Do You Have Plans To Hoist Your Sails for Summer Sailstice?
What are your sailing plans? It’s just two weeks until the summer solstice starts your summer sailing with the Summer Sailstice celebration. A look at the map shows sailors across the country posting personal plans, events, races and whatever they feel like doing with a sailboat on the weekend of June 20. If you have access to a sailboat, the summer is the time to use it — days are long and the sun is high. Of course, the Bay may be cool and windy, though just right for a brisk sailing adventure.
While Summer Sailstice aims to connect the global world of sailing, it’s really about sailing locally while thinking globally. You see all the ways people sail across the country while you hoist your sails locally. This helps the world “see” sailing in the way most of us do it most of the time. That could be at Shoreline Lake in Mountain View or in the 22-mile King Harbor to Long Beach Race in Southern California.
Summer Sailstice highlights events like the Master Mariners Wooden Boat Show at the Corinthian Yacht Club on Sunday of Summer Sailstice weekend, or Island Yacht Club’s summer Island Nights Friday Night beer can racing. People also post their individual plans like Steve Washburn, who’s planning to sail his Cal 29 Honu to Catalina Island for a three-day birthday celebration for his son.
Remember — it’s all about the sailing. Taking an ILCA (Laser) out on the Bay or at Shoreline Lake in Mountain View is how so many sailors started sailing. Some can’t give it up and are still sailing them today. ILCAs were unveiled at the New York Boat Show in 1971, with about 223,000 of them built since then. ILCAs will be racing at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. They’re a great way to start and keep sailing.
The St. Francis Yacht Club will be putting youth sailors to the test as they compete in the annual two-day Junior Heavy Weather Regatta over Summer Sailstice weekend, June 20–21. They’ll be racing in RS Tera (Pro and Sport) and Optimist (Red, White, Blue and Green) fleets in the summer’s high winds along the San Francisco Bay Cityfront. If they can sail, so can you!
Summer sailing starts with Summer Sailstice weekend, and there are many events like those above to join. If you’ve got an event or if just want to sail solo or with friends and family, you can add your plans to the Summer Sailstice map. We can’t all be together, but we can all sail “together” because there’s plenty of room on the Bay and ocean.
There are prizes, and you can order the 2026 burgee, but most of all, don’t be left at the dock on Summer Sailstice. Starting with summer, sailing is habit-forming, and that’s a good thing.