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Noah French has won a one week charter in the BVI with The Moorings!
The Grand Prize for 2004, a one week Moorings charter in the BVI for Summer Sailstice 2005, was won by Laser sailor Noah French of Branched Oak Yacht Club in Nebraska! Branched Oak had the largest participation from any single yacht club in 2003 and have repeated again this year. Proving once again you don't need an ocean to sail or to have a shot at winning with Summer Sailstice.
Other grand prize winners include Chris, of the Peterson 49 'Guild' at Coronado YC in Southern California who won the Hunter Xcite sailing dinghy. Jean Hurle of the Hunter 30 'Callisto' in Sandwich, MA won the 'Fast Track to Cruising' course from Offshore Sailing and the $500 gift certificate from West Marine was won by Laser sailor L. Arrington in Pinecrest, FL. Two winners in Lasers? Lasers have always been fun but maybe they're lucky too! The complete list of 2004 winners is posted on the right.
Mid-summer sailing is now in full swing but a few short weeks ago almost all of us were out sailing and celebrating Summer Sailstice 2004. Summer weather was just right in many places but the Southeast coast of Japan was battening down the hatches for a typhoon and the some of the Great Lakes were suffering from a late spring with cold, raw weather. If the weather is 'off' in your area we always suggest you emphasize the celebration and not the sailing! Naturally, many other places, including our home sailing turf of San Francisco Bay, were magnificent.
The size of the prize list grew as well as the number of people sailing with 2800 sailors signing up and celebrating from all around the Northern Hemisphere - doubling in size over 2003! Even a couple of intrepid Southern Hemisphere (Durban, South Africa?) sailors joined us this year, their shortest day of the year. Of course the prizes for celebrating sailing on the Sailstice are just one aspect of the event as it connects friends, raft ups and sailing on the longest weekend days of the year. Winners came from 31 states and Canadian Provinces plus one in Japan and one in Spain.
They're not all big prizes but who'd complain about just heading out for an afternoon sail and having your name drawn to win a 'Boatblender'? Or a gift subscription to SAIL magazine? Or a backpack from North Sails? At least no one has complained yet. When you think about winning and sailing you also think about rating rules, boat prep, hiking out and all the challenges of winning a race. Racing is a blast and many racers sign up to add to their chances of winning something on Summer Sailstice weekend. However, it's not the only way to sail or even the most common. Most sailors sail like Janet of 'Sloop Jan B' sailing on Long Island Sound who said 'My husband and I are taking a long weekend to spend some quality time with each other and our beloved boat - - just day tripping around Long Island Sound - - with sailing the journey is its own reward.' Summer Sailstice prizes are for anyone who heads down to the water to sail.
Summer Sailstice thanks all the good people in these sailing companies, who like an afternoon sail as much as you do, for rewarding your 'random act of sailing'. Summer Sailstice gives them a chance to make everyone a winner while giving us all another great reason to get together sail, party, barbecue and just have fun on the solstice. Check the '
Locations' page to see who was sailing and where this year or read some of the stories from '
Sailstice Tales'. '.
And, of course, there's next year. While we're still mid-season we're also planning ahead for next year when Summer Sailstice will be held the weekend of June 18/19 with the actual solstice on Tuesday, June 21st. See you out there.
