The Show Must Go On

By Michael Argyelan

In case you haven’t heard, Strictly Sail is now combined with the Chicago Boat and RV show. That’s right, RVs, power boats, and sailboats all mixed into one giant show. The official name of the show this year is The Progressive Chicago Boat, RV & Strictly Sail Show.

Compared to previous years, the show is moved up a week, has longer hours, an additional day, and a new location. McCormick Place is the host venue and provides an expansive space to host the expanded audience. Show dates are January 14-18, 2015 and the hours are as follows:

Wednesday: 2:00pm–9:00pm

Thursday: 11:00am–9:00pm

Friday: 11:00am–9:00pm

Saturday: 10:00am–9:00pm

Sunday: 10:00am–5:00pm

For full details visit http://www.strictlysailchicago.com/.

 

Crowley’s will still be the largest sailing retailer on site. We will be representing the

SLAM and Henri Lloyd booths, have a Service Department presence, a massive shoes and boots booth, Lewmar, Closeout, and more. You can expect the same great selection and service of previous years. Bonuses to this year’s event are easier and cheaper parking, a wider variety of people, products, and seminars, and as far as we are concerned a better venue.

 

We will have more details in the coming weeks and months to come. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please email me at mma@crowleys.com. I hope this finds you well, friends. 

Racing in the NOOD: Still Funny

Sailing in the NOOD, get it? Ok, I know I made the same joke last June when I wrote an article about the regatta. It's still funny.

For those of you that don’t know what the NOOD’s are, they’re the National Offshore One Design Regattas.

This year there are 6 events planned. St. Petersburg, San Diego, Annapolis, and Seattle have had their events. The Marblehead NOOD Regatta is in July. This week Chicago will get down to business. Racing begins this Friday morning and ends Sunday afternoon. Typically there will be 2-4 races each day for windward leeward courses.

As of this morning, there are 152 boats entered for the Chicago battle royale. T-10’s take the cake for the largest fleet, again. With 28 entries it’s sure to be a good time. I’ll be sailing in the “10” fleet this year and report back next week with a follow up and maybe a few cool GoPro pics/vids.

The Vipers are back as is the Rally Race. Good times to be had there, I’m sure. There are a total of 9 One Design sections overall. The newest One Design fleet is the J70 section. With 14 boats registered, it should be fun and pretty competitive.  

A majority of the races will be windward leeward courses. See the pic below for a good visual.

US Sailing defines the course as, “having two marks: one toward the wind and one directly downwind.  In this course, you must tack upwind to round the first (windward) mark, then sail downwind to round the second (leeward) mark and then sail upwind to cross the finish line.” Often there are offset marks, gates, short courses, long courses, and more complicated designs for each race. Generally the finish is on a downwind leg, not upwind as described above.

For those of you that want to go out and watch some of the racing, head out towards the Four Mile Crib  41°52′22″N 87°32′45″W or Harrison Dever Crib 41°57′58″N 87°35′28″W) and look for a mad house of boats! Please, please keep your distance if you do this. The courses are quite large and between races boats will spread out and need room to maneuver. Binoculars are highly recommended.

Sperry and Crowley’s will be at the event with a fine selection of hot kicks focusing on Sperry’s Performance Line. The tent will be in the Chicago Yacht Club Monroe Station parking lot Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. All Sperry shoes will be 15% off during the event.

For more info on boats entered, race results, etc, click here for a link to the official Yachtscoring.com event page.