WindCheck Magazine Good Call - WindCheck Magazine

As the summer season gets going here in WindCheck land, it’s interesting to think about what good calls will be made this summer. I suppose bad calls should be counted too but we will save those for another time. So let’s muse.

A very good call will be to read Coop’s article on hypothermia in this issue. The chart used resembles the one that used to be on the wall in the boathouse at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point. I say used to be because my viewing was during college sailing days and I have not been back since. Hopefully, the kids sailing there right this moment for the Collegiate Nationals, (meaning, while I am writing this) get to see it. It stuck firmly in my college-aged brain, but at the time I did wonder about its relevance to dinghy sailing. I had already had a couple of exciting, marginally life-threatening moments in blue water “big boat” sailing by that age but I really thought that my ability to scramble to the top of a turtled dinghy would preserve me until help arrived. (To this day my wife, who has witnessed these skills, equates my prowess to that of a cockroach once the lights have been turned on.) But unfortunately, we all know tragic stories where somebody could not get out of the water in hypothermia conditions which, the point being, are a lot more common than hiking shorts and technical shirt conditions for our region…like three months to nine? So, a good call is to read “Cold Ain’t Cool” on page 14 and make your own preparations please.

Another good call is reading “Boating and Weather – Key Safety Points to Consider” on page 33. We are very lucky to have Jon Bilger, Founding Director of PredictWind, share this piece with us and honestly, without a hint of hard sell advertorial! Our attitude at WindCheck is that if it is valuable to the Community, then advertise away, but Jon refrained. Jon is an Olympian, two-time America’s Cup winner and New Zealand National Champion in multiple classes. He founded PredictWind some ten years ago and we appreciate his outline on how using PredictWind or other apps to access weather data makes boating safer for all. And certainly, it makes it a lot more fun. It is always shocking how folks, including yours truly, get caught out, and not just racing. The wrath of disgruntled family members if you have not factored in the conditions for the ride home is typically far worse than missing a shift on the last beat.