Here We Go!

Photo by Fried Elliott.

by Kate Sheahan, West Coast Tour Coordinator

After traveling around the world, I have come to realize that some of the best sailing is right here at home on the West Coast. I am thrilled to get on the road again as the US Sailing West Coast Tour Coordinator and look forward to covering the classic, the quirky, and the extreme as I hit all the stops between San Diego and the Gorge this summer. I will be participating at regattas, junior clinics, community outreach programs, STEM workshops, enrichment seminars and the America’s Cup – and want to hear from you!

US Sailing’s West Coast Tour Begins This Week at Olympic Day

Sailing is many things to many people and US Sailing is out to highlight the sport through its West Coast Tour. Modeled on the popular Roadshow format, US Sailing will visit sailing organizations throughout the West Coast focusing on signature regattas, junior and adult learn-to-sail clinics, community outreach programs, US Sailing Speaker Series, Regional Sailing Program Symposiums, Safety-at-Sea Seminars, and more.

The West Coast Tour launches this Thursday, July 11 at Olympic Day, hosted by Newport Harbor Yacht Club in conjunction with the So Cal Junior Olympic Sailing Festival in Newport Beach, Calif. The West Coast Tour will run through September, 2013.

West Coast Tour Schedule

Thursday, July 11:
Olympic Day, So. Cal Junior Olympics: Newport Harbor YC / Newport Beach, Calif. 

Saturday, July 13:
Transpac Race (3rd Start): Los Angeles Yacht Club / San Pedro, Calif.

Monday, July 15:
Dick Sweet Sabot Team Race: Alamitos Bay Yacht Club / Long Beach, Calif.

Tuesday-Wednesday, July 16-17:
Governor's Cup: Balboa Yacht Club / Corona del Mar, Calif.

Friday, July 19:
Dutch Shoe Marathon: San Diego YC & Coronado YC / San Diego & Coronado

Sunday, July 21:
Gorge Skiff Invitational: Columbia Gorge Racing Association / Cascade Locks, Ore.

Monday, July 22:
Sailing & Water Activities: Cascade Locks, Ore.

Saturday, July 27:
McNish Classic Yacht Race: Pacific Corinthian Yacht Club / Oxnard, Calif.

Sunday, July 28:
CFJ National Championships: Coronado Yacht Club / Coronado, Calif.

Friday, August 2:
Santana 20 National Championship:  Alamitos Bay Yacht Club / Long Beach, CA

Saturday, August 3:
Kite Regatta:  San Diego Yacht Club - Coronado Beach / San Diego, CA

Monday, August 5:
US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider Sailor, Zach Brown, will speak to sailors at Sabot National Championship:  Mission Bay Yacht Club / San Diego, CA

Wednesday, August 7:
Sabot National Championship: Mission Bay Yacht Club / San Diego, CA

Wednesday, August 7:
Wednesday Night Races:  San Diego Yacht Club / San Diego, CA

Saturday, August 10:
Snipe 24-Hour Regatta:  Mission Bay Yacht Club / San Diego, CA

Tuesday, August 13:
Int’l A-Class Cat North American Championship: Alamitos Bay Yacht Club / Long Beach, CA

Friday, August 16:
Melges 24 Pacific Coast Championship: San Francisco Yacht Club / Tiburon, CA

Friday, August 23:
Long Point Race Week: Balboa YC & Newport Harbor YC / Newport Beach, CA

Saturday, August 31:
Star World Championship – Opening Day: San Diego Yacht Club / San Diego, CA

* Schedule Subject to Change

Reflections from the President

by Tom Hubbell

July 4th is a good day to talk about volunteers. This past Wednesday evening I tagged along as the fire station horn sent my neighbor, the volunteer fire department’s chief, racing down the road. In a moment we saw a huge plume of smoke and flames coming from a lakefront house. He called in an order - “send everything.” Over the next few minutes fire trucks, support vehicles, and about 50 volunteer firefighters from surrounding villages poured onto the scene. The Chautauqua Lake area has a handful of year-round residents and many thousands of summer transients, like me. Tax dollars, donations, and hundreds of volunteer hours created the ability to serve the common good. That house was gone before the alarm sounded, but the one next door, 20 feet away, is unscathed. We sent one firefighter to the hospital to check his heart. And all of them gave up their first evening of the holiday to serve.

So, what does that have to do with sailing? Plenty. Think about the rescues of property (boats) and people that your club, sailing center, or regatta support boats routinely provide. We sailed Thistles at Sheboygan Yacht Club and Sailing Center on Lake Michigan last weekend. We were supported by a first class race committee, mark-set boats, and safety boats that kept a watchful eye as we enjoyed playing in 20 knot winds and 4 foot waves. The water was cold enough that most of us wore wet suits. Could boats have been lost? Absolutely. Could people have gotten in trouble? Definitely. Who was there to help as well as create our game board? People volunteered to perform in race management.

Take it to the next layer. Where did the training and standards for race management, for small boat safety and rescue, and for sailing center management come from? Those were created by hundreds of volunteers working under the US Sailing umbrella, for hundreds of hours, over many years.

Of course, we also have a dedicated staff that is a daily presence of collaboration and expertise and coordination of our organization. Their passion for sailing and our mission adds immeasurably to our work.

It is time that all kinds of sailors recognize and become supporters of US Sailing’s leadership of the sport.  And our sport will not work without all kinds of volunteers. 

Interested in being a volunteer? It's a lot of fun and great for our sport. Visit the US Sailing directory for a list of committees and contact information.

Be a member. Be a volunteer.

Tom Hubbell

President of US Sailing

What’s New in Adaptive Sailing

By Sarah Everhart-Skeels and Cindy Walker

We recently had a conversation with Betsy Alison, US Paralympic Coach for the US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider about the evolution of adaptive sailing in the US. We agreed that Nick Scandone winning US Sailing’s 2005 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year award placed adaptive sailing on the map. Nick and his crew, Maureen McKinnon, kept the focus by winning a gold medal in the SKUD-18 event at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. Also, 2.4 meter sailor, John Ruf won Bronze in Beijing. Nick is no longer with us, but his wife Mary Kate wrote a great book about his life that I would highly recommend, In The Nick of Time: The Nick Scandone Story.

College Sailing's Chalk Talk Season Finale: May 16, 2013

For the season finale, the Chalk Talk cast is throwing a banquet! It's the Chalk Talk Pre-Nationals Hypothetical All American Awards Banquet, to be precise. We look at the past year of college sailing and start naming names before the big dance begins next week in St. Petersburg, Fla.

US Sailing gave Chalk Talk a wonderful year of support, but they're not done! Starting Monday, check out US Sailing on Facebook and enter the photo caption contest for a Gill Drysuit!

Next week, watch Chris Love Productions' live coverage of Spring Nationals.
- Video highlights: May 23-24
- Live streaming video: May 26-27
- Text/photos throughout all events: May 21-30

Chalk Talk is presented by US Sailing, who reminds you that US Sailing offers a special college membership for a fraction of the cost of a full adult membership. Go to racing.ussailing.org/college for details.

Reflections from the President

A few years ago we finished a windy fall series race in the Great Lakes region and decided to sail back up to the weather mark where we thought we saw a capsized boat. It was choppy and the safety boats did not see them. After perhaps 30 minutes in the water, the three people were too cold to move or think. We pulled the coldest one aboard our Thistle, got their sails down and righted their boat, then towed their swamped boat with the other two guys in it to the yacht club, which luckily was downwind. Their distress and near disaster was a wake-up call for our team.
 
The loss of popular Olympic champion Andrew Simpson this week reminds us all that our favorite recreation can be dangerous. Sure, he was sailing in an extreme version of the sport, the speeds and forces profoundly exceeding what almost all of us encounter. We don’t yet know exactly what claimed Andrew Simpson. We know that the AC teams are serious about safety, but there is always some unmanageable risk. We do know, and most of us can immediately relate to, the obvious risks we see in this story - superhuman forces at work, entanglement under a boat, and cold water. 

US Sailing is the leading expert on safety and seamanship. Ten years ago, President Dave Rosekrans created a Safety Task Force at US Sailing to evaluate and re-design what we do. Our Safety at Sea Seminars are very highly rated and well-attended. We recently added Coastal Safety at Sea seminars. Keelboat cruisers and racers benefit from these training courses designed for offshore and coastal big boat sailors. The latest piece of this safety agenda is the new book, Safety, Rescue & Support Boat Handling, as part of our Powerboat Certification Series of books and courses. Highly-respected experts and considerable research drive our safety programs. No matter how nautically smart you are, you will learn something valuable reading this and attending a course. Check our course calendar for more information.

US Sailing has organized teams of experts to study five tragedies in the last two years. Read our reports and take action on your boat and at your home port sailing venue. 

The good news is that sailing has an excellent safety record compared to other water sports. We have by far the highest rate of PFD wearing among water sports, thanks to the younger generations who have grown up in a US Sailing training culture that makes wearing it the normal thing to do. The Coast Guard likes what we are doing in sail and power training and we have grants to broaden our efforts. But one death is too many; we can do better.  It starts with each of us being smart and disciplined about seamanship and safety. 

US Sailing is the source of expertise and training for boating under sail or power. Your support enables US Sailing to continue providing and improving the resources that make sailing a better and safer experience.

Tom Hubbell

President of US Sailing

College Sailing's Chalk Talk - May 9, 2013

It's the Nationals preview episode! With all 21 of the conference championships finally complete, we now know what the lineups will be in a few weeks in St. Pete. See a full rundown and take a look back at some Spring Nationals video from the past four years. Don't forget to tune in at http://new.livestream.com/collgesailingnationals starting May 21 with live video May 26-27.

It's also your last chance to win the Harken bag!
https://www.facebook.com/collegesailingchalktalk/app_228910107186452

Chalk Talk is presented by US Sailing, who reminds you that US Sailing offers a special college membership for a fraction of the cost of a full adult membership. Go to racing.ussailing.org/college for details.

College Sailing's Chalk Talk: May 2, 2013

The team takes a good, hard look at the 2013 ICSA Semifinals in this episode, with a breakdown of the over- and under- performers in Hampton this past weekend. They also look ahead to the final weekend of Conference Championships before Nationals.

Don't forget, the Christopher Williford Regatta is this weekend:
- Sign-up
- Donate

Chalk Talk is presented by US Sailing, who reminds you that US Sailing offers a special college membership for a fraction of the cost of a full adult membership. Go to racing.ussailing.org/college for details.

Dave Perry's U.S. Match Racing Report

Sally Barkow Ranked #1 Match Racer in U.S.

Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.), winner of the Carlos Aguilar Grade 2 Open Match in the U.S. Virgin Islands is the number one ranked match racer in the U.S. Ranked #2 is Don Wilson (Chicago, Ill.), winner of the Richardson Cup. Ranked third is Dustin Durant (Long Beach, Calif.), who will be representing the U.S. at the ISAF Nations Cup Grand Finale in Denmark in August. David Storrs (Southport, Conn.) is sixth, winner of the Long Island Sound Match Racing Championship, followed by Stephanie Roble (East Troy, Wis.) with a seventh place finish at the Carlos Aguilar, and Mike Quaglio who sails out of the Oakcliff Sailing Center in Oyster Bay, NY is #8.

Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), Barkow and Genny Tulloch (San Francisco, Calif.) remain the top three U.S. women match racers. Nicole Breault (San Francisco, Calif.) and Sandy Hayes (Scituate, Mass.) move into the number six and seven spots. Breault, on the strength of her win in the California Dreamin’ Series, and Hayes with her win at the Nations Cup Regional Qualifier, will represent the U.S. at the Grand Finale in Denmark.

Open Rankings
1.    Sally Barkow       
2.    Donald Wilson       
3.    Dustin Durant       
4.    Dave Perry        
5.    Christopher Poole   
6.    David Storrs       
7.    Stephanie Roble       
8.    Mike Quaglio       
9.    Brad Funk            
10.  Jonathan Singsen   

Women Rankings
1.    Anna Tunnicliffe       
2.    Sally Barkow       
3.    Genny Tulloch       
4.    Stephanie Roble       
5.    Becca Dellenbaugh   
6.    Nicole Breault       
7.    Sandy Hayes       
8.    Maegan Ruhlman   
9.    Andrea Cabito       
10.  Shala Lawrence