Publisher's Log

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…

I’ve found that when one is laid up for a period of time, the first thing one tends to do is catch up on what feels like years of missed sleep. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Whether the demands of publishing deadlines, up-too-early active children, ever-present racing watch changes, or countless other reasons, many of us both rise early and burn the midnight oil. To be able to sleep for more than four hours at a clip is…

The popular movement toward using inflatable coach boats is a good one in terms of keeping boats and limbs safe from damage (and they have other pros and cons as well) but perhaps reducing the potential danger of underwater appendages needs to be the next movement toward increased powerboat safety for our young ones. Prop guard- or jet drive-equipped coach boats seem a natural step in that development.