All together now. Summer Sailstice was created as a tool for the entire sailing commuity to showcase to the world all sailing has to offer. That means your yacht club, your community sailing program, your one-design fleet or your idyllic cruising or chartering destination. Too much of the world sees sailing only as the exclusive playground of the wealthy or see it in the press when the rare tragedy is reported. The world has almost no idea of how most of us sail most of the time.
Summer Sailstice is to help you put the real world of sailing and sailors on display by creating a day to connect all sailors in a common celebration and to invite your non-sailing friends, family, local media and others to come discover what sailing is all about. Events such as build a sailboat in a day, club races, club rendezvous and sailboat rides at community sailing centers is what the world will discover when you host your Summer Sailstice event.
Get your club or marina together for a beach destination rendezvous.
Don't want to organize an event? Don't worry - you can sign up to participate in someone elses event or just go sailing. The summer solstice is the beginning of the peak sailing season for most sailors in the Northern Hemisphere and, if you're not sailing then, you're missing too much of the sailing season already!
Hopefully, you're already planning to sail the weekend of June 22, 2013 and all you have to do is sign up to highlight either your event, your boat, your crew and your sailing plans for Summer Sailstice weekend. When you do let us know but also use the tools at 'Creating An Event' to let your local sailing community know and your local media. Help let the world know that sailing is fun, accessible and affordable. Your club or fleet can help display another view of sailing - one that isn't exclusively for the wealthy and isn't dominated by extreme tragedy. For the extreme athlete sailing has plenty to offer but, on balance, there's more sailing has to offer everyone.
Get your boat, club or fleet thinking about what they can do to connect locally and globally with an international sailing holiday that will get the whole world sailing on the weekend closest to the solstice.
Don't know where or how to sail? In the US you can visit US Sailing's 'Where To Sail' page to discover accessible sailing near you.
Places such as Orange Coast College in Newport Beach California invited everyone down to try sailing for Summer Sailstice.
Encinal Yacht Club in Alameda has hundreds of sailors come to sail, celebrate and watch a 'build-a-boat-in-a-day' contest. This is the launching of what's probably the world's first plywood catamaran with a wing sail built and launched in just one day!