Supporters of Sailgroove, I regret to inform you that as of this week, I will no longer be working for sailgroove.org. The site will remain active, including user-generated content, user accounts, and all the features, including the group pages will continue to function. However, no one will be updating the site on a regular basis or creating official content as I have done for nearly three years. To everyone who has ever given me an interview, driven a powerboat for me, hired me for a regatta, sponsored the website, let me sleep on their couch...
This week felt like a letdown after the excitement of last week's Weymouth Sail for Gold, Etchells Worlds and the amazing AC45 Training on San Francisco Bay, but the summer's just beginning and there's lots more to come. Here's a rundown of a few lesser-known regattas that are running this weekend: Kiel Week, Germany June Okay, well this one isn't really "lesser known." Usually it's one of the more competitive ISAF World Cup regattas of the year, part of the traditional European summer tour. But this year it falls between Sail...
With the help of Velocitek and North Sails One Design, and with some fancy new gear from Coral Reef Sailing Apparel, Sailgroove is headed to Corpus Christi, TX today for the 2011 Melges 24 Worlds. The regatta kicked off Monday with light to medium winds for the surprisingly small 32-boat fleet and saw Nathan Wilmot lead Embarr to an early lead with 2-5 finishes in the first two races. Behind Embarr is a stack of four more boats, all within two points. Racing continues until Saturday and, starting tomorrow...
"Where the &#%@ is Chalk Talk?!" you ask? I know, we were late two weeks in a row, and here we are again on a Thursday with no new episode. Well don't worry, this one was planned. There's no Chalk Talk this week. College sailing has the upcoming weekend off to prepare for Nationals, and so Chris and Erik have the week off from Chalk Talk. Here's the news you would have heard: Final weekend of qualifiers! NWICSA Team Champs I told you it would be close! UW loses tiebreaker to Oregon for the win and a spot at Nationa...
As the commentators of Sydney Harbor's 18' Skiff broadcasts would say, "It's all happening!" Sailgroove has officially kicked off its busy season of regatta coverage and is confirming new events all the time. This weekend I was in San Francisco to bring you the US Opti Team Trials while Cait Taylor was in Austin delivering the High School Sailing Nationals (Mallory Trophy.) Meanwhile, across the pond, Ray Griffin and his team were busy recording, compiling and uploading at the Wilson Trophy British Team Race Championship. This...
The top Opti sailors from around the country are converging on San Francisco Bay this week for USODA Opti Team Trials, the most competitive Optimist regatta of the year in the US. The regatta is "invitation-only" and the invitations are results-based. Only sailors who finish top 50% at Nationals or top 25% at regional regattas can compete, so a second-row start just won't cut it in this stacked fleet. The stakes are high as well, and not just for podium finishes. The top forty-five* boats qualify for the US National Team, givi...
In case you somehow missed Erik Storck and I combing over the district qualifiers for the past four weeks on Chalk Talk Presented by US SAILING, I'll restate what you should already know: today is the start of the 2011 College Spring Nationals. Thirty-six teams are in Long Beach, CA this morning preparing to race in two ICSA Nationals Semifinal regattas: one "Eastern" and one "Western." (I expect the nomenclature will change soon to reflect the same-venue format that has become standard.) Copyright Glennon Statton / GTSphotos.com Ea...
Loyal Sailgroove fans will know from my announcement on Chalk Talk that I am moving out of my Somerville, MA apartment, which has also become the defacto headquarters of Sailgroove, and moving to Austin TX. Longtime fans may remember that I pulled this stunt before, in Novemeber of 2008, only to return to Boston at the start of the 2009 college sailing season. Well this time I'm for real. My girlfriend Andrea and I have subleased our New England residence, sent a U-Haul container full of furniture down ahead of us, signed a lease, and are curre...
I got a call from my mom this morning, alerting me to this news clip she had seen a teaser for last night on Boston's Channel 7 News: Now I know that most stories that appear in the local news aren't actually news at all, but being a sailor, this one especially bugs me. The "dramatic rescue," was, in fact, a routine exercise from the local harbormaster, helping some kids who couldn't right their 420 after a capsize. As everyone in the video who knew what they were talking about (the coach, the harbor master, the kids and even their parent...
Hello, On Monday, March 28, Sailgroove went live with its new site design, layout and logo and published its first highly produced video about kitesurfing. Today, April 1, we are announcing another big change. With sailing on the decline in the US and other parts of the world, we are expanding our base and focusing our efforts on a sport with a larger audience: power-boating. From fishing, to recreational boating, to wake boarding and racing, we aim to be the number one destination for video information and entertainment. And to demonstrate ou...
