October 2021

I’m guilty, but it’s not my fault! Summer is over. It was officially, astronomically over last month. So why do I get grief? It’s because I am in charge of my neighborhood’s docks. And when I decide that the weather really is going to turn into nonstop northeasterlies which beat up our east-facing pier, pilings, and docks, then I have to do what I have to do. Even though we live on an island of 109 homes,…

A warm breeze on Thursday, August 12, welcomed a throng of revelers to Norwalk Sailing School (NSS) at Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, CT for the ribbon cutting ceremony and the introduction of the school’s new director Nodira I and administrative staff.     Mayor Harry Rilling and First Lady Lucia along with several other local representatives and dignitaries greeted the assembly of staff, campers, parents and friends of NSS. Ms. I was selected to take over…

By Diane Kropfl & Eileen Campbell, Ms. Race Co-Chairs The Atlantic Highlands Yacht Club’s 17th Annual Ms. Race set sail Saturday, August 21st on New Jersey’s magnificent Sandy Hook Bay. The theme of this year’s race was “Dare to Make Waves” and the competitive group of female racers made waves again this year as they raised money for 180 Turning Lives Around (180nj.com), a non-profit organization devoted to protecting victims of domestic abuse. The Ms. Race event…

  Editor’s note: Our friends at the Herreshoff Marine Museum & America’s Cup Hall of Fame in Bristol, Rhode Island are celebrating their Golden Jubilee year – the 50th anniversary of the museum’s founding, and WindCheck is honored to be the official Jubilee Media Partner. We’re changing course for this month’s Golden Jubilee feature with a look at a few of the museum’s countless archival images. Most of the photographs shown here appeared in The Chronicle, a paper newsletter…

By Roger Vaughan Editor’s note: On August 14, 1979, a rogue storm in the Irish Sea overtook the 303 yachts competing in the Fastnet Race. Twenty-four boats were abandoned including five that sank, and fifteen sailors lost their lives. Roger “Fingers” Vaughan was aboard Jim Kilroy’s 79-foot maxi sloop Kialoa. Driving was exhausting. The helmsman needed encouragement. He faced painfully into blowing scud that stung like sand, looking for the optimum path through confused seas that lifted…

One of the most important parts of tactical planning is avoiding the bad air of other boats. The effects of sailing in wind shadows, even for short periods of time, can be devastating. This is especially true on the first beat, where everyone starts out so close together and losing even one boatlength can put you back in the pack. Here’s another way to think of it: Many sailors work very hard on boatspeed (and that’s a…

By Nick Bowen The Twenty Hundred Club had their fifth race of the season on Saturday, August 29. Prince Henry was the Portuguese explorer Dom Henrique who lived from 1394 to 1460. He pioneered Portugal’s early maritime expansion. His first capture was Maderia, about 400 miles east of Morocco that he sought shelter on when he was blown off course in 1418. He would also oversee the settxlement of the Azores. But it would be three centuries…

By Stuart Streuli, NYYC Communications Director Photos by Daniel Forster For the second time in three editions, Southern Yacht Club left the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court in Newport, RI with the most prestigious trophy in Corinthian sailing, the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, firmly in its collective grasp. The team from New Orleans—led by skipper John Lovell and tactician Marcus Eagan, and supported both here and in New Orleans by hundreds, if not…

By Siddarth Motwani, LI Sound program assistance, and Laura McMillan, director of communications Tropical Storm Elsa made landfall in the early hours of Friday, July 9, 2021 dropping up to 5 inches of rain on New York and Connecticut in less than 12 hours. It was the earliest named hurricane on record, but the season was just getting started: a few weeks later, Henri came ashore at the Connecticut-Rhode Island line with blustery winds and heavy rains….

I’ve written often about hurricanes, great and small. Of note, formerly, an average season produced twelve named storms of which six became hurricanes, including three major hurricanes. As you can see from the table below, this year’s NOAA prediction will use new numbers for an “average” season: 14 named storms, up from 12, and seven hurricanes, up from 6, including three major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5). Henri was briefly a Cat-1. This column is about…