In the Northeast the arrival of spring brings much anticipated preparations for the start of the sailing season. In my case, this includes trailering Windseeker south to Island Heights in New Jersey where I have a yard commission the boat.
Like most sailors, I have accumulated a wide range of boat-related clothing over the years. And also—like most sailors, I suspect—I still possess almost all of it.
I love this time of year. In Wisconsin, April is when people prep boats to go back in the water. It has been a long, hard winter of reliving last year’s races at the bar, reading magazine stories about other people sailing in warmer weather, visiting ocean racing websites and yearning. And now it’s time for the northern sailor’s rite of spring: getting ready to launch.
If I’m racing, I sail to win. If I’m cruising, I sail to relax. The sailing bug bit me 20 years ago, and I’ve never recovered.
“Would you like to sail one?” asked Dale Denning one Saturday back in 1980, as Peg and I stood admiring some gorgeous little sailing dinghies sitting by the side of the road.
They say every cruiser turns into a racer when there’s another boat in the vicinity. I’m not so sure that’s true.
About four hours after our departure, approximately 27 miles from Fort Pierce, when we were well into the Stream, we heard a thump somewhere forward on the hull.
During the “treasures of the bilge” segment of the cruisers’ radio net in Bocos del Toro, Panama, someone named Felix offered a metal sextant for sale. Two minutes later I was racing out to his handsome ketch Boisterous.
I hate this time of year. Some of my friends wax rhapsodic about crisp fall air, the changing of the leaves and the coming holidays. But all I can see at the end of October is the end of the sailing season and the long winter stretching out before me.
“Bad news, honey,” my husband, Leif, told me, “We own a sailboat.” That’s how I found out about the Cape Dory Typhoon Weekender.
Groupe Beneteau teams with industry partners to get closer to a circular economy in boatbuilding.
A new builder with composite expertise drops a cool carbon cat.
AI seems to be everywhere these days, but it’s not quite ready for world domination.
A ship that can point higher than the rest of the fleet easily creates windward-leeward separation between itself and its compatriots; so it’s no surprise
Holcim-PRB has been awarded redress for the collision with Allagrande Mapei Racing at the beginning of Leg 1 of The Ocean Race Europe.
On this day in 1851, the schooner America won the 100 Guinea Cup, which would then be renamed the “America’s Cup” in her honor. American
The final night of a Bermuda passage is marked by fog and a restless imagination.
Spinnakers are too fun—and useful—to not take full advantage of, even when sailing shorthanded.
Newport’s 24-hour distance race hit a milestone anniversary this year, and with it a full range of conditions and challenges for the 35-boat strong fleet.
These spotlights can help sailors safely navigate at night.
