Sailing Education Partnership

Cruise Annapolis and J World Annapolis announce their partnership designed to provide the best sailing education on the best charter fleet in Annapolis, Bahamas and beyond.

August 3, 2015 (Annapolis, MD) – Cruise Annapolis, a boutique charter management company, and J World Annapolis, the premier Annapolis sailing school, announced a partnership to conduct sailing training on-board their extensive line-up of new sailing yachts from Jeanneau and catamarans from Fountaine Pajot. Read more

Meet Anna Buchanan!

Anna Buchanan joins J World Annapolis this summer as a Dock Hand (and general organizer of everything!). She attends The University of Maryland College Park, where she studies mathematics, and will be a Sophomore this year. Anna participated in junior sailing at Severn Sailing Association for 5 years, sailing optis, 420s, and Lasers, but stopped in High School to pursue Field Hockey. Not only did she play field hockey interscholastically, but she also played on competitive club teams outside of school, like MD United and Spark club field hockey teams. Read more for an interview with Anna. 

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Get to Know Ryan Beveridge!

Ryan Beveridge

Ryan Beveridge is starting his 3rd season as a coach at J World Annapolis, having just completed his freshman year at University of Maryland College Park, where he specializes in engineering. The first in his family to sail, he started sailing in 6th grade and continued to do so every summer, sailing on both dinghy boats and keelboats alike. Ryan has experience sailing Person 27’s and Flying Scots, the latter of which has a fleet near his hometown. Currently, Ryan sails on the University of Maryland college sailing team.

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Return of Euro Trash Girl, Part 4- Conclusion

Charleston SC to Annapolis MD – April 19-24, 2015

It was a beautifully brisk and sunny Thursday morning this April 23rd. Our 4th day on the water has us safely heading north up the Chesapeake Bay. Conditions were still choppy with unpredictable winds gusting over 20 knots. We had a very small storm sail in the inventory so we made the decision to swap it out for the headsail. It really didn’t benefit us much, but at least we had practice changing out sails again, in less than smooth conditions I might add.

The Bay really is a beautiful body of water to sail on, much wider than one may think at 30 miles wide near Cape Charles, MD to the south and only 4 miles near Aberdeen, MD to the far north. I’m borrowing a few interesting tid bits from the web, including www.chesapeakebay.net. This is the largest estuary in the United States and stretches over 200 miles and holds 18 TRILLION gallons of water. The average depth is

The old rusted ship.
The old rusted ship.

only 21 feet and those who sail here know that much of its 4,480 square miles of surface area, including tidal tributories, is much much shallower than that and with ETG’s 7 foot draft- it’s important to study your updated charts. They say a guy my height could actually wade through over 700,000 acres and never get his hat wet! The following photos shows a ship that was blown off course near Tangier Island, which became its permanent address based on the rust!

Wave conditions thankfully began to calm down somewhat during the day, the constant pounding of this wild ride was really getting old. The storm sail was replaced by the jib, but the sails were short lived with winds directly on the nose. The always reliable diesel was unfortunately needed for propulsion, but first we had to siphon 20 gallons of fuel into ETG’s belly, thank goodness for calmer waters. Read more

Return of Euro Trash Girl, Part 3

Charleston SC to Annapolis MD – April 19-24, 2015

The driver has always got to be focused- ETG isn't equipped with auto pilot!
The driver has always got to be focused- ETG isn’t equipped with auto pilot!

Wednesday, April 22nd we were blessed with a beautiful spring day. Not sure of the exact temperatures but the smell of suntan lotion was in the air as we enjoyed the warmth of the sun on our pale skin that had been covered up all winter. The morning hours to about lunch time consisted of minimal winds requiring the always reliable diesel to be fired up. Again, no big deal since our batteries and fridge needed to charge and the drivers could kick back and relax a little. Not sure if I mentioned that Euro Trash Girl is not equipped with auto pilot technology, thus requiring the driver to remain completely focused during their 1 hour stint at the wheel. Read more

Return of Euro Trash Girl, Part 2

Charleston SC to Annapolis MD – April 19-24, 2015

Tony steps up to be the first to skipper.
Tony steps up to be the first to skipper.

It was early afternoon and we were all very excited to finally be sailing away from the Charleston Harbor. As I mentioned, one of the requirements for this US Sailing Coastal Passage Making course required that each of us assume the role of skipper for at least 100NM and Charlie was selected first.

Over the next 24 hours Charlie would coordinate all operational needs of the vessel, under the watchful eye of JWorld Captains of course! First and foremost he would need to make sure we were heading in the right direction! Based on our preliminary course, which was plotted prior to departure with traditional navigation techniques, we were dead reckoning right on track. Over the next several days each crew member would rotate assignments including navigator. We would routinely and often plot a fix on our paper charts using GPS, knowing where you are can come in handy!
Once we were several miles out of the channel and into the deep blue sea we chose to adjust our first projected waypoint to take advantage of the prevailing winds, which saved time and distance. Adjustments like this…were made occasionally during this passage and we all became proficient at correcting and adjusting our dead reckoning on the charts. After taking an electronic GPS fix on our position we changed our course to steer to 069 magnetic. This bearing was projected all the way out 114NM to Frying PanShoal off the coast of Cape Fear North Carolina. Cape Fear, why did they name this area that? never mind, don’t think about it! Read more

Return of Euro Trash Girl, Part 1

Charleston SC to Annapolis MD – April 19-24, 2015

In November 2014 I participated in my first blue water passage with the ARC-Bahama from Annapolis MD to Abaco Bahamas aboard JWorld’s J120 s/v Euro Trash Girl. A little personal background- at that time I had taken Basic Keel Boat and Basic Cruising courses from JWorld Annapolis and have skippered bareboat charters for family vacations in the USVI/BVI a few times. The sailing in the islands is great, however, you are always in sight of land. Before the ARC a couple of seasoned sailors, perhaps “salty dogs” is more appropriate, told me to be careful because blue water may start to run through my veins. At the end of that exciting and successful journey I knew that I would need to go off shore again. Months went by and occasionally my day dreams would take me back to that incredible ARC experience. In late February I was contacted by JWorld Captain Tony with an offer to join his crew to bring s/v Euro Trash Girl back from Charleston SC to her home port in East Port Annapolis. I wanted desperately to go but unfortunately the timing coincided with a St Martin trip my wife and I had already scheduled. While on vacation I would look out at the sailboats wondering when I would set sail again. Not long after returning from St Martin I was contacted again by Captain Tony. He informed me that the passage had been delayed until the middle of April and this time the timing was right and I happily agreed to sail with him again! Read more

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