© Rick Bannerot We have a long room in our house, the long side of which faces south. We try not to heat that room in the winter. The bummer is that my office is in this room. The other bummer is that there is a two-and-a-half-story house about 30 yards to the south. But the other day, fully a month past the solstice, the sun heated the room up to 68! Unassisted! Alas, it only lasted…
Amazing? Sure. The professionalism of the teams, the astounding level of thought, effort and yes, the money spent, that was put into the boats and everything surrounding them, from the branding to the crew equipment to the support craft, to the base camps were truly impressive. The modern era, post-12 Metre, has seen the professionalism curve go continuously upward. But this edition, with its add-ons like a Women’s and Junior America’s Cup, sailed in one-design foiling monohulls,…
I did two back-to-back one-design keelboat events in September. The first was the Sonar World Championship at Noroton Yacht Club in Darien, CT and the second was the 60th Shields Nationals at Larchmont Yacht Club in Larchmont, NY. There were definitely some pros and cons observed regarding the health of the sport. Team Racing seems to rule. At both clubs, these events were obviously for the select few who still enjoy longer course racing where speed and…
I cannot help myself. I am writing yet another ode to weather in New England. If you ask some folks, they say it has been a great summer…June was fantastic. If you ask others, this summer has been hot, sticky and wet! Just look at record-setting July and the first week of August. These opinions vary greatly depending on where you live. If you are near the water, the big sea breezes in “The Bays” have been…
So, I guess the whole purpose of WindCheck is to celebrate and enjoy activities on the water in words and pictures. And a big part of that of course is that we celebrate the traditional skills, confidence and sense of accomplishment we get from being proficient at our sport. And while we sing ad nauseum about how great it is for kids, I am going to do it again. The other day, I was running some magazines…
Some months, our crew really gives pause in terms of what the content will look like in the coming issue. So, this year, I thought July would be kind of light. Well, the thing about the WindCheck Zone is that there’s an unsinkable supply of people, boats, stories about people and boats, regattas to promote and regattas to report on that people have sailed in or run…in other words, a lot. And then there are the cool…
When WindCheck was started, it was inspired by SpinSheet Magazine out of Annapolis. As such, it was primarily a racing mag for Long Island Sound. In the twenty-two years since, it has evolved to cover all manner of boating including cruising, some power boating, junior and college sailing, history and of course some entertaining “how to” (and some “how not to”) stories from our excellent columnists. We have expanded geographically to the point that our standard line…
We just wrapped up the 8th CT Spring Boat Show at Safe Harbor Essex Island in Essex, Connecticut April 26-28. At WindCheck, we tend to steer away from reviewing events. We prefer to preview events and let the rest of the media world fill you in on the Monday after. But even though this was our eighth go at this, it really was our third. While 2019 was nice with sixty-eight boats and twenty-two exhibitors, 2020 was…
I always like this time of year. It is a busy one for us for sure. The CT Spring Boat Show is at the end of the month. Folks start working on getting boats into the water. Down in Florida, baseball is done and moving north. By the time you read this, hopefully UConn will have repeated and maybe those Lady Huskies will have knocked off vaunted Iowa. (Have to mention that Yale was still alive at…
March has arrived and with it, a strange mixture of excitement and stress! And it is not just because we run a boat show at the end of April, (stand by for plug). The CT Spring Boat Show is April 26-28 at Safe Harbor Essex Island in Essex, CT and it is shaping up very nicely, thank you for asking. But this very mild winter so far has had a strange effect. Is that the cause of…
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