Start the Summer With a Summer Sailstice Weekend
Summer sailing starts this weekend. The solstice is the official, celestial start of summer and always the Summer Sailstice weekend celebration of sailing. If you haven’t signed up yet, it’s not too late. Log in to add an event here or add your own, individual sailing plan here. Why? To put your event or plans on the map below and help the world discover sailing. What we all do offshore is hidden from what most of the world sees. In Northern California, there’s a shocking number of people who don’t seem to know there’s a Bay in the middle of the San Francisco Bay Area. Or, if they know the Bay, they don’t know how to connect to sailing. Summer Sailstice is here to help sailors connect and to help people who dream of sailing discover where and how to participate.
Brandon Mercer is signed up and sailing south in the Half Moon Bay Race this weekend. Up in the Pacific Northwest, Marine Servicenter will be hosting its 24th annual Summer Sailstice Jeanneau Rendezvous. There are loads of small events because sailing is not like the World Cup, where you can assemble tens of thousands of fans in a single stadium. This weekend’s SailGP in Halifax, Nova Scotia, brings attention to a new sailing audience, but does it really help the non-sailors understand what most people love about sailing? Can the fans conceptualize what a weekend of sailing would look like for them? Fast is fun, but a lot of what we love about sailing on the weekends is the chance to slow down and connect with friends and nature. When we are racing, it can be amazing how exciting it is at just six knots.
For those who remember when KFOG was a rock music station in the ’80s and ’90s, you may remember their newscaster, Scoop Nisker, who would say, “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.” Summer Sailstice was created to help sailors do it. Many sailors want to share sailing but thousands of sailors can’t get together. Summer Sailstice gives us all a chance to sail “together” when taking our friends sailing and making it public on the Summer Sailstice map. It’s terrific to see all the organizations like the Yaquina Bay Yacht Club in Oregon inviting the public to an Open House.
Alice McNamara wrote from YBYC saying, “Yaquina Bay Yacht Club in Newport, Oregon, will be participating in the 2026 Sailstice for the seventh time since 2018. We have offered free sailboat rides to nearly 300 people with anywhere from four to eight volunteer skippers and boats. Sailstice has been one of our biggest draws for new memberships. With approximately 100 current club members, our club offers youth and adult sailing classes, coaches the high school sailing team [and] holds monthly potlucks, beer can races and other social events. We are pleased to take part in this International Sailstice event.”
If you have plans, post them. If you don’t, then make some. If you don’t have a boat, visit a school, club or community sailing center and add your name to the Latitude 38 Crew List. There are numerous ways to get onto the water, and you’ll meet and connect with great people when you get there.