Sailing journalist, Michelle Slade, covers sailing and the America's Cup for Scuttlebutt Sailing, Sailing World and Marin sailing on San Francisco Bay for the regional Marin Independent Journal newspaper. She just recently interviewed us and published a very nice story in the daily paper which also landed Summer Sailstice on the cover of that days paper!
One of the reasons we started Summer Sailstice was to help sailing get some positive coverage of the kind of sailing the average sailor enjoys on most of their days on the water. Unfortunately, pleasant days of sailing don't often attract much media coverage. The thought was, if we get enough people all sailing 'together' in a virtual round-the-world sailing event, it would be a large enough, diverse enough and fun enough for the media and the public to have a look at sailing as it's practiced by most people most of the time.
The story in the IJ gives us the kind of coverage we'd love to see more of around the world. If you're creating a local Summer Sailstice event it would be fantastic for you to let your local media know so they can give you and sailing some positive coverage in your area. To help, you can use this sample 'press release', edited with your local information, to let your local media and, therefore, your friends and neighbors know how they can join the sailing world near them.
The story from the Marin IJ:
by Michelle Slade
Not many sailboat events gather as many or diverse participants as Summer Sailstice, a "celebration of sailing" that occurs annually on the summer solstice.
The event boasts a range of activities that have included building a fully operable boat in a day to sailing naked, from San Francisco Bay to Shanghai and thousands of waterways in between. Now in its 13th year, Summer Sailstice has just launched a new look for its website, www.summersailstice.com, which founder John Arndt hopes will grow the event even more.
Arndt, (associate)publisher of Latitude 38 based in Mill Valley, has worked for the renowned sailing magazine for some 25 years. (Read More)