Chicago's Air & Water Show 2011

August 19^th began one of our busiest weekends at Chicago Sailing. It was a perfect weekend to experience the 53^rd annual Air and Water Show while sailing along the lake.

The show took place along the shore of Lake Michigan from Fullerton Avenue to Oak Street Beach. I must say that the view from the water is spectacular and essentially the best way to watch this show.

Flying above our sails were civilian planes and military aircraft. You can’t miss the U.S Air Force Thunderbirds as they pass by producing loud blasts. The Air and Water Show does an excellent job in representing the U.S. Military.

The show was a great success and drew in millions of people. Crowds were tremendous on both the shore and the lake.

This is an amazing show you do not want to miss, so be sure to come experience it with us next year at Chicago Sailing!

Making Connections

One of the best things, or at least we think it is, about sailing is the social nature of the sport. When you are out sailing, be it racing or cruising, you are sure to swap stories!

Our instructors get to spend the most time getting to know you, I'm sure you've found them to be a very social bunch. The office staff is also prone to story telling. Especially when it's you telling us about your latest sailing adventure (it's hard to get out of the office sometimes, so we live vicariously through you).

This season, we've had many new friends to add to the Chicago Sailing storytelling group.



Peter, Jessica, and Dennis recently joined our family - taking the ultimate sailing adventure on our Cruising class. They return to Belmont Harbor today and we are eager to hear all about their trip and what they learned along the way!



Andre has been delighting our Monday staff all summer with his sailing tales. He works for Cirque du Soleil and has toured all over the world. Many of his stories revolve around sailing, food, and drinking... They are definitely up our alley! For the last three days Andre has been sailing with our Dock Staff Supervisor, Jayme in the Rhodes 19 Nationals.

Whatever your story, please share it with us! We look forward to seeing you soon.

Regatta Team Building Sail

Today we had four of our J22’s racing in a team building regatta sail. The teams sailed through four races, the last one bringing them back to the dock. They sailed two WL 2’s and one WL 4. The race was about 200 yards. There were a few things noticed during the first round that the teams had a chance to improve on during their last few rounds. We noticed that one team went around too far making it a difficult turn. Also, some teams had difficulty keeping a straight path when sailing. It helps to have control of the tiller for a straight path. It ended up to be a great race as all teams did well as a team!

Kacey's experience working at Chicago Sailing

Kacey is on the far right, our new marketing intern.

Working at Chicago Sailing has been a perfect addition to my summer. I have been working with the dock staff for a few months now, and I only have positive things to say. All staff members are extremely friendly and I always have a great time working with them. Each day at work I love to see all of the boats heading out for an afternoon sail. I enjoy helping friendly customers in and out of the harbor. It’s great to hear their feedback when coming in from a nice sail. This summer I have been working hard with the staff to make sure all boats are exceptionally clean in order to assure that our customers are satisfied with their sails. As part of the staff team, the tasks we take on are extremely helpful in creating excellent customer service at Chicago Sailing. I am grateful to be a part of the team here at Chicago Sailing!

Parking in Belmont Harbor

This past Memorial Day, we finally got busy in Belmont Harbor. So busy, we didn't have a chance to take many pictures!


Look at that empty dock! From 11 am until the end of the day, we saw this for both our big boats and the J/22's. Boats came in and went right back out with another crew aboard. It was such a treat for the staff to see smiling faces again enjoying the warm weather in Chicago.


Plan ahead for your summer sailing. We had a lot of disappointed people who called on Memorial Day and found out that our boats weren't available when they were available.



Do you remember all the changes to parking in Belmont Harbor that happened last year? They continue to change this year. The fee for parking in the harbor area is now $11/day. One of the biggest changes is the time it takes to go through the parking gates. Some of our customers waited in line for an hour or more to get into the harbor parking on Memorial Day. Allow plenty of time for traveling to our harbor! Or, if you can, bike in. You'll appreciate the extra exercise and it will make for a hassle free sailing experience from start to finish!

End of May already!

Despite the rainy weather, we've had a busy couple of weeks.

Our first proposal charter was cut a little short due to area thunderstorms. It was still a successful trip, with a smiling engaged couple returning to our dock.



We've experienced some weather extremes. One weekend our instructors dressed like this to go out:



The following weekend was sunny and warm, with a busy dock along with the weather:



Then finally, we had this week's northern winds:



Yikes!

We're hoping this rough start to the 2011 season will be made up to us with some beautiful fall sailing weather. In the meantime, we are gearing up for a busy summer season.

Join us this weekend in Waukegan to check out our new facility and meet our Director of Operations, Waukegan Jim Sauser. He'll be at our new slips on C Dock in the North Harbor from 11 am - 2 pm introducing people to Chicago Sailing.

Or, join us for some sailing in Chicago this weekend. We're serving a special Memorial Day brunch on Monday morning!

Those scary weather predictions...

The sailing season in Chicago, thus far, has been a tad bit wet to say the least. We're ready for some summer weather. Or even just some appropriate for late-May weather!

In the meantime though, we're going to dissect the upcoming weather predictions for Chicago. Check out the current 5-day forecast on Weather.com.



Yeah, not looking so great. And those thunderstorm symbols are rather off-putting. But wait a minute, look at that chance of rain percentage at the bottom of each day! Despite a symbol for Thunderstorms, the actual chance of rain is 30% for Sunday.

The Chicago Sailing staff pays close attention to multiple normal weather reporting websites and we also check out wind forecasting websites. Check out Windfinder.com's forecast for Sunday...



Not looking so bad after all! If the rain holds off (which at 70% odds, is a pretty good bet), we'll have 15 - 25 knot winds out of the south-west. Perfect sailing conditions!

So, read a little more into the weather predictions. At first glance it might look like there are some awful sailing conditions ahead, when in fact the reported prediction is just the worst-case scenario.