Gill gear on sale

Gill North America is advertising a clearance sale with really low prices on lots of good gear (or as they say in England - "kit").  Up through midnight tonight (Monday, March 27), prices are 25% off current discounts of up to 80%.  Use discount code CLEARANCE25 in checkout.  Here's a link to the clearance section of their website...
https://gillna.com/c-88-clearance-rack.aspx

         

Now that's hiking!

This photo appeared in a recent email ad from North Sails, who builds sails for the lovely, historic J-Class megayachts.  Seems to me that the draft in the mainsail may be a little too far aft.  Could it be because the boat is heeled a tad too much on account of not enough crew - only 29 - on the high side rail hiking?!  ;)

  

Safety at Sea training course

Karen and I attended the USSailing Safety at Sea one-day training course yesterday at Columbia Yacht Club (held in the rail deck, where it was freezing!).  Generally very good content and good presentations.  A few takeaways of many...  

• We sat next to a female minister from Chicago who, it turns out, purchased, refurbished, and is racing "Flagrante Delicto," the J/29 that Karen helped race in South Haven years ago.  Christened "Wahoo" now.  Small world syndrome!
• A glamorous sailing-themed Chivas Regal ad set the stage about crew overboard. 
• Interesting video testing the GaleForce drogue that is capable of steering a sailboat (very well, actually) if the rudder is disabled or lost.  I placed an order for a similar, highly-rated, but much less expensive drogue to have on board.
• Great presentation by the commander of the U.S. Coast Guard station at Calumet Harbor.  We should feel fortunate that the coast guard is committed to our safety when we get in trouble anywhere in U.S. waters.  Check out the iPhone/Android app United States Coast Guard for supporting information, to file a float plan, request services, etc.
• Extremely useful meteorology information introduced by Matt Gallagher, offering a lot of resources at www.wxchicago.com.  
• More extremely useful information presented about medical emergencies at sea.  One tip to maintain privacy of medical information but have it available when needed - write down your individual pertinent medical information like allergies, conditions, prescriptions and place it in a sealed envelope to be stored on board in one location and returned at the end of the (medically uneventful) voyage.  We should do this.
• Interesting demos of PFDs, tethers, DSC distress calls, flares, whistles, spot lights, liferaft.

North U. racing rules & tactics seminar

Karen, Brad German, and I attended the North U. seminar on racing rules & tactics at DePaul University on Saturday, March 4.  Dave Dellenbaugh was the presenter and did an excellent job.  Dave's experience includes tactician aboard America's Cup campaigns, president of US Sailing rules committee, and coach for the U.S. sailing team at the Rio 2016 Olympics.  The new 2017-2020 rules were described, and lots of practical situations where and how the rules apply were shown on whiteboard and in video.  This brought the rules to life in a way that is relevant to common sailing situations.  Great stuff!  

LMSuRF March e-Newsmagazine

Here is the March issue of the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation e-Newsmagazine.  

There is a good article about St. Joseph River Yacht Club racing by Jim Schrager, starting on page 10.  He outlines how and why the racing program has grown in the past few years.  Nice job and nice photos!

Also, read a couple of interesting articles about performance-based sailboat rating systems, starting on page 23.  Rating systems are a necessary evil that are applied to try to assure fairness in racing in mixed fleets of boats.