A weak southerly breeze straggles across Lake Washington as the last of Seattle’s fall colors cloak the hillsides of the still-leafy Leschi neighborhood. Four local J/70s are gathered for a driving clinic, and the onboard combinations are unusual: all captains and no crewmembers. Ron Rosenberg, an Olympic-level coach and world-champion sailor, is helming a borrowed coach boat—a VHF in one hand, a Timex Ironman strapped to his wrist. “Be thoughtful about your next 35 seconds,” he advises the group as they roll rapid-fire into another starting sequence.
Absent are the sharp elbows that often define one-design starting lines. Instead, each team focuses on hitting the line on time and at pace, while extending the “grace and space” to one’s neighbors that Rosenberg outlined in his dockside briefing.
But instead of…
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Sailing World (Digital) - 1 Issue, Winter 2025