I’m a late comer to sailing. I learned to windsurf in UK & Greece in my teens and raced on a Div II board during university years. However it wasn’t until moving to California that I learned to sail keelboats – who could resist San Francisco Bay’s sunshine and breezes? 

The racing spark in me was truly ignited while living in Florida, where we campaigned my newly-purchased J/105 ‘London Calling’ in PHRF races and at Charleston Race Week. Moving to Washington DC in 2022 put me in the largest one-design fleet in the country (world?) and a whole new level of competition. 

It’s been fun and, given the complexity of racing sailboats, sometimes deeply frustrating. Seeing the top sailors consistently sailing away from the rest of the fleet begged the question: What’s going on? What are they doing differently? What are they seeing that the rest of the fleet isn’t seeing? Is it luck, skill, better preparation?

So I decided to create a series where racing sailors could discuss what it takes to sail faster and how races are won. Don’t expect to hear the intimate secrets of each boat’s tuning, that’s their IP, but do expect to hear points of view on preparation, race strategy, starting and finishing, team performance and culture. I think you’ll learn a ton, not only about racing sailboats but about the sailors themselves – their backgrounds and motivations.

Welcome to Sailfaster!

Pete Boland