ABOUT SUMMER SAILSTICE
Summer Sailstice was founded in February 2001 by John Arndt, as the global, annual celebration of sailing held on the summer solstice.
The annual Summer Sailstice sailing event is free to all participants and has grown from 200 boats signed up in 2001 to well over 2,000 boats today. Since many sailors join in the fun on boats signed up at http://www.summersailstice.com//, the actual number of Summer Sailstice sailors participating is estimated at almost 10,000 annually.
In joining with Sailors for the Sea, Summer Sailstice strives to inform and mobilize sailors, their families and communities to enjoy and conserve the beauty of the oceans and while raising awareness of human impacts on the fragile marine environment and wildlife.
About Founder: John Arndt
John Arndt is Associate Publisher at Latitude 38, a premier West Coast sailing publication. John spent three years on the Northern California Marine Association Board and six years on the Sail America Board. John learned to sail from his parents who taught him in small boats (Snark, Turnabout, Penguin, 420, Rhodes 19) on the Maine coast and has continued to sail ever since then. John’s lifelong passion for the sailing lifestyle has involved thousands of miles of racing and cruising, plus 21 years spent professionally in the sailing industry. His sailing experience includes several Bermuda races, One Design racing, Collegiate racing, two winter seasons cruising the Caribbean, sailing in Europe and the Mediterranean plus lots of sunny afternoon sails aboard all kinds of boats in San Francisco Bay.
John’s wife, Leslie and his two daughters, Sarah and Hannah, sail their 1974 Ranger 33 'Summer Sailstice', recently painted 'Stars & Stripes' blue by Berkeley Marine Center, and their DeWitt dinghy from the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon on San Francisco Bay whenever they can. You can contact John at john@summersailstice.com.
About the Sailors for the Sea
Mission
Sailors for the Sea is a nonprofit organization that educates and empowers the boating community to protect and restore our oceans and coastal waters.
History
The sea is a sanctuary for all of us who sail. It is our place of adventure, our home away from home.
But two comprehensive studies — by the 2003 Pew Oceans Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy — have made it dramatically apparent that our beloved ocean is severely threatened. The three main threats are serious pollutants that degrade coastal ecosystems, a dramatic decline of fish stocks, and bureaucratic chaos in ocean management.
Unfortunately, government has often attempted to intervene without educating the public first. Before our society can address the threats to our nation's largest resource, someone has to sound the alarm.
Sailors need the ocean and the ocean needs sailors, so there is great incentive for us to educate ourselves and promote ocean awareness in others. Surfers, divers, and recreational fisherman are already active as ocean advocates, but the sailor’s voice is missing. Sailors for the Sea proposes to be that voice.
