Yin & Yang

One thing that continues to amaze me is the number of ways that people interpret and participate in the sport of sailing. There's an aspect of this sport for everyone, and for every strange niche in it, there seem to be plenty of sailors that want to do that. Cape Cod Frosties come to mind: a 6'4" dinghy made from 2 4'x8' sheets of 1/4" plywood with a closet dowel for a mast. 1,000 of them in existence. Amazing.

Over the past three days, we had the enormous good fortune to be involved with two really cool regattas that highlight two completely different ends of the sailing spectrum - and in a really nice way. On Friday, we did the Around the Island Race in Newport, part of the New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta, on George David's new 90' Reichel-Pugh "Rambler". Biggest boat we've ever been on, driven by Kenny Read with a crew that includes some of the best sailors on the planet - a veritable United Nations of Volvo Ocean Race and America's Cup veterans.

It was a pretty quick trip - just over 2 hours start to finish. Sailed a good chunk of it in pretty thick fog, much to navigator Tony Bessinger's chagrin. Tony admitted to me Saturday morning that he was a bit nervous about bricking up the boat and blowing the Transatlantic Race for the team, but when the fog rolled in 10 minutes before our start, he really didn't look well. He did a great job in a pressure situation, though, and we got around the track without hitting anything.

They did the starts in reverse order, so we started last. Because of this, we spent the first half of the race sailing through all of the classes that started ahead of us - a pretty terrifying prospect with the fog, both for us and for the boats that we would happen upon at fairly close quarters. There were a couple of encounters that required some significant evasive action, but we all emerged unscathed. There was a gut-wrenching moment when we sailed under the Jamestown Bridge - we had to hit it dead-center and it looked like we were going to leave the masthead wand in the eastbound breakdown lane.

Despite the fact that we lost the race to a well-sailed Blue Yankee, George seems to really like his new boat, and he's looking forward to campaigning it in Europe this summer. After the race, we spent an hour catching up with old friends on the terrace at Harbour Court before returning to reality in the form of a 2 hour drive back to Marblehead.

On Saturday, Eastern Yacht Club hosted the Marblehead Spring 505 Regatta, sponsored in part by Atlantis WeatherGear. The 505 is one of the coolest dinghies we've ever sailed, and the 505 class is a terrific group of people. They like to travel, they're always willing to support new events and fleets, and they're a very low-maintenance bunch. They don't mind sleeping on floors, they don't care whether there are trophies - as long as the beer's cold and the racing's good, they're very happy. They're even low-maintenance from a race management perspective: the class uses "rabbit starts" where the boat that finished 2nd in the previous race starts the next race by rounding the leeward mark on port and sailing upwind for one minute (or more depending on fleet size) while all the other boats dip the rabbit's transom one by one. After a minute, the rabbit is released and is free to tack or keep sailing. No one's ever over early, there are never any general recalls and the starts are generally dead-even.

15 boats showed up for the event including class veterans Tom Kivney and Macy Nelson. Two father-son teams were there: Macy and his son Nick (sailing different boats - according to Nick, he's the "A" boat now) and Doug and Ian McKeige (sailing together with dad on the wire). The regatta was won by Ramsey Key and Drew Buttner, and prizes included some Atlantis gear as well as a random selection of trophies left over from other regattas and tennis matches (we finished 3rd in the event last year, and we got a trophy that says "PHRF Class B" on it).

Two really cool sailing events - two really cool boats - two very different versions of the sport. One one hand, the very civilized world of maxi-boat racing with a world-class crew of professional sailors. One the other, the grassroots world of inshore dinghy racing with an incredibly enthusiastic group of amateur sailors. Not a lot of crossover between the two (although interestingly, Chris Nicholson, Volvo Ocean Race watch captain extraordinaire, is a 3-time 505 world champion sailing with his brother Darren), so what's the common thread?

Besides Atlantis' involvement, not a hell of alot aside from a bunch of committed sailors doing what they love to do and doing it well. And that's where we want our brand to live.