Tabla de contenidos para July/August 2017 en Sailing World

I’ll accept any invitation to race, but I do prefer faster, more-modern rides because, you know, I have to do it while I’m young. I’m not ready to ease into my slow-boat golden years, so when I agreed earlier this year to crew at the 6-Metre World Championship in Vancouver this fall, I did so with some apprehension. Greg Stewart needed a bowman, and I can certainly get a good line sight, end-to-end a spinnaker pole, and ring the bell, but I have no clue what doing bow on a 6-Meter entails. Plus, heavy keelboats with long overhangs just aren’t my thing. When I lay eyes upon Stewart’s baby-blue 6-Meter Sprig in its slip at the San Diego YC, however, a little chill goes up my sailing shorts. Its coamings…

A week before the foiling AC50s began racing in Bermuda, much-smaller, far-less-expensive flying machines gathered at the Toms River YC in New Jersey for the inaugural Waszp Atlantic Coast Championship. It was the first official domestic regatta for owners of the 11-foot one-design foiling dinghy. Barnegat Bay in mid-May might seem an odd place for these wet, crash-prone boats, but the area has become a Waszp hotbed, partly because of the promotional efforts of Clay Johnson, who as owner of Colie Sails is the Waszp East Coast distributor. It’s also driven by a local group of 30-somethings who grew up racing Optimists in the river, moved onto E-Scows after collegiate sailing, and are now looking for a fresh challenge. Some bought a Waszp when it first became available in summer…

As our 12-Meter approached the windward mark, which included an offset mark, our navigator was looking at his tablet and said, “We are 15 seconds to the layline.” I glanced up, saw the mark, and felt we were easily laying it. I called for a tack. No sooner had the words left my lips did I realize I’d looked at the offset mark, not the windward mark. We had to make two quick tacks, and by the time we completed both maneuvers, we were behind our nearest competitor. To make matters worse, we lost the eight-race regatta by a single point. I spent a few months unable to mentally shake this mistake. Why didn’t I listen to the navigator? I’d ask myself. Why didn’t I look around to see the…

WOMEN SAILING IN COLLEGE ARE A CRITICAL PART OF THE SPORT, AND ITS RICH AND IMPRESSIVE HISTORY SPEAKS TO THIS FACT. FROM THE INCEPTION OF THE INTERCOLLEGIATE SAILING ASSOCIATION IN THE 1930S, SAILING WAS OPEN TO EVERYBODY. A FEW EXAMPLES INCLUDE LORNA AND CHICK WHITTELSEY COMPETING IN THE BOSTON DINGHY CLUB CHALLENGE CUP IN APRIL 1933; AND IN 1958, THE COLLEGIATE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS, THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, INCLUDED A FEMALE CREW, CAROL DORWORTH “There were some really phenomenal women’s sailors,” says Mike Horn, coach of the Harvard University sailing team for 32 years and executive director of the ICSA for 14 years. There were even events exclusive to women college sailors — they were not a part of the ICSA schedule — but the regattas were held specifically for…

IT’S THE LAST LEG OF THE RACE, AND WE’RE BEATING TO THE FINISH OF A RACE AT THE KINGS POINT DINGHY OPEN. WE’RE IN FIRST, I’M HIKING AS HARD AS I CAN, EACH WAVE HITTING US WITH A SLAP OF FRIGID WATER. MY SKIPPER HAS A BUM KNEE, BUT HE’S FIGHTING THROUGH THE PAIN, LEGS FULLY EXTENDED FROM THE HIKING STRAPS THAT STRAIN UNDER OUR COLLECTIVE LOAD. We both desperately want this race win, which will also win us our division. Still, we’re laughing through every wave and gust of wind. Dumping the mainsheet does little to ease the strain on our burning leg muscles. Meanwhile, our light-air teammates are warm and dry on land, cheering us on and helping us get through the day. It’s a glorious moment for…

If the wind never changed, there was never a reason to get to one side of the course, or other boats never influenced your positioning, you could always sail to your target speed and angle, or velocity made good, but we know that seldom happens. That’s why you must rely on “moding”: sailing a little higher or lower than your targets for a tactical or strategic advantage, upwind as well as downwind. Other than the target VMG, I like to think in terms of two other modes. Upwind, there’s high/slow and low/fast. Downwind, there’s low/ slow and high/fast. As an example, upwind, right off the starting line, you might find yourself in a position where you have to work hard to stay to windward of a group of boats. Then…

The new J/121 is a 40' offshore speedster that can be day raced or distance sailed by just 5 or fewer crew…. the best short-handed J ever…. capable of winning on any race track while also excelling as the family weekender. Here’s a boat, class and program that redefines sailboat racing as a recreation and shared adventure with friends, reducing the focus on specialization and athletic W/L racing. The J/121 fulfills the growing need to simplify life and reconnect with those you really want to sail with on a boat that’s pure magic to sail. Creating the best shorthanded J ever starts with a hull shape that excels on all points of sail, particularly reaching. Most distance race classics have a beat/reach/run ratio around 15%/60%/25%. Straight-line speed is the name…

•On a warm spring day in 2006, Houston YC’s harbor was alive with sailboats, large and small, coming and going from their slips. Signal flags fluttered from the club’s yardarm, and masthead vanes pointed into the 10-knot afternoon southeasterly sweeping across Galveston Bay. This was not my first visit to Pier 10, home of the club’s Ensign fleet. Many times before I’d walked the dock to admire the Ensigns, wondering which one might be the best fit for me, and on this occasion a blue hull caught my eye. Its skipper deftly headed her into the breeze and coasted into a slip. As I watched, I could imagine myself at its helm. The elegant lines of the Carl Alberg design, its stout fiberglass hull, bright work coaming boards and 8-foot…

•Performance is importance in competition, right? Of course it is. Each sport might vary in its approach, but support in any way is critical to athletic competition. There are coaches and trainers and layers beyond that, and winning formulas are copied and improved upon. But excellence doesn’t come cheap. Investments must be made. Success is not accidental. This is especially true with amateur sailing. The big paydays seen in other sports don’t ever happen in ours, but if winning remains important, we don’t have to look far for examples. One must simply get the best athletes, equip them with the best gear, provide them with superior support, and guide them with brilliant coaches. “Winning is all in the preparation,” says five-time Olympic medalist Ben Ainslie. While sailing has competition rules,…

I REMEMBER THE FEELING OF GETTING ACCEPTED TO BOSTON COLLEGE AS IF IT WERE YESTERDAY. I HAD COME HOME FROM HIGH SCHOOL SAILING PRACTICE AND FOUND A BIG ENVELOPE WAITING FOR ME ON THE COUNTER. I RUSHED INTO THE BATHROOM AND LOCKED THE DOOR SO I COULD OPEN THE LETTER IN solitude. In reading the opening lines, a big smile emerged on my face. Not only would I be receiving a college education, but I was also going to be competing in college sailing events, something I had wanted since I started sailing the Optimist. No one, however, had ever told me how physically demanding college sailing would be. Since a young age, my coaches have always drilled into my head that fitness is what separates elite sailors from average…

1. More than 100 teams in two college divisions and three high school fleets raced on two trapezoid racecourses off Belmont Pier. 2. The US Sailing Center supplied boats and sails to out-of-state teams, but for everyone else, it was bring your own. Renaming it the Rose Bowl in 1987 made it more palatable for athletic directors and high school teams who were added in the mid-1990s. “The motto of the regatta is, ‘The bigger the better,’” says Segerblom. “It just keeps getting bigger.” 3. Four squads of sailors from Redwood High School, in Larkspur, California, competed in the gold division. “There’s nothing of this scale in the United States that I know of,” says Segerblom. “Overall, there’s not much overlap of college and high school regattas, which makes this…

CALENDAR St. Petersburg, FL February 17 -19 St. Petersburg Yacht Club San Diego, CA March 17 - 19 San Diego Yacht Club Coronado Yacht Club Annapolis, MD May 5 - May 7 Annapolis Yacht Club Chicago, IL June 9-11 Chicago Yacht Club Marblehead, MA July 27 -30 Corinthian Yacht Club Caribbean NOOD Championship October 22 - 27* British Virgin Islands *dates subject to change GET IN THE NOOD & GET IN ON THE FUN Six fantastic events providing a great time both on and off the water. Sailing World partners with top-tier yacht clubs and premiere race committees focusing on high quality racing in outstanding sailing venues. That same focus is also applied to the post-race parties creating the perfect weekend. Enter today at www.sailingworld.com/nood-regattas or email at Nood@sailingworld.com…

One day not long ago, Detroit’s Kevin Morin — a J/70 and Lightning sailor by weekends and IT specialist by day — had an idea. “I used to sail Lightnings at the Pontiac YC,” says Morin, “and there were spots in the lake that were over 200 feet deep — you just couldn’t set a mark there.” So, at times, “close enough” became acceptable practice. These experiences, coupled with the challenges of finding enough volunteers to field a full race committee, got the wheels churning, and now, four years later, Morin believes he has a marketable product. Enter the MarkSetBot. Made from readily available parts — such as a trolling motor built for fishing boats — and controlled via GPS or over a cellular network, the user simply touches a…

THE “TRUX” REGATTA HAS BEEN AN INSTITUTION ON THE COLLEGE SAILING CIRCUIT FOR DECADES. UNTIL 2014, THE TRUXTUN UMSTED REGATTA, A FOUR-DIVISION EVENT, WAS HELD IN MARCH AT THE U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY. THE FLEET-RACING REGATTA WAS MOVED TO FALL IN 2014 TO BETTER ACCOMMODATE THE TEAMRACING FOCUS OF THE SPRING COLLEGE sailing schedule. Before the seasonal switch, it was known for tough sailing conditions and top-level competition, attributes that align well with those of its namesake. The trophy was first awarded in 1971 and is named for Lt. Truxtun Umsted, a Navy sailor who graduated in 1959 and passed away suddenly in 1967 after completing a tour of duty on a destroyer in the Mediterranean. Umsted came from a Navy family and a long line of admirals, and was passionate…

Debuted in 1907 and raced in the Olympics 100 years ago, 8-Metres remain one of sailing’s most majestic international classes. With 45 feet of sleek, sexy lines, displacing 20,000 pounds and sailed with a crew of six, they require finesse and strength in all conditions. “People think of it as an old class, but they’re really high-tech racing machines,” says 8-Metre devotee Richard Self. “They just don’t go that fast.” The class experienced a renaissance three decades ago, and of 500 8-Metres built over the past century, roughly one-third continue to carve sweeping wakes wherever they race. On the racecourse, they’re grouped in two divisions: classics and modern (post-1968). Each boat is a work of art, so they’re raced with gentlemanly preservation in mind. “You rely on the skill set…