SAIL.SailMagazine

Caribbean Racing a charter boat is very different from campaigning your Sonar or Etchells or, as in our helmsman Charlie Garrard’s case, your J/105. Some bareboats are pretty tired, and sails can have a short lifespan in boisterous Caribbean conditions. Some of the bigger, heavier boats are cumbersome and slow to tack and trying to sail them well can be a frustrating exercise. Local knowledge of winds and
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Cruising I could barely hear the robotic voice of the NOAA weather radio over the engine as I sat at the nav station, groggy from an overnight passage across the Gulf of Maine. It was just past dawn on a late September day, and I was taking Sonata, my Pearson 36 cutter, south for the winter. One of my crew was asleep in the saloon; the other was on watch in the cockpit.

“For

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Expert Advice

In the October issue of SAIL, we take you on charter adventures in the Spanish, U.S. and British Virgin Islands. You may have sailed there a dozen times before, but there are always new gems to discover. We asked our panel of Island Experts to divulge their best Virgin Island charter secrets. Here's what they came up with

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Ocean Racing “Orcas! Two-o’clock!” The call from the on-deck watch filters into the thin, relative warmth of the cabin on JAM, John McPhail’s J/160. I look through the cold, spitting rain at the sea’s tumultuous surface. It takes a few moments to spot the orcas’ distinctive white spots amid a sea of whitecaps. Then three majestic mammals appear, obviously interested in the parade of raceboats
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Ocean Racing On Memorial Day weekend in 1972, four sailing buddies came up with a great idea. “Let’s sail from Hyannis to Nantucket, spend the long weekend there, then sail back—and let’s race.”

It was so much fun they decided to do it again, inviting other friends to join in. By 1978, there were more than 75 boats on the starting line, and the newly established race committee added a lay-day in

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