SailMaine has added a new series to Casco Bay racing scene this summer — the 1st annual Summer Team Race Series.

Team racing consists of boats (usually 3 to a team) helping each other to the best combination of finishes against another team of boats. The team with the lowest combined score of all three boats’ finishes wins.

Racing is Monday nights from 5pm ­8pm in SailMaine’s fleet of 18 collegiate 420’s. The last two Monday¹s have been fantastic with great breeze and clear skies.

SailMaine encourages anyone with experience in team racing to come sailing.
Many people arrive each Monday without someone to sail with. After a quick assessment of a person¹s experience, pairings are made and teams are made up. Presently we have 4 teams on the water (12 boats/24 people) If there are more than 24 people we rotate crews into the racing.

The group sailing each Monday is impressive. Of the 38 people so far fifteen adults were college sailors with extensive team racing experience. Seven sailors in the series are presently sailing in college at a variety of schools, including URI, Harvard, UVM, and St Mary’s . Many have commented on how “psyched” their coaches are going to be when they hear how much practice they got over the summer. The rest of the people signed up to team race are a part of the High School Sailing Program at SailMaine or experienced sailors.

For more information on the Summer Team Racing Series at SailMaine go to:
http://www.sailmaine.org/pages/Racing/TeamRacing.html

~ Sarah

sarah@sailmaine.org
207-650-2085
www.sailmaine.org

The first day of the Pilot Regatta, June 21st, will take place on the longest day of the year! To celebrate this day, there is a national data base of events found at www.summersailstice.com.

You can find an event in your area, or if you are in Casco Bay that weekend, sign up for the Pilot Regatta and join over 5000 other sailors worldwide who are celebrating the summer solstice by getting out on the water and sailing. We hope to see you out there!

We know that you all love this time of year when you duck out of the office early to do some racing on week nights. In Casco Bay, each Tuesday, there is Etchells One Design Racing, Wednesday there is J-24 One Design Racing and every Thursday any type of boat is welcome for casual racing. The first gun is at 6pm sharp on all nights and we hope to see you out there!

New Amsterdam Gin has come on board as the Admiral Sponsor of the PYC Race Series. This means that there will be New Amsterdam Gin at all of the PYC Race series events in addition to our beer sponsor, Red Hook on tap. We are excited to share these products with you. As you enjoy them, think of all the fun you will have this summer participating in the PYC Race Series Events!

In addition, our sponsor Henri Lloyd will give away 15 $50 gift certificates to the racers involved in PYC Race Series Events, chosen at random. That’s right, you don’t even have to be a winner on the racecourse to enjoy this added bonus for the PYC Races. Each boat that registers for an event will be in the running for the certificates.

Finally, the Multiple Registration Discount ends May 31st

Time is running out and the discount on registrations of 2 or more events will end May 31st. Don’t delay and sign up today for your favorite events of the summer.

• June 21st & 22nd
  Pilot Regatta
• July 12th & 13th
  PHRF State of Maine Championships & One Design Regatta
• August 8th, 9th & 10th
  Monhegan Island Race
• September 13th, 20th, 27th & October 4th
  Fall Series including the popular Lightship Race

We have a great season of racing and fun lined up for 2008. Come on out and we promise you won’t regret it!

A friend of ours Kip Stone won this race on his 50′ Artforms a few years ago. Very fast machines and sailors. Check it out!

Check out the web site for up to the minute leader board and much more.

We saw this and thought we would share it with you!

Saturday June 7th, 2008 (Rain Date is June 8th)

11am- 3pm Community Sailing for Maine

*Knot tying demonstrations

*sailing in SailMaine Boats

*Rigging demonstrations

*BBQ

*Apparel for sale

*Newsletters/ Brochures available

Located at the Casco Bay Community Boating Center, past the Ocean Gateway terminal off Thames St on Portland’s waterfront.  For more info check out www.sailmaine.org

This is Regatta Management and Marketing done at its best for both amateur and pro sailors alike. Now if we could just do this in the U.S. it would be great!

 Want to buy a boat, well after watching this video I asked where do I sign!

I attended this seminar over the weekend at M.I.T. in Boston. When I got to the room it was held in, I was immediately impressed with the facility. It was a mini amphitheater, suited to hold 150 of your closest friends, complete with many buttons that controlled everything from the lights to the window shades. Dave Dellenbaugh was the course instructor and he is no dummy when it comes to the course topics. The lecture started at 8:30 and we were there until 5pm. Believe it or not, we ran out of time to cover everything in the curriculum. There were quite a few eager sailors that wanted to hear what answers Dave would have for their situations they had come across. There were also many that needed further clarification on items that were discussed. Overall, I think that the large amount of questions detracted from what Dave had to say. I was hoping to hear more about tactics and less rules talk. As Dave said, to understand what tactics to implement, you must understand the rules that you are dealing with. It was my feeling that there were quite a few people at the seminar that may only have had a basic knowledge of the racing rules. As Dave began to scratch the surface of this basic knowledge, it was then that the questions started to roll. As a course instructor, it must be hard to find the balance of what or how many questions to take versus keeping the course schedule on track and moving along. I would have liked to have seen a time at the end for an open forum of questions and perhaps some of the questions that students had, may have been answered through the day in the topics that Dave covered. He had magnetic boats to create scenarios, some footage of actual racing situations, and computer simulated situations to add to his wealth of knowledge of the sport which were all ingredients for a great presentation.

In the end, the seminar was definitely worth the whole day. We were given Dave Perry’s 100 Best Racing Rules Quizzes with our course materials, a DVD and some other printed material. He reinforced each rule by number, and his sense of humor gave everyone in the room some laughs. I would recommend the course to any sailor that wants to learn the rules. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone that would like to learn more about tactical thinking in different scenarios around the racecourse.

We can’t ignore all the court cases, articles, interviews and gossip about the next America’s Cup. Why is it the only time sailing makes the sports its because of a court case or some crazy guy or gal who is lost at sea? Anyways, with all the ta do about the next cup, we wanted to know if you think the America’s Cup is representative of the best our sport has to offer. So check out our weekly poll let us know how you feel.

From a regatta organizer point of view and from someone that tries to market the sport of sailing to the general public all I have to say is shame on you guys (the rich guys controlling the BS). Each side points fingers at each other but is unwilling to do the hard work to make our sport better. Or does it even matter? Is the cup irrelevant to the true participants in our sport? Unfortunately, that answer is no and the Cup did a lot of good for our sport last go around. More t.v. coverage, more professionals getting paid big dollars, more sailing, more development and more sponsors willing to commit their advertising dollars to sailing. It worked both for the sponsors and the sport.

No real surprise here, knowing our current readership and having just attended the MBBS this past weekend.  It was great to see all our Regatta Promotions friends at the show.  Thank you for all the kind words about our efforts to increase the sport of sailing.

Thousands of people came through the Maine Boatbuilders Show this past weekend from all over the U.S.  The best sailboat on display was the spitfire a boat that was a rehab project by French and Web up in Belfast, Maine.  I received many comments that the boat looked brand new (which it did) and many wanted to see the boat racing asap!  Other sailboats of note were the Alerion by Rumery’s Boatyard and a couple of pretty looking boats by Artisan Boatworks.

The traditional, for MBBS, boats were all there as well.  Hinkley, Back Cove Yachts, Sabre, Lyman Morse, and others all had great examples of pure Maine craftsmanship.  We hope to see you at the show next year.