Rumor, innuendo, slander, and press releases are standard fare in sailing’s electronic media. You can also follow global distance races and read daily sailing news and results. You have to separate the wheat from the substantial chaff, but it’s fun, and like many of you, we at Sailing World, enthusiastically read online sailing sites. In our world of printed pages, we’re staying focused on our strengths-memorable action photos and consistent, credible writing bound in a unique package you can read without worrying about your baud rate. Typical is this month’s quality storytelling: How does veteran photographer Daniel Forster see a light-air distance race on the Med? What’s a high-speed ORMA 60 ride across the Atlantic like with pro sailor Stefan Fodor? And how many misadventures can sailing journalist Tim Zimmermann have while racing amidst 128 J/22s? Last month, after crewing on a Volvo 60 around the Baltic, it was Washington Post columnist Angus Phillips. Next month, Fatal Storm author Rob Mundle and DailySail.com editor James Boyd cover maxiboat racing and the Vendee Globe. (Boyd’s subscription-based site, by the way, is one of our favorites.) The other characteristic that defines Sailing World as an authority on performance sailing is instruction, written by experts, dating from Stuart Walker’s first Tactics column in April 1962. Stu’s an octogenarian now, but he’s still teaching us lessons and winning major events. Our rules columnist Dick Rose has written for us for two decades, all the while chairing the US SAILING committee through three sets of rule changes. Two other long-time sailing teachers are our Editors at Large-one-design champs and America’s Cup sailors Gary Jobson and Peter Isler. This month we’re introducing a new cohort of experts to our masthead, Sailing World’s Racing Editors, a group of pro sailors and coaches ready to share what they’re learning in the sport’s upper reaches. This month, Ed Baird, Alinghi’s newest helmsman, takes us back to basics, solving upwind pointing problems with a method he learned moving from one unfamiliar boat to another on the world match-race tour. And five-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Betsy Alison offers advice on getting back into competition after a layoff. Granted, after Alison’s break following the Olympic Trials, she returned to the game at a higher level than most, but her approach to moving up applies just the same. Other Racing Editors joining us include one-design expert Greg Fisher, who last month finished a two-part technique story on keelboat maneuvers. Next up is Farr 40 world champ Terry Hutchinson, our “Monday Morning Tactician,” and Tony Rey, Olympic sailing coach and big-boat tactician, advising the top entrants from our “Win a Free Coach” competition last fall, including the contest winners he’ll be coaching. Working with these top sailors is a perk, and we’re not above assigning topics to help shore up our own weaknesses as racers. You can take advantage of our Racing Editors, too; after their stories appear, e-mail questions on their topic to RacingEditors@sailingworld.com. They’ll pick questions likely to help the most readers, and we’ll publish the answers at sailingworld.com. We can’t guarantee miracles, but you can be sure their advice will be the real thing.
