Past Articles

• Six Ways Onto the Sunfish Worlds Roster

  September 13, 2026

  Writing the ILCA post left me rattled, one spot per gender, no alternates, nothing to fall back on. Sunfish doesn't work anything like that. There are 30 separate ways onto the US roster this year, from six different kinds of events.

• The First Time Someone Protested My Kid

  September 10, 2026

  A teammate protested my kid at one of our first regattas. We had never heard the word used that way. We assumed it meant something had gone wrong between them. It didn't mean that at all.

• How Sailors Become Coaches

  September 6, 2026

  Coast Guard certs? Something else? That was the honest limit of what I knew about becoming a sailing coach. Turns out it's two separate credential tracks stacked on top of each other, plus a soul-searching question you're supposed to ask yourself first.

• Don't Ignore the NOR or the SI

  August 27, 2026

  The first time I got a real Notice of Race, I handed it to my kid and hoped the coach would cover the details. Turns out there are two documents, not one, and the rule about which one wins if they disagree isn't what I expected.

• We Built a Hiking Bench.

  August 22, 2026

  In real breeze, the thing that ends a race early usually isn't skill. It's legs. A hiking bench lets a kid train that specific position on dry land, on a schedule. Here's the one we built, what we changed from the plans we found, and what we'd do differently next time.

• The Worlds Before the Worlds

  August 20, 2026

  28 American kids just raced something called "ILCA 6 Youth Worlds" in Denmark. If you pictured Team USA, you pictured the wrong event. Here's how that regatta fits into the one-shot ladder we already mapped, and what its results mean for the season ahead.

• i420: The One-Shot Ladder You Don't Climb Alone

  August 16, 2026

  ILCA sends one kid to Youth Worlds, win or go home. i420 sends one team, which sounds like the same deal until you realize half of "winning" is a person you don't control. Here's what that actually means for a doublehanded season.

• Why There's No 'C420 Worlds'

  August 13, 2026

  Another parent asked me what the "C420 Worlds" is called. It doesn't have one. Here's the ladder C420 sailors climb instead, and why "no Worlds" doesn't mean a lesser path.

• ILCA's One-Shot Ladder to Youth Worlds

  August 9, 2026

  I assumed ILCA worked like Optimist, a roster with depth and alternates. It doesn't. Youth Worlds sends exactly one American per gender, and the ladder that puts a kid there is stricter, and more countable, than it looks from the outside.

• Are College Sailing Scholarships Real?

  August 7, 2026

  Another parent told me, very confidently, that no college gives out sailing scholarships. I assumed she was exaggerating. She was not. There's an actual rule, and it's stricter than I expected.

• What 'Team Trials' Means (And How an Optimist Sailor Gets There)

  August 6, 2026

  Another parent mentioned her daughter was "going to Team Trials" the way you'd mention a dentist appointment, like it was just a thing that happens. It is not just a thing that happens. Here's what has to occur for an Optimist sailor to end up wearing a Team USA jersey.

• C420 vs. i420: The Boat Alphabet Soup Nobody Warns You About

  August 5, 2026

  For an embarrassingly long time I nodded along every time another sailing parent said "420" like I knew exactly which boat they meant. I did not. Here's the mix-up that finally made me build a page so no other parent has to fake it.

• Regatta Travel Tips (That I've learned the hard way)

  September 1, 2025

  Regatta season is back and Coach has given you the fall schedule which means families everywhere are dusting off gear, cramming too much into the car, and bracing for hotel bills that sting more than a jellyfish. After a few seasons of this madness, you start to realize there are unspoken truths every regatta parent learns the […]

• TEN Best Stocking Stuffers for Sailors

  December 6, 2024

  It’s that time of year, when your sailor is out of all the supplies you bought at the beginning of the season. Oh ya, AND it’s Christmas. So fill their stockings with what you have to buy anyway. 1- E-Tape Electrical tape (e-tape) is an essential for my sailor. He says, “mom, we use it […]

• Best Part of Every Regatta

  November 30, 2024

  Ralph Waldo Emerson is attributed for saying, “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” I think of this often when it comes to regattas. Sure, there are the nail-biting moments of the races, the competition, and the camaraderie among fellow sailors. But for this dad, the road to a regatta is not just a physical […]