Vincent Pica

3 weeks ago | windcheckmagazine.com | David Dellenbaugh |Chris Szepessy |Vincent Pica |Joe Cooper

When your position in the race suddenly takes a nose dive, it’s time to re-focus your gameplan. Don’t discard your well-planned strategy, but consider making a few adjustments. Take a deep breath. Before you follow a knee-jerk reaction (which seldom works), pause for a moment and assess your situation. Think about questions like:• Is it early or late in the series? • Do you already have a throwout? • How good is your boatspeed? • How confident are you in your pre-start strategic plan?

3 weeks ago | windcheckmagazine.com | Tom Darling |Vincent Pica |Chris Szepessy |Joe Cooper

It was Memorial Day 2020, and I was not sailing. Our Classics Fleet at Oakcliff Sailing in Oyster Bay, New York was restricted by social distancing and masks. All I could do for recreation was walk. It was as eerily quiet on the water as it was in the deep of The Ramble in New York City’s Central Park. I was walking daily during the spring of 2020, and realized I was not walking by myself; I had a soundtrack around me. That was the birds of Central Park, thousands and thousands of them.

3 weeks ago | windcheckmagazine.com | Chris Szepessy |Vincent Pica |Benjamin Cesare

We tend to see report cards as documents focused only on the past. But the 2025 Long Island Sound Beach Report, released by Save the Sound just before Memorial Day Weekend, is as much about the future. Yes, the biennial Beach Report presents water quality grades from recent swimming seasons—2022 through 2024, in this case. It evaluates how water samples collected at roughly 200 public and private beaches around the Sound performed against state safe swimming standards in New York and Connecticut.

4 weeks ago | windcheckmagazine.com | Chris Szepessy |David Dellenbaugh |Vincent Pica |Benjamin Cesare

Zim Sailing has announced that production of the ISCA® (International Sunfish Class Association™) sailboat is underway in Bristol, RI. Extensive testing both on and off the water is complete, and the first boats will be delivered to customers and dealers nationwide in the coming weeks. Interested sailors are encouraged to request a quote and place a deposit now to get on the water this summer.

4 weeks ago | windcheckmagazine.com | Benjamin Cesare |Joe Cooper |Vincent Pica |Chris Szepessy

I have mentioned this before. I like to beach. I remember as a junior sailing kid, we used to call the less proficient kids, or adults for that matter, “beachers.” And of course, ugly boats were called “beacher craft.” “Can you believe that beacher tacked on us? So un-cool!” Or, “Check out that beacher craft in the channel…thing is soooo ugly!” I suppose it was less rude than “check out that POS 36,” but still, we certainly were arrogant little pricks.