Andrew Parkinson, editor in chief of our sister brand Cruising World, recently stopped by the Fort Lauderdale West Marine store to chat with Zach Grover, Category Manager for Sailboat Hardware, Anchored Docking and Deck Hardware, about how the marine retail supplier is keeping sailors equipped with the latest gear they need in a constantly evolving sailing world. Visit www.westmarine.com or your local West Marine retail store to stock up your gear bag.

The post Industry Insider: West Marine appeared first on Sailing World.

We’ve partnered with West Marine to give away a Gill OS2 Offshore Jacket & Bib set worth $625! Head over to our Instagram page to enter and you could be the lucky winner!
How to Enter:

• Visit our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/sailingworldmag/
• “Like” the post from 8/8/22 posted at 11 AM
• Tag a friend
• Follow us and “@westmarineinc”
• Giveaway open to individuals, eighteen (18) years or older at time of entry, who are legal residents of the United States.

Prize Package Includes:

• Men’s OR Women’s Gill OS2 Offshore Jacket
• Men’s OR Women’s Gill OS2 Offshore Bib

Giveaway ends 8/15/22 at 11:59 AM EST. One winner will be randomly chosen and notified by Sailing World via direct message on Instagram. To read the full giveaway terms & conditions, click here.

Good luck!

The post Sailing World + West Marine Sail Away Sweeps appeared first on Sailing World.

However you like to hit the water, West Marine has you covered. With over 230 stores and the widest selection of marine products, West Marine has what you need to make the most of your time on your boat. Start loading up your shopping list – visit https://www.westmarine.com/ and get out there!

The post Get Out on the Water with West Marine appeared first on Sailing World.

On Super Bowl Sunday the greater Tampa/St. Pete area was consumed by national and local media attention and fanfare for the big game. Only 25 miles west of Raymond James Stadium, another major championship was on the line for sailors competing on the final day of racing at 2021 West Marine US Open Sailing Clearwater, the third and final Florida tour stop in the new six-event series.

Sunday was also a big-wind, big-wave, and big-wet kind of day as sailors and kiters ripped through the racecourse. They raced in 14 to 16 knots and gusts in the mid-20s. The Foiling Kites notched three more races on Sunday for 18 total and it was a mad dash to the top of the podium between Evan Heffernan (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Kai Calder (Alameda, Calif.). Heffernan had a lead entering Sunday, but Calder posted a pair of wins to take the lead entering the final race.

“Going into the final race of the day I was two points behind,” said Heffernan. “The final race was a tough one, but I had a few people between me and Kai, and I was able to pull off the win. It’s been tight racing all week.”

Heffernan also discussed the important decisions he had to make about his gear and equipment this week. “Changing out my kite and taking the loss and missing the first race allowed me to be set up for the final two races of the day, even though I might have been behind. Weather is such a big factor and being set up with the right gear will make a big difference.”

He spoke about the top Foiling Kite sailors training in Florida this winter. “For the past two weeks we’ve been out here training together with the support of [the] Olympic Development Program and US Sailing and it’s been really cool to see everyone working as one, analyzing all the data, and seeing where we are making gains.”

RELATED: West Marine US Open Sailing Series Fort Lauderdale

Markus Edegran (West Palm Beach, Fla.) had a tremendous regatta through the first two days before sustaining an injury and could not compete in the final two days of the regatta. Edegran had a six-point lead through 11 races in the Foiling Kites fleet.

Daniela Moroz (Lafayette, Fla.) finished the regatta in sixth overall as the only women’s competitor in the fleet. She was second in the last race of the day and she posted nine top-five results this week. Noah Runciman (La Porte, Texas) rounded out the podium with a third-place finish overall.Hometown sailor and Olympian Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) won the women’s division in the Laser Radial fleet after another exciting duel with Sarah Douglas (Toronto, CAN). Railey posted a 3-4 on Sunday which was good enough to edge Douglas by 1 point. Douglas made a push on Sunday by winning Race 10 and placing second in Race 11. These two training partners competed closely at West Marine US Open Sailing Fort Lauderdale with Douglas earning the win in January.

“I was pretty consistent and not very risky at all, so I think that is what set my scores apart from the others,” said Railey. “I had really good downwind [legs] as well and that saved me a lot of points. The waves were perfect, and we got nice swell with chop, so two different directions with the waves. You round the windward mark, and you can just rip downwind. I thought that was pretty fun. It made all the hiking we did upwind worth it.”

Chapman Petersen (Fontana, Wis.) took home the overall title in the Laser Radials with 19 points through 11 races. He won five races this week and never placed worse than seventh. Peterson also won the Laser Radial fleet at West Marine US Open Sailing Fort Lauderdale.

Leo Boucher (West River, Md.) held back a hard charging Marshall McCann (Kemah, Texas) to win the Laser fleet by 6 points. Boucher had a 17-point advantage heading into Sunday’s final set of races. McCann and Boucher alternated first and second place finishes in Sunday’s two races. Boucher won four races this week and finished in the top three in all 11. Connor Nelson (Tampa, Fla.) took third place honors in the fleet and finished just 11 points behind Boucher. By contrast, at West Marine US Open Sailing Fort Lauderdale, Boucher was 10th, McCann was ninth, and Nelson was eighth.”We got a little bit of everything from the weather and conditions this week,” said Boucher. “Towards the end of the regatta the racing got a lot closer and it was a lot of fun.”

Anna Vasilieva (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) wrapped up an impressive four days on the water by placing second and first in Sunday’s two races in the Laser 4.7 fleet. She won 10 of 11 races to earn a 15-point win. Evan Wern (St. Petersburg, Fla.) was the top male sailor in the fleet and second overall. Oscar Parzen (San Diego, Calif.) finished third. The win marks an improvement for Vasilieva who placed fourth at West Marine US Open Sailing Fort Lauderdale.

The iQFoil fleets conducted an hour-long marathon race beginning shortly after noontime. In the Men’s fleet, Mateus Isaac (Sao Paulo, BRA) put the finishing touches on a perfect week by winning all 15 races to take the title. Adrien Gaillard (MEX) was second and Alexander Temko (Palm Harbor, Fla.) was the top-performing American in third place. Temko posted 10 top five finishes this week.

Mariana Aguilar Chavez Peon (MEX) won the Open iQFoil fleet by 11 points over Giovanna Prada (BRA) who won today’s race. She was followed by Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md.) who was third in today’s race and third overall for the regatta. She posted eight top three finishes.

On January 11, US Sailing and host yacht clubs at sailing venues in Florida and California launched a new racing and training series of Olympic-class regattas in 2021 and beyond. The West Marine US Open Sailing Series offers an increase in high-quality Olympic-class racing for U.S. athletes with a goal of attracting top-level international competitors to race in these regattas for years to come.

US Sailing and the larger community of sailors in the U.S. identified a demand for a racing and training platform based in the United States that serves to provide as a runway to the Olympic Games for prospective athletes. With the 2028 LA Olympics on the distant horizon, it is essential for US Sailing to establish a consistent and predictable cycle for athletes to plan for on an annual basis.

The first two events of the 2021 series took place in January at venues in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The series resumes in San Diego this June for the start of three events in California, including Long Beach in July and San Francisco in August.

To learn more about the West Marine US Open Sailing Series and to follow all the action in 2021, visit the series website at usopen.ussailing.org.

The post A Super Sunday in Clearwater appeared first on Sailing World.

120510_FantasySailingLeague

The Naples stop of the 2011-’12 America’s Cup World Series had it all. Thrilling action, plenty of lead changes, big winds and waves, capsizes, and a big upset in the final standings. It would’ve been perfect for the Fantasy Sailing League. Unfortunately we were a little head down at Sailing World HQ and didn’t get things rolling in time. But hopefully Venice will provide us with a similar level of excitement because we’re bringing our Fantasy Sailing League competition out of retirement (hopefully for good). With two new competitive teams from Luna Rossa, plus Team Korea and Nathan Outteridge getting a feel for the boat, and Russell Coutts back onboard one of the Oracle Racing boats, the competition should be harder to call than ever.

Just like we did with the San Diego stop, we’re asking you to pick the top five finishers for both the fleet and match racing portions of the regatta, which starts on May 17. The capsize bonus is back (would you have picked Artemis to go upside down?) and we’ve got one more bonus question, asking which team is likely to win the most individual fleet races in Venice. The fleet-race scoring weighted so heavily toward the final race, so a team could dominate the first six races of the fleet racing regatta but still wind up in second or third, or worse.

Here’s the link to enter:

The scoring will go as follows: Pick the first place finisher in the fleet racing and you’ll get 10 points. Second, 8; third, 6, fourth, 4, and fifth, 2. For the match racing, the points are 9 for getting the winner correct, 7 for second, 5 for third, 3 for fourth, and 1 for fifth. The capsize bonus (which only applies during competition from May 17 to 20) could net you five additional points. Also if you correctly guess the team that wins the most individual fleet races you’ll get 3 points for each of those wins. The Speed Test questions will be used to break any ties.

All entries must be in before the first race on May 17. Feel free you change your entry as often as you like. Question four asks whether you’re revising a previous entry, so check that if you entered once but have changed your mind. Maybe your pick for the top spot bombs in the City of Venice Regatta May 12 and 13. That’s fine, just redo the entry and drop them from contention. We’ll only consider the most recent entry for the purposes of the competition.

To aid your research, here’s a link to the current overall standings, plus the results from Naples.

As for the prizes. West Marine has graciously supplied us with a sweet trio of prizes for the top three finishers (based on total points accumulated according to the scoring matrix):

**First: West Marine Typhoon Jacket:** This is just the piece of kit for a drizzly summer evening race, or a wet blast across the bay. Or a trip to the pub when the fog rolls in. It’s waterproof and windproof and has a lined collar for comfort.

**Second: His and Hers Full-Finger Gloves:** After a long winter of getting soft, your hands aren’t quite ready for the rigors of a long spinnaker run in 20 knots, or trimming the main through a frantic pre-start. Keep the blisters at bay (for both you and the missus, or vice verse) with these full-finger gloves.

**Third: West Marine’s Performance Rigging Knife by SOG. **Salt water wrecks knives and multitools. So start the season off with a fresh blade. Comes with a locking marlinspike and shackle key.

Fourth and Fifth: Sailing World T-shirt or Dr. Crash calendar.

For first and second prizes, the items are exhangeable for a different size at any West Marine.

The post Fantasy Sailing League: America’s Cup World Series, Venice appeared first on Sailing World.