Publisher's Log

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.

I am excited to share the news with you that Anne and I are passing the helm of WindCheck to a really great guy who is going to take the magazine forward and build upon what we started.

I dislike the use of the term ‘Bucket List’ to order those events or experiences we wish to do before it’s ‘too late.’ We all have things we’d love to see and accomplish, and regardless, everything we do is on our so-called bucket list because, well, you ain’t gonna summit Everest after you’ve kicked it unless someone carries you up there in a tin can. I have my, call it, ‘to-do list’ and Everest is nowhere on…

On behalf of Riverside Yacht Club, I would like to thank you for the donation of WindCheck magazines to our “Women Offshore” event, as well as advertising it and posting on Facebook. The event was a great success. We had 60 attendees (mostly women, three guys), and they came from as far as Nyack, Kingston and Long Island, NY and Newport, RI. We had women sailors who were club affiliated as well as non-club affiliate, and ages…