May 2021

I’ll say one thing about this past year…a lot has changed. Behaviors mostly. I distinctly remember how a year ago, we were so excited to be getting ten more “boxes” in mid-town Manhattan where WindCheck would be available. I also distinctly remember making plans for a Taste of Essex℠ exhibit within the CT Spring Boat Show℠. We were going to have ten or more restaurants and other retailers providing samples under the big clubhouse tent on Essex…

Style Over Safety? Dear Sir/Madam, Looking at the “stylish pinnies” in your March 2021 edition (“MudRatz Ready to Rock!” windcheckmagazine.com/article/mudratz-ready-to-rock/), I wonder about the choice of life jacket color. Almost looks like they are designed to be a camouflage in the water. A couple of years ago, while crewing on a boat my friend’s wife fell off during a knockdown. Being petite she was a little difficult to see in the water because of her dark clothing. We did recover her safely after…

  Our friends at the Eastern Connecticut Sailing Association (ECSA) have introduced improvements to the handicap system that make cruising sailboats competitive with racing boats. “If you have ever thought about racing but never tried, there are few ECSA initiatives this year to bring more sailors to Eastern Connecticut events,” said Bob Bruno, PHRF of Eastern Connecticut Chief Handicapper. “Non-Spinnaker boats equipped with Dacron (or similar) cruising sails and furling systems for headsails and mainsails now get…

Our friends at the New York Yacht Club have announced dates for this year’s Robert H. Tiedemann Classics Regatta, which will be held in Newport, RI the weekend of June 26 & 27. For the first time in its history, the regatta—traditionally held in July—will be the first event in the 2021 Classic Yacht Owners Association’s Challenge Series.   “We are excited to activate the classic sailing community earlier in the summer,” said NYYC event chair Jesse Terry, “and…

Our friends at the Manhattan Yacht Club in Jersey City, NJ are hosting the Statue of Liberty 12 Meter Cup, the first 12 Metre regatta ever held in New York Harbor, on June 3 – 6, 2021. There will be three days of racing with two races each day. Racing will take place in the Upper Bay between Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and the West Side of Manhattan. Four boats have currently entered, and the…

Our friends at the Herreshoff Marine Museum /America’s Cup Hall of Fame in Bristol, RI have announced that Evelyn Ansel has assumed the role of Museum Curator. Ansel joined the Herreshoff Marine Museum in 2016 as a Collections Specialist working closely with Registrar, Archivist and Librarian Norene Rickson on the digitization of the museum’s collection, a critical strategic initiative geared to capture high-resolution digital images for the dual purposes of preservation and accessibility by the public. Prior to joining HMM,…

A new wooden boat restoration shop has opened in Portsmouth, RI, and they’re already busy with projects even though they still haven’t finished unpacking. Padanaram Boatworks, owned by David Strecker and Keith Brown, is dedicated to the restoration and preservation of wooden boats. They offer services for boat owners from seasonal maintenance and repair to full restorations, and all aspects of marine carpentry. At the moment, Strecker and Brown are busy with a number of projects, both…

By John Vrolyk Quarantine, social distancing, the duration, a new normal—these were the words most often on our lips last summer. They describe what began in March and stretched forward into the unknowable future, a procession of days, each subtly but perceptibly worse than the one before, a lethargic slide into melancholy, paralleling the slow-motion tragedy of the global pandemic. From this paralytic existence, escape is the ultimate privilege. Last summer, it was granted to me—an unearned…

WindCheck Magazine is proud to manage this unique event for the participating Yacht Brokers and Exhibitors that serve the Boating Community of Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York. It is a bit of an honor for us to run one of the first in-person events as we come out of a very trying year. With new sponsors, BMW and Gowrie Group, joining Essex Boat Works, the Essex Steam Train & Riverboat and the Association of Yacht Brokers…

Living a Life of Harmony at Sea By Amber Stronk, Sailors for the Sea powered by Oceana Captain Liz Clark is a passionate conservationist, sailor, surfer and author of Swell: A Sailing Surfer’s Voyage of Awakening, a memoir which details her time sailing in the open sea while developing a profound connection to the earth and committing to a life of sustainability. Liz learned to sail at seven years old in San Diego, California on a small,…