Match-racing, at its best, is Mano a Mano – hand-to-hand combat. Match-racing here, in the Budget Marine Match-Racing Cup, run-up to the Heineken Regatta, takes that sort of intensity up a few notches. Some of the top racers in the world. No Wednesday night yacht club race, this.

Races are on six Jeanneau Sunfast 20’s. Eight skippers. Each skipper races every other skipper. Each skipper races each of the six boats.

The motto for the Heineken Regatta in Sint Maarten, now in its 31st year, is perfect in both conception and execution. And if the festivities so far are any indication, this year’s race series will be another exercise in 'Serious Fun.'

They’re already halfway there. Ground zero is the Sint Maarten Yacht Club, a two-storey building right beside the lift bridge leading to Simpson Bay Lagoon. From the yacht club you can’t help but stare out at the fleet of megayachts moored and berthed in the lagoon.

The Rolex Canadian Sailor of the Year Awards Night can be summed up perfectly with the words of CYA President Gerry Giffin 'Not only did the evening truly honour our sport’s best, it showcased our sport, and Canadian Yachting Association. From the moment we walked in until the last person left, it was flawless. This was an evening to remember!'

If the sailing gods look fondly, the Kingston team's efforts to land the ISAF Worlds in 2014 will be a tremendous win for Canada and for the Americas. The awarding of this event will allow the foundation for building the sport that is needed so badly here. Jamie Fraser, Marianne Davis and Tim Irwin all are owed a huge vote of praise and thanks for creating such an impressive bid. We hope the very best for them and for all of us who want to see sailing grow.

January 25, 2011 (Miami, FL) – Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn (CAN) are considering renaming their Clarke/Bjorn Sailing Team to Misters Consistency during the 2011 Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, the only ISAF World Cup event in North America. The red-hot Canadians posted straight 6's during the first three races of the Grade 1 regatta. They were 8th in the fourth race. It is always difficult to stay at the top of a Star fleet, but with a fleet of 59 top gun teams from around the world fighting it out on Biscayne Bay staying in the top ten in every race and getting the same score is très rare!

A Canadian sailing in a solo around-the-world race says he is disturbed by the "horrendous" conditions he has encountered in the southern oceans — including the near absence of large sea life.

Derek Hatfield has rounded the planet alone twice before but this trip through the southern ocean has been a relentless stream of extreme storms and deepest calms.

We are pleased to announce GILL® has been selected as the official technical apparel supplier to the Canadian Yachting Association and the Canadian Sailing Team. GILL® will be supplying members of the Canadian Sailing Team with branded podium apparel and technical sailing gear.

In addition to supplying the Canadian Sailing Team, CYA will be providing GILL® apparel to coaches and officials. The CYA's Executive Director, Paddy Boyd says "CYA is delighted to welcome Gill aboard.

The 42 sailors who participated in August's Mobility Cup, held at the Pointe Claire Yacht Club near Montreal, may not have been expecting a galvanizing event. But that's precisely what it was for many of them.

The experience was so motivating for Richard Dionne of Moncton, N.B., for instance, that he's vowed to train for the 2012 Paralympics in London.

What does Ashbridge's Bay Yacht Club in Toronto have in common with the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, Nepean Sailing Club, Britannia Yacht Club and Kelowna Yacht Club? Each has done a fabulous job of hosting the annual CYA Women's National Keelboat Championship. This event occurs annually and is open to yacht clubs across Canada that are willing and able to host the event. This year, from September 11-14, ABYC played host to 27 all-female teams of sailors racing on Sharks. A strong volunteer committee led by Janice Sharpe of ABYC organized this year's event that started off with a day of onshore and offshore training.

Saturday morning finally comes; I have been rolling and tossing all night with much anticipation for the annual Solmar Lake Ontario 300 race. I kiss my family goodbye and head for the club. However, as I near the entrance, I gasp at my first sight of the lake; actually, I gasped because I couldn't even see the lake. Thick fog just sat there; not even a whisper of wind to push it out of the way. As a member of the organizing committee, I start to panic.

Every year for one glorious week in January, sailors from all over the world gather in the laid back town of Florida's Key West. This year the event was host to 260 boats from 18 different countries. There were 16 fleets in total, eight of which were one design fleets with the likes of Farr 40's, Mumm 30's and the largest fleet in the regatta Melges 24's competing. The other classes were the Melges 32, J/105, J/80, Swan 42, and the Corsair 28R. There was also a large number of handicapped racing, as well PHRF fleets 1 through 6 and the IRC 1 and 2 had some fierce competition.

So just what exactly qualifies as "serious fun" you ask?

To truly experience "serious fun" you just have to have encountered it. And with the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, you only need to try it once and you'll be hooked.

Our boat heels and bow waves crash over her. She rides the waves like a rollercoaster gone berserk. Spray like shards of glass glitters in the tropical sunlight.

"High side," yells the skipper, a seaman from Petit Martinique with the evocative name of Emmanuel Bethel.

We scramble to starboard while "Savvy" overtakes another boat. It's stocky instead of graceful, solid instead of sleek. But it, too, slices the sea.

Once in a lifetime, opportunities are sometimes easy to miss. I have been volunteering for Spirit of Canada for several years, so when I got the chance to go to the start of the Vendee Globe, I saw my chance and took it; missing this event wasn't an option.

A tough start to the 30,000-mile round the world race saw CSM's yacht Spartan cross the line in last place, plagued with minor breakages. But CSM, an experienced sailor fresh from leading a crew of 18 in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, has since settled into life at sea, clawing back miles on the rest of the fleet to move into second position.

Sail Parry Sound coaches Andrew Parkes and Stephen Winkworth are the 2010 recipients of the Vic and Hazel Carpenter Award for Sailing Excellence.

The award presented September 18 at Sail Parry Sound's annual general meeting, recognizes the pair's outstanding summer sailing season.

After receiving the award, Parkes and Winkwork then went on to represent Sail Parry Sound at the prestigious CORK Fall Regatta September 25 and 26 in Kingston, where they had an impressive second place finish in the 420 class. They were first in two of the four races held on the Saturday.