Glorious J30 Sailing!!

What a wonderful day Tuesday was! We had winds from the South west between 9 and 20 knots with very small waves. The cooler was full and the crew were anxious to get out on the water for the first time in 2007.


As always we asked our sailors to take loads of photos and be sure to email them to us.... and guess what? This time they did!!

Here we see the crew sailing towards Michigan which was their initial plan until they realised that the beer would not last all the way.








The crew told us of 'Glorious Sailing' and of how great it was to be out on the water again. 'Sailing makes the summer in Chicago' was one comment.

We would have to agree with them on that point. It really is great to be able to get out on the lake in T-shirts and shorts in early May. Let's hope that this is a sign of the summer that lays ahead.

Nothing beats being out on the Lake!!

This is our favorite shot... just like the Corona add running at the moment except that it is more realistic..... the bottle is empty!



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A proposal, a swimming instructor and great sailing

What a day we had today! Sunburned happy faces, smiles, laughs and good times at Chicago Sailing.
It started off bright and early with three full boats going out on Club Sails. All boats returned (we always like when that happens) and the reports were of some amazing sailing conditions. 'Awesome', 'Amazing' and 'Far out' were some of the many good terms used.

Here you see our J22 'Catach' sailing back into the harbor. This boat was out for a private lesson with Rob as the instructor.

While we normally advise against sailing in the harbor as Rob was onboard we didn't mind too much and also as the boat was out of gas they really didn't have much of a choice. Imagine my surprise when i saw Rob fall off the back of the boat while he was instructing. As is normal in these situations it had happened before i even realised and Rob was back onboard even quicker than he had fallen off! It may have something to do with the frigid water.

Luckily for me i had my phone with me and was able to capture the moment as he got back onboard.

Typically when someone falls overboard (especially at this time of the year) they do not stay in the water too long. Once I saw that Rob was safe and uninjured the laughter came... and did i laugh!! Well done Rob, and congratulations on the first instructor swim of 2007.



This afternoon we had another proposal, this time onboard one of our J22's. Congratulations to Jeremiah Lange and his new fiance. We would like to wish them all the best in their future. Hopefully they will always have fun memories of Chicago Sailing and come back to sail with us in the future.
For the record (and for those of you that are thinking of popping the question) we have a 100% record for proposals at Chicago Sailing.... not one declined yet.

We had a french invasion this afternoon with the arrival of one of our long time customers
Thierry Faure and his crew of fellow french sailors taking out one of the J22's for a spin this afternoon... Thierry promised to take along his drapeau tricolore next time to fly off the backstay.

Early Sunday morning.... gotta love it!

This shot was taken at about 7am this morning.... we think its one of the nicest times of the day at Chicago Sailing...... the calm before the storm.

A lovely Saturday at Chicago Sailing

65 degrees and climbing at this point. Classes are continuing and our boats are busy leaving the dock for some perfect sailing. Today we have three Basic 101's taking place and a Refresher 121. With this warm weather and 10 – 15knots out of the west the sailing conditions are close to perfect.

Here we have two dedicated and hard- working Chicago Sailing staff members getting Jaffica ready for her first sail of the day.

Brian Morrow and his crew of sailors can be seen aboard Hebejebee enjoying a few apres sail cocktails.... they are still on the boat, hopefully we won't have to carry them off. We asked them how it went.. "Ton's of fun on the water!"- Andrew + Brian, "Party like a rockstar on a Hunter 326"- Andrew, "This Rocks..."- Leann + John.

We would like to thank Brian and his crew for getting out and enjoying the fine weather... not to mention the cocktails they shared with the Chicago Sailing crew... always appreciated.

Just as we were closing up this evening we had a special visit from some past customers of Chicago Sailing. Unfortunately we forgot to get their names... but there story is one to be told.
Last year they took a charter aboard one of our Hunters and upon their return they were engaged. A year later they are now happily married and wanted to stop by to get their photo taken as they forgot to take one the day of their charter.

Congratulations again.... two successful marriage proposals and counting for 2007. We like to think that there is something in the air down here.

A wet and rocky day at Chicago Sailing

People often ask us what to we do on days like today, when it is wet, windy and not a great day for sailing.
Well as you can see from this photo it is dark, wet and windy here at the harbor. We arrived into the houseboat at 9am and as it is so windy on the lake (about 17 knots out of the North East) there is a bit of a swell coming into the harbor. Firstly we do a check on all the boats and make sure that they are correctly moored at the docks and have not suffered any damage throughout the night. We are happy to report that all are in good condition. Once that is done we brew a nice big pot of coffee, sign in to the computer system and get to work!

As for us in the Houseboat... well lets just say that we are a bit dizzy. As there is a swell coming into the harbor we are gently rocking around on board our floating houseboat. At the start of the season it takes all of us a few days to become used to the motion of the office. Yes we know, we are very lucky to have a floating office, but it does take a bit of getting used to.

So this morning we are busy taking reservations here at the houseboat, today alone we have scheduled two Basic Sailing 101 courses, a Catalina 390 charter for May and a Refresher course for May.

Donnie and Chad are here on board the houseboat with me (Ronan). Donnie is busy sowing (a man of many talents is our Donnie) our cushions for inside our J30 - Traveller. We had them cleaned for the season. Unfortunately though it is a tedious job to get the covers back over the cushions as the foam firstly has to be wrapped in plastic sheeting and then the covers led over the foam. Luckily for Donnie he is on the last of 16 covers. He vows that he will not be doing this again and will personally find anyone that stains the freshly cleaned cushions!!


Here we have a photo of one of our new staff members for 2007- Chad. Chad started a couple of weeks ago here in the office and is getting used to life aboard a floating office.

Chad is one of our team of Reservation assistants/ schedulers and is busy taking calls today. Chad is a MA student at University of Chicago studying the history of religion. He is taking a much needed break from academics for the spring and summer. Chad has done a few sailing trips in the past (he sailed with Ash Hoffman one of our instructors from Connecticut to Maine) and is looking forward to doing a lot more with us this season. Chad will be with us all summer and will be only too happy to discuss the merits of the many religions that he has studied in the past...:).

Congratulations to the first graduates of 2007

Chicago Sailing would like to congratulate some hard core sailors on their successful graduation from our Basic 101 class. They braved the conditions last weekend to venture in the freezing temperatures and heavy winds, they even braved the chili we had for them upon their return.

Here we see Sanjay (Instructor) with James, Jacob, Mike and Palwasha upon their graduation. We were hoping that they would give their instructor the traditional ducking in the water but fortunately it never happened.... maybe next time they are down sailing with us they will sneak up and push him in.... for all those prospective students out there it is the greatest compliment you can pay your instructor.




Here are the other first graduates of 2007 . Bob is the instructor in the middle with Wendy and Julia on his left and Andy and Eric to his right.

Congratulations again to all of these graduates, we hope that we will see them out on the water very soon and putting their new found skills to good use.

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Snow, driving sleet and freezin temps!!

We at Chicago Sailing love our new office location here at Belmont Harbor. We know how lucky we are to be in the harbor and to be able to look up from our computers to see the harbor and the view of the city..... most of the time that is.

Here is a shot from the harbor entrance this morning
The winds were gusting to about 35 knots with waves of 7ft - 9ft rolling straight into the harbor. Our office was like a leaking sieve, rocking and rolling around the dock about to break free. We managed to secure all of our boats and find the offending leaks (not before they had found the way to our computers and phone systems) luckily we averted any damage and nothing exploded.
Needless to say our Basic 101 class that was scheduled for today was canceled and will be rescheduled for next week.

Let's hope this weather moderates and summer returns soon.
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