SEPTEMBER 2017 Table of contents

More than 80,000 people packed downtown Auckland, New Zealand, in July to celebrate the triumphant return of the America’s Cup after a 17-year absence. Thunderstorms didn’t dampen spirits as Emirates Team New Zealand paraded down Queen’s Street, the Auld Mug held high, and onto a boat for a tour of the jam-packed Waitemata Harbour. 

The pilot books and online passage guides all agree: You do not sail across the Atlantic from west to east in a small boat in January, February or March. Even the Admiralty chart of the Atlantic warns sailors not to attempt an eastward crossing in those months. But Susie Goodall, 28, was having none of it. After four weeks in Antigua, mainly taken up with fixing her engine, she set sail on March 20 and, rather than take the recommended route via Bermuda, headed straight for the Azores. It’s known as the “devil-may-care” route and cuts 500 miles off the crossing, but also increases the likelihood of running into Atlantic gales. Which was exactly why she did it. 

Les Crane sat on the deck of an unfamiliar boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean watching his boat, a sturdy, well-maintained 56-footer that he’d sailed more than 40,000 miles, as it was swallowed by the water. It was 7 a.m., less than four hours after his crew heard a “thud” that they had no idea would lead to them boarding a life raft and waiting for rescue.

Sailing at night is challenging, rewarding and dermatologist approved. Gliding through the dark under the stars can be a surreal experience. And you don’t have to go very far from the harbor for the experience. It is a different world that requires new skills and awareness to be fully enjoyed. 

Like a sailboat, life never moves in a straight line from the starting line to the finish. It also has a tendency to blast you with roaring winds, strange currents and a startling array of unexpected circumstances, which means you’ll learn a heck of a lot along the way—and very likely emerge stronger and wiser than before.

Sailing in light air is a science and an art. The science comes from adjusting your sails and position of sail to get the maximum lift and momentum. The art is the patience and fortitude for you and your crew to remain still, quiet and aware while resisting the urge to reach for the start button on the “Iron Genny.” With some experimentation and focus, you’ll fine that it’s not difficult to keep the boat moving well in light air, and it can be surprisingly pleasurable sailing too. 

When helmsman Peter Burling buried the hulls of his 50-foot foiling ACC catamaran on the way to the start line, lost control and nosed-dived into Bermuda’s Great Sound, there was a chance that the America’s Cup was over for Emirates Team New Zealand. But like Humpty Dumpty, the shore crew picked up the carbon fiber pieces and put the fragile cat back together again, and the Kiwis went on to dispatch the British Land Rover BAR team in the challenger playoffs semifinals, and the Swiss Artemis team in the finals to win the Louis Vuitton Cup, setting up a rematch against Oracle Team USA for the America’s Cup in June.

For years sailors were mostly left to call on experience and instinct when it came to routing a passage. Today, onboard computing power relying on copious amounts of data can show sailors any route with any number of variables applied.

Going away to camp is a childhood ritual. There are space camps with real astronauts like Scott Kelly, tennis pro camps, celebrity baseball camps and even a football academy where Tom Brady could be the coach. So why not a yacht racing camp with the pros? The Bitter End Yacht Club’s annual Pro-Am offers just that, inviting top sailors from an array of disciplines to sail and compete with campers. But the event has one exceptional twist—it’s for grown-ups.

Chris Johnson was bleary eyed as he filled his coffee cup at a popular open-air breakfast spot just steps from the marina at Nanny Cay. He was just one of dozens of sailors gathered in the hub of the British Virgin Islands during the 46th annual Spring Regatta. Like those around him, he seemed to be fully embracing the laid back but fun racing scene that takes over the island for a week each April. 

Rig tuning isn’t just about maximizing performance, although that’s a nice benefit to a properly tuned rig. At its most basic level, a tuned rig will make your sails more efficient, prevent damage and help you get more life out of your equipment.

 Anyone who has grown up on the water knows the transformative power it has. It’s a classroom, a playground and a haven, a constantly evolving presence that can deliver whatever is needed, from job skills and life lessons to bonding, excitement and peace.

Capsizing: One thing you don’t have to worry about here is getting your rig stuck in the mud,” sailing instructor Colin Gowland commented wryly at our first morning briefing. Having never previously set foot in a Laser, the significance of that statement as being one of the very first on Gowland’s agenda didn’t immediately set in. In fact, I may have even laughed out loud. 

Some of the best adventures happen on trailersailers. On what other kind of sailboat can you explore far-off inland lakes, wide rivers or obscure bits of estuaries all in the same weekend? In fact, one of the only drawbacks to being a trailersailor is that you’ve just doubled your maintenance requirements: not only do you have to take care of the boat, you must take care of the trailer, so that it will take care of you.

There was a time in the America’s Cup when keels were skirted, boats were outed as “dogs” after their first appearance on the racecourse and skippers called fouls on each other during races. In case you’ve buried your head in a Rosenfeld photography book for the last 10 years, those days are long gone. The America’s Cup will never look like that again.

The first time I sailed the Texas 200—a grueling 200-mile multiday small-boat endurance cruise along the desolate Gulf Coast and barrier islands of southern Texas—my home-built plywood dinghy was dismasted on the first afternoon. 

There is a widely held belief among sailors that the secret to getting more people into the sport is to get them on the water. Rob James, owner of Kingdom Yachts Sailing Club, an American Sailing Association school in Atlanta, Georgia, thinks the key is to get them in a boat, but not necessarily one that’s on the water.