Sitting in the Catbird Seat
One joyful surprise of a charter sail is the unique experience sitting in the catbird seat on boat of 30 feet or longer. The concept was pioneered by Hunter Sailboats in the early 1980s as twin “stern perch” seats on the aft rail, but the term catbird quickly eclipsed that. Catalina Sailboats and Beneteau Sailboats […]
Oysters in the Bay
They are comparatively few and far between today, but oysters used to clog the Chesapeake Bay. These days, we see precious few oyster men while sailing the York River. Virginia’s catch has dropped from nearly 8 million bushels in the early 1900s to half a million today. The industry began here in the early 1800s when […]
She Said Yes
Meghan Mannas said yes when Gregory Eyler proposed marriage to her on the bow of a boat during a charter sail with Williamsburg Charter Sails. Brisk breezes required that we move to lee of the wind and let the trees on the Yorktown cliffs slow the force. Otherwise Gregory might have dropped the ring, to […]
Where’s that, Sailor?
You can name your boat almost anything except Mayday and Vessel In Distress. As long as it will make sense when hailing the Coast Guard on marine radio, they don’t care. Amusement arise when one tries to hail Tow Boat US three times, because it sounds very much like Toy Boat, which is hard to […]
Sailing Memories
Memories of sailing are vivid but not always pleasant. While tacking downriver on the York with Doug and Stephanie Gwilliam of San Diego, David Rane recalled the time he and his wife Mary Beth went out on a skippered boat in Washington State. “It was a howling wind and raining sideways, so I assumed we […]
Sailing to Oblivion
As you go sailing to Oblivion, you can name your boat almost anything except Mayday and Vessel In Distress. As long as it will make sense when hailing the Coast Guard on marine radio, they don’t care. Amusement arise when one tries to hail Tow Boat US three times on Channel 16, because it sounds […]
Sailing their Careers
Two dynamic couples visiting Williamsburg from Greensboro took a short sailing vacation on the York River. Having never been on a sailboat before, they did a fabulous job running the rig, raising the spinnaker, and conducting a man overboard exercise to rescue a hat—my hat actually. We saw a half dozen dolphin, who trailed the […]
Lights for Sailboats
The US Coast Guard has developed an elaborate scheme of navigation lights for boats and sailboats of all sizes on the York River and around the world. Thay way, everyone can recognize each other at night and tell what direction they’re going. The easiest example is the one here of a sailboat with red, green […]
America’s Cup 2013
The fastest sailing on Earth took place during the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco Bay. These $100 million catamarans rose up out of the water on hydrofoils, which can be seen in this video. They touched an astonishing 55 mph. America was down 8-1 and roared back to win 8 straigt to win 9-8. […]
Sailing Past Hugo
People ask, “What do you do in a hurricane?” “We learned how to make candles by cutting up shoelaces and dipping them in olive oil,” Karen recalled while sailing the York River. “A friend of ours got a call months later from someone who said, ‘Would you please come here and remove your boat from […]
Sailing with Foodies
Mike and Kate Cash of Kansas City enjoyed their honeymoon sailing on the York River. They are avid cooks and devotees of the Food Channel, where they follow acclaimed Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. By sheer luck, we also took aboard Kathi and Chef Ron Gallo of JoJo Restaurant in New York. JoJo is one of 50 […]
Sailing with Bernoulli
I get asked all the time, “How does a sailboat sail against the wind?” Albeit counterintuitive, sailboats have to stay close to the angle of the wind to get the most power and speed. It’s explained by Bournelli’s Principle in which air going over one surface of an object (the mast) is faster than the […]
Backing up a Sailboat
“People ask,” Is it hard to back up a sailboat into the slip?” ASA has an entire course dedicated to this, so yes it is. Corinna Caldwell is my first sailing student to take on the daunting task of backing a sailboat into a slip, under power. It’s like backing up a tractor-trailer in a […]
Kalmar Nyckel at Yorktown
Delaware’s state ship Kalmar Nyckel roared up the York River under motor (and with aft flag unfurled) to visit Yorktown briefly. This is a recreation of the ship that brought Peter Minuit to Delaware in 1638 to settle the colony. It remained largely a merchant ship except for occasional war duty, when all 12 cannon […]
Houston Problem
The Howell family enjoyed a beautiful afternoon sailing on the York River, near Williamsburg. After all these years, the three sisters retain varying degrees of their native Georgia accent. That led to a generalization that people outside the South find the drawl charming in women but not so much among men. It could be that […]
Sailing Upright
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrW7avH8PjA People ask, “Is extreme sailing dangerous?” This YouTube video shows how perilous it can be to sail a performance catamaran, such as found in the 2014 America’s Cup. By 2021 they were attaching the air foils to sloops for racing. The Vendee World was nearly all foiled sloops. Better that you stay with a […]
Tale of Two Couples
Two couples sailing the York River enjoyed opposite timelines. Jan and Bill Spendley have been married 52 years and do nearly everything together. Tyrell Gardner and his date Shawna are engaged to marry . Tye is finishing up his master’s on the way to medical school. That left us in awe for his dedication. We […]
Sailing with Seatbelts
People ask, “Do you learn about other stuff while sailing?” Cathy and Ron Johnson tacked out the York River and sailed on the spinnaker all the way back. He worked 38 years with International Harvester, which once had huge market share for building school buses. So why don’t they have seat belts? (1) Bus seats […]
Sailing with Old Friends
Pam Martin took Tony Telesmanic out for an early evening sail. She raises show horses and they both are high-powered office supply execs. He used to be a Navy SEAL. He looked every bit the part, with a build so strack for his age, which I put around 50. Once when Tony was serving on […]
Key Sailors
People ask, “Is it hard to fly a spinnaker?” Aron and Caryn Arias took their boys sailing on the York and helped deploy the colorful spinnaker on the bow for running downwind. Aron and Ben (right) have sailed with Boy Scouts in the Florida Keys. Alex ran the helm as Ben raised the spinnaker. The […]
