Nice day, awesome wind, mid-summer, empty Barnegat Bay.  Right now, in the middle of winter, how good does this look to you?

Instructor Don’ts
1. Don’t play favorites. It’s easy to spend time with the sailor who wins all the regattas, but it can be far more rewarding to watch a young sailor come out of his or her shell and develop a real love for the sport.

2. Don’t forget that as a role model, the kids will look up to you. If you smoke or show up hung-over, they will think that is cool.

3. Don’t overcoach. At most Opti regattas, the kids do not need to be told the mistakes they just made on the racecourse.They need a water bottle anda hug.

4. Don’t forget that this is not school. It’s meant to be fun. OK, now that I’ve beaten up on the instructors, let’s move to potentially the worst problem – overzealous parents.

Parent Don’ts
1. Don’t help your child rig or unrig their boat. This is something they need to learn themselves, and they’re probably embarrassed by your “help.”

2. Don’t berate an instructor, especially in front of the sailors. This immediately undermines their authority and thus their ability to do their
job. If you have a problem, seek out the program chair or a member of the committee. It will be far more effective.

3. Don’t go to regattas and scream and cheer when your child or your program’s child rounds a mark in a high position. How do you think this makes the kids at the end of the fleet feel? Like losers.

4. Don’t make the first question you ask your child after a regatta, “How’d you finish?” It should be, “Did you have fun?” There are some exceptions to this. If they are older and committed to (racing), it’s OK to ask how they did. These are committed racers, and winning is fun. However, don’t grill them for information. It will come out. Discuss, don’t preach.

I fully realize that the vast majority of instructors and parents are very effective in raising kids to have a lifelong love of the water, but it’s that minority that can ruin a summer for all. If it isn’t fun, then we are not helping to grow our sport.

MUCH MORE: Bill Sandberg has lived his entire life on Long Island Sound, and his sailing resume includes involvement with youth sailing and US SAILING.Bill is not all about the DON’Ts , with the balance of his report providing some of the DOs and the Junior Sailing Association of Long Island Sound http://tinyurl.com/2upz7oz

While we’re on the subject of things not to do….

As a photographer I would add this:

Never get in the way of someone who is working. All the time, somebody sets up right in front of somebody else. It’s one thing if they don’t mean to block your view, but a lot of the time they do it on purpose. There’s plenty of room for everyone. In my opinion, the boat that gets there first should have priority.  Can’t we all just get along?

Have a great weekend!

In regards to all of this, I say this to all of you – what have you done recently that had deserved such criticism? Do you even have the guts, ability, or experience to even dream about doing something like this? It was her decision to go out and try to do this, and as a avid supporter of the sailing and boating industry, I wouldn’t even think of saying that she shouldn’t have done this, in fact I have a ton of respect for Abby and Jessica Watson – who actually did circumnavigate the world, but isn’t being recognized as a true record holder. Both of these sailors are doing great things for our sport. One could argue that the raw sense of adventure is lost in the sport of sailing.

However, I believe that they are bringing back that sense of adventure to the sport of sailing. Together, they actually brought a worldwide level of excitement to sailing. I’m not saying to go out and sail around the world, but if these 16 year old girls have what it takes to sail around the world by themselves, then maybe now you will have the confidence to go out and conquer one of your own lifelong dreams.

It is absolutely proven that BMW Oracle was a much better, and faster boat.  On Sunday, in merely 8 knots of wind, Oracle flew at more than 30 knots.  To me, it is absolutely incredible to think that a 114 foot sailboat can go three times the speed of the wind.  The trimaran is extremely light-weight and certainly revolutionary.

Basically, the “On the Wing Sail” makes the BMW Oracle exceptionally unique.  As you can see the wing on this sail acts just like an airplane wing, where there is high pressure on one side, and a lower pressure on the other.  There are two sections of the width of the wing.  The first half, or the main wing, is stationary, and the second part, or the flap is completely controllable.  You can actually “bend” the wind to thrust the boat forward.  They say that because of this technology, it allows them to get those top boat speeds of about three times the speed of the wind.

Obviously, this wing is absolutely massive.  You can see that it is almost double one of the wings on the A380, and it is almost the same size as the complete wingspan of the Airbus!

What was almost the most impressive was just how much they beat the catamaran Alinghi.  In race 1, BMW Oracle crossed the line 15 minutes and 28 seconds before Alinghi.  Oracle was simply pointing noticeably higher than Alinghi whenever they were sailing upwind They were also just sailing faster.  In race 2, the final delta was 5 minutes and 25 seconds.

I was fortunate to be able to watch the races live, on the internet.  It was great to see an absolutely technically driven sailboat race, where the better engineered design was the winner.  You can talk all about the drama leading up to the race, but all in all it was an extremely important regatta for sailing.  I hope we don’t have to wait another three years to see another America’s Cup race.

*Photos by Gilles Martin-Raget / www.bmor-photo.com*

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