Welcome to Sailing ’08. We are as eager as you to put this winter behind us

The interesting thing about Chicago Weather is how dramatically it can change. We can go from cold and wet to hot and dry in an instant. Rarely do we experience a traditional spring with gradually increasing temperatures. So, it is with this in mind, that we start the season early. It gives sailors a chance to tune themselves up before the great weather dominates. This past weekend has given us a taste of what to expect. And while the weather has thwarted our efforts to have all boats ready for the season, we have plenty available.

Season beginning

Here we have the first shot of Belmont Harbor from our dock. As you can see here its still quite empty. As each day passes though we will see it fill up.

Work Continues at Chicago Sailing

Here are a couple of shots of Donnie and Charlie working hard to sort out a skied halyard. This is a real pain to sort out and a timely reminder to all involved as to why it is very... very.... VERY important to never.... never.... NEVER let a halyard out of your hand unless it is secured to something.
What sometimes happens is that the weight of the halyard will pull the end of the halyard up to the top of the mast or even worse out of the mast altogether (with the help of those onboard) and either the mast has to be taken down or if we have to send someone up the mast to feed a wire down through the mast and then lead a new halyard through. Here you see that we have used the main halyard on our J30 Bonzai to haul Charlie up the mast in a 'Bosun's chair' and 'heeled' the J24 over towards the J30's mast so as to be able to reach the top of the J24's mast. This method saves us having to get a crane to take down the mast on the J24 and about an additional 2 ours work!!


This is a time consuming and sometimes very frustrating task (ask Charlie or Donnie) and can be avoided by sailors making sure to 'make off' or secure halyards at all times and also NEVER pulling a line or halyard that you are unsure where it is coming from.

All in all this took us about 2 hours from start to finish.

You can't beat the Friday evening sail!

Today was the most wonderful evening for a sail... add about 12o new sailors from The Lincoln Park Young Professionals, some great Vodka and Champagne drinks and you get a wonderful time. All participants were treated to a sail on the lake and some entertainment from our colourful captains and instructors.

Wild winds and crazy rain at Chicago Sailing

Today at Chicago Sailing we were treated to some of Chicago's notoriously quick changing weather. We had heavy, heavy rain and some wild thunderstorms. Here you can see the rain pouring down by the bucket load. It was too wet to move so we stayed inside the houseboat watching the great natural display.


After the rain stopped we walked up to the underpass at Lakeshore Drive only to see this. The pass was flooded with some cars stalled out with their doors nearly covered up.

Kicking off the Summer

What a better way to start the summer than a day on the water? These 5 friends are getting ready to head out for another beautiful summer day on to the lake. Here at Chicago Sailing we sometimes may be a little short on wind, but we are never short on fun!



5 big boats all lined up on the dock, what a shame! These boats were meant for cruising, not sitting.

Empty Docks at Chicago Sailing....

Today was a wonderful day for a sail, upon our return to the dock we realised that we had a practically empty dock. This is great for everyone, our dock staff are happy as they can catch up on some workshop and maintenance work while our office staff have time to continue with our scheduling. The instructors love it as they are on the boats out on the water.