Racing

The Young American Sailing Academy (YASA), a western Long Island Sound-based non-profit organization created to provide opportunities and support for youth sailors, is seeking interested sailors to join the YASA sailing team and participate in a mixed double-handed offshore program. “The first step of this program is sailing the 2020 Newport Bermuda Race as mixed double-handed entries,” said YASA founder and President Peter Becker. “Do you have the passion and the skills to be part of a winning…

Consummate waterman and record breaking pro sailor, Nick Dana is a Newport, Rhode Island native and scion of the Newport Shipyard family. He’s been part of three Volvo Ocean Races: as shore crew with PUMA Ocean Racing in the 2008-‘09 edition, on-board reporter with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in 2011-‘12, and bowman/boat captain with Team Alvimedica in 2014-‘15. Nick’s a passionate surfer, and he managed to catch a few waves during some VOR stopovers. Closer to home,…

By Ken Read With another sailing season upon us, I feel excited and worried. I am excited for the high end of the sport… the IMOCA fleet, for example, as we have watched them push themselves, and each other, in new, cutting-edge ‘fliers’ across the Atlantic. The America’s Cup – these boats are going to be fast and furious and who knows what is going to happen with these crazy new machines. The Moth Worlds showed us…

The United States SailGP Team recently kicked off its 2020 SailGP campaign with the announcement of a new roster. As this issue went to press, the all-American, eight-man squad was preparing for their debut at Sydney SailGP, sailed February 28 & 29 in Sydney, Australia. The 2020 U.S. SailGP Team’s roster of America’s Cup athletes, world match racing champions and Tokyo 2020 Olympic hopefuls that includes Rome Kirby (age 30; Newport, RI), Taylor Canfield (30; USVI), Riley…

By Phillip Dickey, EYC Regatta Committee In order to promote ocean racing in the Essex Yacht Club (EYC) and in the eastern Long Island Sound region, a group of sailors from the regatta committee of the EYC created the EYC Ocean Racing Forum in 2019. We decided to build on the strength of EYC in ocean racing—five boats skippered by EYC sailors competed in the 2018 Newport Bermuda Race—to create a forum which would bring together experienced…

By Tom Darling In 1869, Princeton University’s football team travelled to New Brunswick, New Jersey to play the first intercollegiate football contest. One hundred and fifty years and eleven days later, the Princeton Club Sailing Team led a hardy group of post-season intercollegiate sailors in the debut of their own peculiar sporting event. Sailing 30-foot Shields keelboats in 30-degree temperatures and 25-knot winds on Oyster Bay’s West Harbor on November 16, the kids now called it “extreme…

By Dan Dickison Nothing can undermine credibility faster than an unsubstantiated claim. So, it’s good to know that the people behind the largest multiclass gathering in North America – Sperry Charleston Race Week – always make good on the tagline they’ve adopted for their event: “A regatta unlike any other.” In recent years, Race Week’s organizers have worked hard to cement their springtime event as a bucket-list fixture on the U.S. sailing scene. They’ve done this primarily…

With the start of the 36th America’s Cup presented by Prada just over a year away, New York Yacht Club American Magic is currently testing, tuning and training at their winter base in Pensacola, FL. We caught up with Rob Ouellette, the American challenger’s COO.   WindCheck: Where did you grow up, and how old were you when you started sailing? Rob Ouellette: I grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts and really started sailing at summer camp when…

Mother Nature may have kept the breeze light for this year’s Storm Trysail Foundation Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta but that gave ace shooter Steve Cloutier a chance to meet the teams. © Stephen R Cloutier

  Larchmont Yacht Club in Larchmont, NY hosted the Storm Trysail Foundation’s 2019 Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta (IOR) Presented by ShopRite of Carteret on October 12 & 13. More than 350 collegiate sailors raced 48 one-design and PHRF boats (plus one safety officer/owner’s representative per boat), one of the largest turnouts in the IOR’s almost 50-year history. Forty-two colleges were represented, with six schools racing two boats. With “drifty-shifty” conditions, the LYC race committee could only run three…