every day in Scuttlebutt, there seems to be a success story juxtaposed with a lament that we are not doing it right.

Photographer Rick Bannerot nailed it. The image is perfect, from the light to the horizon to the angle that captures her lovely sheer. And, of course, her owners, Pam Rorke Levy & Matt Brooks, and crew are sailing her beautifully, everyone going about their business, sails trimmed perfectly including the matching curls in the spinnakers.

My father was an artisan. He loved craft and beauty. So much so that as a kid, if I wanted to fashion a new Laser tiller in his shop, I had to be sure to cut and drill the Montreal hockey stick and attach the PVC tube for a tiller extension when he was not around. Otherwise, while he might appreciate my logic for the weight-to-strength ratio of those laminated Montreal shafts, he would be far more concerned with why I had not chosen mahogany.

In this issue, you will also find a lot of editorial focused on making your boating more fun this summer.

For me, it has truly been a period of reawakening. I have been working with the dedicated WindCheck team to carry on the sixteen year tradition of this great publication and been scheming on how we might improve it for the future.