A read-through of sailing and marina news from Canada and the US, for a teenager with a borrowed dinghy, a parent following along, an instructor without a marketing budget, or someone returning to sailing after years away.
What this project is · free · no spam
This edition · lead
Sail Canada closed National Coaches Week by naming a 35-year veteran instructor from Lévis, Quebec its Instructor of the Year, for teaching skill and communication, not racing results.
Someone who knows standing next to someone who doesn't: the thesis this site is built around.
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Sail Canada inducts twelve people in Halifax on October 4, including the skipper who won the International Fishermen's Trophy five times aboard the Bluenose, and an aviator who sailed a hand-built boat across the Atlantic and back in 1921.
Eleven nonprofit sailing centers across both coasts and the Great Lakes got this year's Reach Initiative grants, funded by Rolex and US Sailing donors, for STEM-and-sailing programs like Alameda's decade-old "Science Fridays."
If you run a program on a shoestring, this is the funding model worth knowing about for next year's cycle.
We're in the peak weeks of Atlantic hurricane season, not past it. A named-storm deductible can run 5 to 10 percent of your boat's insured value, well above a standard deductible, and it's worth checking before the next storm gets a name.
If you've never actually read your own policy's storm-season fine print, this month is the month to do it.
Still nothing yet. The teaching material this site is meant to hold doesn't exist yet: not how a boat actually works, not what the rules mean, not how to read the water. This section stays empty and says so until there's something real to index.
A vest-style and a belt-pack inflatable from Onyx, priced within ten dollars of each other. Neither is the right choice for anyone under 16 or a non-swimmer, whatever the price tag says, and that's the actual story here.
Melges 24 Class World Championship: September 22-26, Harbor Springs, Michigan (Great Lakes). Happening this week.
Annapolis Sailboat Show: October 15-18, Annapolis, Maryland. $32 general admission, $10 for kids 7 to 15, free under 6.
For the actual racing calendar rather than the shows, two standing links worth bookmarking instead of anything this edition could duplicate: Ontario Sailing's regatta schedule for the Great Lakes, and 48° North's Seattle Area Racing Calendar for the Pacific Northwest.
Not open yet. Crew matching, mentor matching, and gear-swap listings are planned, launching after a few news-only editions prove the format works. Get in touch at hello@sailcommons.com if you want to be first in line when it opens.
No mail in the box yet for this edition. The invitation from the first edition stands: if you teach young sailors, or you learned this way yourself and remember what was missing, write to hello@sailcommons.com. Whatever comes in shapes what's in the next one.
