What really matters after 3.5 decades

by Carol Cronin
Halfway through a group dinner at my first regatta of 2025, I realized: I’ve been sailing Snipes on Miami’s Biscayne Bay for 34 years.

Though on my best days I feel almost as fresh and eager as a 20-something newbie crew, I’m now seen by the younger generation as one of their many “Snipe moms.” We often make suggestions based on our own hard-earned wisdom, just as the previous generation did to us. And just like we did, “the kids” mostly ignore us. Which is actually fine, because a secondhand lesson will never stick as well as what they learn from their own mistakes.

I have no idea if my stories will actually prove useful to the newbies—or if I’m just using knowledge-transfer as an excuse to reminisce. – Full report