Living in the Scuttlebutt World

by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
While Major League Baseball takes a pause with it’s All-Star Week (thank you!), the odds are good that whatever your type of sailing, it is all on right now. No rest, as the days are long and the weather is warm. From beer canning to world championships, it is that time of year!

I was pleased to see Lee Parkhill recognized as Sail Canada’s 2024 Sailor of the Year, as his accomplishments occurred in the Sunfish where he won the Gold Medal at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games (click here). The Sunfish Class continues significant popularity in the Americas with adaptability for all sizes and genders, and while the ILCA gets a lot of attention in the singlehanded dinghy world, the Sunfish deserves its seat at the table.

For SailGP fans, it is hard to say their fourth season wasn’t a success. Or at least, it seemed that way as the San Francisco finale delivered with firm conditions, Australia didn’t win for the fourth time in a row, and the last place team from Season 3 did (click here). The league continues to take steps forward (click here), seemingly in the right direction.

When the league released its Season 5 schedule, Los Angeles and San Francisco were back on the schedule, but slotted into the risky month of March. The winds are feast or famine during the winter season, and the F50s are miserable machines in the light conditions. But CEO Russell Coutts assured the bigger foils coming online will keep the boats airborne. Fingers crossed.

The Midwest weather gods once again reminded us that the Great Lakes can be just as vicious as its ocean neighbors, with the Chicago Mackinac Race riding a wild and destructive weather system northward in Lake Michigan (click here). At least the bugs weren’t a problem this year, but the insurance industry may tighten the screw another turn on issuing policies for race boats.

While the Kiwi nation may still lament how the America’s Cup won’t be held in Auckland, there must be, in private places, some pleasure in seeing how the Barcelona locals aren’t so stoked about having the event in their town (click here). In the absence of an organic connection to spark passion, the natives instead see it as contributing to the congestion and rising costs of their struggling community.

There are three more races left in the San Diego Beer Can Series, with light winds and bad eating and drinking habits prevailing this season. The morning after seems to get harder every year, but we’ve had different crew on our Alerion 28 for nearly every race to keep it fresh and fun. So far so good.