March 2022

Last month, I was encouraged to sing the praises of February because it is a short month. But now, let the real seasons begin for sailing, fishing and boating. So much to look forward to in March. Of course, the vernal equinox probably tops the list. Come March 20, it will be officially OK to take the cover off the boat. And then get focused on prepping for family fun, fishing, racing or all three. We have…

The Whaler’s Race, hosted by New Bedford Yacht Club in South Dartmouth, MA, is scheduled to begin on Saturday June 4, 2022 and will add another event to a busy early summer distance race calendar in New England. Tucked between the Figawi Regatta and the Newport Bermuda Race, the New Bedford Yacht Club’s Whaler’s Race is an open distance race event with courses set in the waters of Buzzards Bay, Vineyard Sound, Rhode Island Sound, and the…

Same as it Ever Was, yet Better To paraphrase the Talking Heads (with apologies), you may find yourself wishing for a regatta. And you may find yourself wanting the perfect venue. And you may ask yourself, where can I find one-design Mecca? All of that and much more will be readily available this spring at Charleston Race Week – a regatta unlike any other. Veteran attendees of Race Week – now in its 26th year – understand…

The 2021 CT Spring Boat Show was one of the first events in New England after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. It raised $22,000 in funds for Sails Up 4 Cancer. The Show also had a record number of attendees, over 2,200. However, boat inventory in the Northeast was practically non-existent at the time, having been bought up in the summer and fall of 2020. Regional yacht brokers simply had nothing to sell and current owners were not…

The 2022 RORC Transatlantic Race By Chad Corning, Argo Racing Program Manager   The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Transatlantic Race was first run in 2014 and has increased in popularity over the years. Why wouldn’t it? It’s a beautiful racecourse starting from the stark, volcanic Canary Islands and ending 3,000 miles across the Atlantic at the island of Grenada. A record fleet of thirty yachts (that’s a lot for a race this long) took part in 2022….

By Rick Bannerot This is the third installment in a series that started with the naive notion of telling the story of a 12-year-old Optimist sailor named Grace Sandoval, who was losing her passion for sailing. “I felt burned out,” Grace recalls. “I really disliked floating alone, in a little bathtub, with no breeze, being slowly broiled on Long Island Sound…Visions of blue swimming pools, playing tennis with my friends, volunteering at the local community garden, and…

Story & photos by Tom Darling   In this second pandemic winter, we rediscover the ultimate socially distanced outdoor recreation for sailors. That would be Frostbiting, or as they say on the Larchmont Yacht Club website, Winter Sailing. Emerging in the depths of the Great Depression, winter dinghy sailing consumed some of the greats of that time, including the inestimable Arthur Knapp, Jr., considered the godfather of winter sailing with his pipe and professorial approach to yachting….

There are few places on the racecourse where the ability to turn your boat efficiently is more critical than when you are bearing off around the windward mark. Of course, from a safety standpoint, ducking another boat in lots of breeze is probably number one. But if you want top performance, you must be able to steer smoothly and quickly around the first mark. When you bear off onto a reach or run, you must employ all…

By Anthony Allen, Save the Sound Assistant Director of Ecological Restoration After the exceptional challenges of the annual Connecticut Coastal Cleanup in 2020, a record-breaking 2021 cleanup season brought a welcome dose of energy and reason for hope. The statewide cleanup effort, coordinated by Save the Sound and led by volunteers each year since 2002, held a limited number of in-person events and pivoted to a hybrid model that included “virtual” cleanups in 2020. The volunteers came…

Now, I’m the first to say, “You’ve got a $50,000 boat tied to the dock and you’re fretting about $200 in fuel? What’s up, doc?” But with that said, “Waste not, want not!” and this column is about that. Some Basics Would it be any surprise to know that heavier boats need more fuel at a given speed to move through or over the water? So, why lug around gear that you don’t need?  Go through all your lockers…