Our picks for holiday gift giving.ScheduleScheduleSchedule

Growing up in Florida, I was often envious of my friends who spent their summers going to camp or a theme park for a family vacation. Could I spend a week visiting an overgrown and overpriced mouse? Oh no, our family headed to the Abacos for our summer vacation.  I vividly recall the image in my head as my mother explained that we would be making “the crossing” to the Bahamas. I pictured our family, all with water wings on our arms, swimming from island to island, with cartoonish sharks circling in the distance. In reality, the crossing was the 12-plus hours it took to sail from somewhere near Jupiter, Florida, to the Abacos, a part of the vacation that I loathed then, as seasickness was something I was prone to. 

It’s hard to imagine a better place to be introduced to sailing than a Caribbean island, where the water is warm and the sun is always shining. And that’s exactly where more and more people are getting a taste for the sport thanks to a partnership between the American Sailing Association and Sandals and Beaches resorts. 

Terry Kohler, who discovered a love for sailing as a boy aboard his mother’s Alden-desigend schooner Venturer, dedicated himself to making the sport more technologically advanced as well as more accessible to sailors of all abilities, all from a sleepy blue-collar town on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Features  New boats for 2017 A look at some of the new models in advance of the fall boat shows Paradise times two Exploring the native beauty of Tahiti is even better on the stab

Next year’s crop of new boats is anything but cookie-cutter. From push-button control to origami trimarans, there is something to pique the interest of every sailor. New refinements in manufacturing and design are evident, and the payoffs are boats that offer more in terms of speed, storage, sail area and safety. Turn the page to catch a glimpse of what will be gracing the docks at upcoming boat shows.

It started as an April Fools’ joke. I never would have thought of  Kyle Ryan as particularly gullible. He’s an experienced sailor, a big wave surfer and a divemaster. He has spent years at sea as an officer with NOAA. And he recently proved to be sound crew on a rough crossing from Fiji to New Zealand aboard my Beneteau 473. Which is why I was surprised when he believed the ridiculous story my wife and I concocted in the early morning hours of April 1.Schedule

Few seamanship skills are more important than recovering a person from the water. Although many sailors are well versed on MOB recovery methods on monohulls, the sailing and handling characteristics of a catamaran require a different approach to rescue, one that should be practiced before any multihull passage.

On the second afternoon of a Chicago-Mackinac race that would be remembered as one of the fastest in years, most of the 326-boat fleet was charging up Lake Michigan in a 20- to 25-knot southerly breeze with chutes full and a building sea pushing down waves. The 10 sailors on the 1D48 WhoDo were enjoying their own rollicking ride as they entered the Manitou Passage about two-thirds of the way up the course when a gust buried the boat’s bow knocking it down and causing it to round up only to get knocked down on the other side. 

Have you ever used a scythe, Nic?” asked Cathy Mac Aleavey when I met her at Jimmy Furey’s house on the banks of the River Shannon in Ireland last summer. Now, I’ve been to dozens of sailing events around the world, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never been asked that question before.  

 You can’t escape history when sailing in the Mediterranean, not even your own. We were off the Lycian coast of Turkey. My wife Tadji was at the helm, searching for zephyrs as Quetzal ghosted over a shimmering sea. I was below, rummaging through the nav station looking for a detailed chart for the approach to Kekova Roads. I am a luddite, I still use paper charts and I knew it was in there somewhere.

 There’s an old saying, “Step up into the life raft,” implying that you should not launch your life raft prematurely in an emergency. And while many old sayings are often just that, old and out of date, there’s merit to this wise advice. 

Revolutions aren’t always noisy, colorful affairs. Sometimes they start with just a ripple, a whisper—or the sound of tiny plastic balls hitting the ground.

May 2016 Table of Contents

 Istvan Kopar’s story of his 1990 solo circumnavigation is a mesmerizing tale. The overall plot line may be similar to other sailing adventures, but what makes this a remarkable read is the voice. This Hungarian-born sailor has a fresh perspective which results in fascinating, tangible details coming across the page. 

When a marine head goes bad there is usually a story to tell, and it’s never a good one. A clog or a leak can ruin a weekend. Even a properly working head can be awkward to explain to guests, “Well, you do your business, flip this lever, pump this lever and then don’t forget to flip that lever back or you can sink the boat!” Invariably, the guest has a problem. Often they ask for assistance that is neither fun to request or give. Or worse, they don’t ask. 

For many would-be sailors, their first sailing experience will come in a formal learning environment with an instructor guiding them through it. Sailing instructors are ambassadors of the sport and may be one of the most important factors in whether someone becomes a lifelong sailor or returns to their landlubber roots. It’s a tall order for instructors, who take the responsibility seriously. Every year, thousands of sailors take a class to learn new skills or improve and expand their sailing knowledge, but how do you know you’re getting the most out of a learning experience?

 Come back alive, and bring the boat back alive.” Over and over those words played through Hobie Ponting’s head as he boarded a plane to England. He and his team had set off to Hamble, England, to take delivery of a Class 40 sailboat that had been donated to Oakcliff Sailing. The plan was to return to the States via the inaugural Royal Ocean Racing Club Transatlantic Race, departing from the Canary Islands and finishing in Grenada. None of them had ever sailed a Class 40. None of the crew had ever crossed an ocean.  None of them knew what awaited them other than 7,000 miles of ocean sailing.