May 2020

There’s going to be a lot of family boating this summer. Professional sporting events have been severely curtailed. Concerts? Amusement parks? Festivals? Hard to imagine. If you thought you were the family’s Chief Entertainment Officer before, there’s a whole new level of responsibility coming at you in Summer 2020. First, if you’re going boating as a family, then the whole family needs to have fun. Many of you are blessed with spouses and kids who have always…

Dear Plank-on-Frame sailors in the Opera House Cup, We are writing to you for two reasons. First, we’d like to encourage you to register for this year’s Opera House Cup on Sunday, August 16. Registration is now open at operahousecup.org. Most of you have been with us in recent years, but some of you have been away, and we would love to have you back. The soul of the race is with the owners such as you,…

Beginning and experienced women sailors can jump-start their sailing lives by heading to the National Women’s Sailing Association (NWSA) 19th Annual Women’s Sailing Conference slated for Saturday, June 6 at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead, MA. The event, which features hands-on land- and water-based workshops and seminars, offers women a fantastic opportunity to learn or hone sailing skills, network with other female sailors from all over the United States, and gain the confidence necessary to become…

Publisher’s note: I’ve known my good friend Scott MacLeod since I was ten. We grew up at Norwalk Yacht Club in Norwalk, CT. Scott is a three-time collegiate All-American, a former member of the U.S. National Sailing Team, and an excellent team racer. He’s a senior level marketing executive who has created event properties and sold over $100 million in sponsorships across a broad range of sports including golf, tennis, sailing and adventure sports. It was pretty…

On Saturday, August 29, 2020, The Ram Island Yacht Club (RIYC) in Noank, CT looks forward to holding its 75th Invitational Regatta, a race around Fishers Island. The most challenging elements of sailing are at work in The Race and the Watch Hill reefs, where currents hit four knots and the race day winds can blow zero to thirty-plus.   With few interruptions, Ram Island Yacht Club has held this race since 1945. Though the name implies…

By Beth Fleisher and Celeste Flick, Regatta Co-Chairs Southold Yacht Club in Southold, NY will host the 50th Annual World’s Longest Sunfish Race Around Shelter Island, NY on Saturday, July 18, 2020. This unique nautical marathon is open to single and doubles Sunfish sailors per the event Notice of Race.       As the crow flies, the nautical distance around Shelter Island, starting and finishing at Southold Yacht Club, is 21.3 miles. Since crows don’t tack,…

By Nick Bowen Every January, a group of sailboat racers in San Francisco Bay shake off their winter blues and participate in the “The Three Bridge Fiasco” race. “Three Bridge” refers to the only three marks of the course: Blackaller Buoy, near the Golden Gate Bridge, Red Rock, near the Richmond San Rafael Bridge, and Yerba Buena Island, between the western and eastern spans of the Oakland Bay Bridge. These marks may be rounded in any order…

By Joe Coyne During her life, Shirley Hall was an avid and competitive sailor for over 25 years, the first female Commodore of Duck Island Yacht Club in Westbrook, CT, and a strong advocate for women’s sailing. Her success in and support for the sport created a strong tradition of women’s sailing at Duck Island Yacht Club. Today, the club remembers and honors that tradition by running the Shirley Hall Series, a weekly series that takes place…

By David Dellenbaugh Strategy is your plan for how to get around the race course as quickly as you can. One problem is that strategy does not consider the presence of other boats. Since your competitors are all trying to win the race, too, they make it harder for you to follow your own gameplan. To overcome this you need good tactics. Tactics are the boat-on-boat moves you make that help you stay in control of your…

Your first offshore race is a rite of passage that will provide wonderful memories for a sailing lifetime. Our friends at Sail Black Rock, Oakcliff Sailing, the Storm Trysail Foundation, and Gill have partnered with WindCheck to present our second annual youth essay contest, featuring a truly amazing prize! The winning essay will appear in an upcoming issue of WindCheck (No, that’s not the prize!). The author will receive a very nice set of Gill foul weather…