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.

Mother's Day at Chicago Sailing

Mother's day was special for us all at Chicago Sailing even more so for these lovely folks below.
Here we see Anne with her daughter Melinda and husband Kent. They had a wonderful charter aboard one of our J30's - Bonzai. We are happy to report that Anne said that her cruise was 'the best mother's day gift ever' and that she can't wait to go sailing again.

Here we have Dyson and Kimo with their mother Johanna. Johanna and these guys along with their father also had a nice cruise on Mother's day... we hope to see them all down here again soon.

Congratulations to Annie Miller's class on their successful graduation from Basic 101. We would like to wish them all the best in their future sailing adventures and are looking forward to seeing them out on the water this season.
Here we have Annie (in the yellow) with her class that was made up of Scot, Murali, Phililp and Jeroen. You can also see Annie's dog Layla tugging at Philips rope that he was using to practise knots.

There really is something about early morning

One of our favorite times is the calm before the storm.... that peaceful time of the day in the early morning when the sun is just rising, the birds are awaking and people are about to get out and about (and the phones have not started ringing like crazy yet!).

Here we have a shot taken early this morning, although the harbor is still filling up you can see many boats already in their docks. After Memorial Day we expect to see many more.

First off this morning was Brent Breithaupt and his crew aboard our J24. These guys had a reservation for 8am and were anxious to get on the lake early to watch the city come alive.
If you fancy early morning cruises or sails we will be happy to open up our operations earlier, just ask.

We were graced with one of our four legged sailors also today- Bella. Bella is Stephanie's dog. Stephanie is our new Marketing Coordinator who is away in Vegas for a wedding this weekend (maybe her own, she has been quiet so far!?). Bella is our designated Guard Dog this weekend... she will lick you to death if you are not careful.
Here you see Bella before she went out sailing for the afternoon.... yes dog's are allowed here at Chicago Sailing.