Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Salty Dips | Sailing and Racing Stories

Max Shaw is a yacht broker, longtime ocean racer and world cruiser. He and his family spent seven years cruising the South Pacific on Fluenta, and he cut his teeth in East Coast distance racing on board the Royal Canadian Navy's Sail Training Vessel Tuna.

Max joins Chris Maier and discuss how the cruiser and racer labels do more harm than good. He explains what racing brings to cruisers: trim as primary propulsion, weather-routing methodology, watch rotations and helm skills that pay off on a long passage. Then he flips it : what cruising teaches racers about patience, systems and deciding when not to push.

Along the way: crewing on other boats as the fastest way to learn, sailing alongside Sir Peter Blake's old crew in Tonga, what it feels like to be a beginner again on an all-carbon catamaran, the market for boats that race on Wednesday and cruise on the weekend, and why the sport is getting older.

For the Salty Dip, Max tells the story of his first transatlantic : scheduled gales, no GRIB downloads, sustained Force 12 and a diversion to Falmouth : and the conviction that the most dangerous thing on a boat is a schedule.

A conversation about distance racing, offshore racing and racing preparation that lands on a simple point: we do this for fun.

Ben Mumford of Royal Vancouver Yacht Club joins Chris Maier for a conversation about sailing, racing, and building high-performance Corinthian programmes.

Ben traces his path from Nanaimo dinghy sailing and one-design racing through the Star class, match racing, Six Metres, IC37s, and the Santa Cruz 70 All of It. He discusses coaching, youth development, crew building, and the racing preparation required to move sailors from smaller boats into serious keelboat and offshore racing programmes.

The conversation also covers Ben’s 2025 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational campaign, where his team overcame a collision, a major boat change, and a long night of preparation to finish third. Ben and Christopher discuss the 2026 Swiftsure, Stuart Dahlgren’s navigation, the future of distance racing, and the 2027 Transpac.

A practical conversation about racing preparation, offshore racing, coaching, resilience, and building the next generation of Pacific Northwest sailors.

Join Peter Salusbury, winner of the 50th PNW Offshore, on Salty Dips Episode 6. Explore the technical prep of the Riptide 35 'Longboard,' the 2010 Southern Straits watershed, and why a sailor's eye still beats technology offshore.

Preparation isn’t a spring project—it starts in November."

In this episode, Chris Maier sits down with ocean racer Peter Salusbury, fresh off his overall victory in the 50th Pacific Northwest Offshore. As the skipper of the Riptide 35 Longboard and the Event Chair for the Southern Straits, Peter brings a masterclass in what it actually takes to manage a high-performance offshore program.

We dive into:

• The Second Lesson of Racing: Why Peter starts his refit and preparation process six months before the start line.
• Safety as a Culture: Reflections on the 2010 Southern Straits storm and how it redefined safety standards in British Columbia.
• Technology vs. the human element: Using Expedition software to find trends while relying on human judgment to make the final call in big sea states.
• The Salty Dip: A harrowing account of a Brooks Peninsula storm that saw a 40-foot yacht lose its mast and the Coast Guard intervene.
• The Feeder System: How the Melges 24 fleet is bridging the gap for the next generation of offshore talent.

Whether you're an aspiring offshore sailor or a seasoned veteran, Peter’s "no fluff" approach to preparation and leadership is essential listening.

Stay Salty.

• riptide 35
• safety at sea
• southern straits
• van isle 360
• salty dips
• offshore racing
• yacht racing bc
• sailboat preparation

More people have walked on the moon than have done what Bert ter Hart achieved: a solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the globe using only a sextant and paper charts. No GPS. No chart plotter. Just 265 days of raw discipline and mental toughness. Also, we try to look into what makes a racer in sailing.

In this episode, host Chris Maier sits down with Bert to dive deep into the philosophy of "Doing Hard Things." From his background as a platoon commander in Canada’s Special Service Force to facing the chaotic wave trains of the Southern Ocean, Bert explains why he never plays "what if" games and why he views maintenance as a "Black Box" of safety deposits.

We also talk about his next "beast" of a voyage—sneaking around the world in a faster hull to outrun storms— and his upcoming paddle from the Alberta border to the Arctic

Highlights include:

• The Moon vs. The Sea: Why solo traditional navigation is a rarer feat than space travel.
• The "When" Philosophy: How to plan for disaster without being paralyzed by it.
• The Salty Dip: A harrowing 7-hour session steering backwards in a flooded cockpit in the Tasman Sea.
• Small Decisions: How breaking a massive task into tiny, "harder" choices leads to success.
• 
  

Guest Bio:

Bert ter Hart is a record-setting sailor, author, and adventurer. He is the first North American to complete a solo, non-stop circumnavigation via the five great capes using traditional navigation. A graduate of Royal Roads Military College, Bert’s adventures span from the world's most dangerous oceans to paddling across the width of Canada.

Keywords:

Sailing, Yacht Racing, Solo Circumnavigation, Traditional Navigation, Sextant, Resilience, Bert ter Hart, Salty Dips, Black Wolf Racing, Pacific Northwest, Adventure, Military Discipline.

Links Mentioned:

• Bert’s Circumnavigation: the5capes.com
• Cross-Canada Adventure: KaiNani.ca
• Bert’s Projects: bertterhart.com
• Black Wolf Racing: blackwolfracing.ca

What does it take to manage a race on the world’s biggest stage? In this episode, we sit down with four-time Olympic Race Officer Paul Ulibarri to go behind the scenes of elite-level regatta management. From his humble (and accidental) beginnings as a Hobie Cat dealer to overseeing the most prestigious starting lines in the world, Paul shares the tactical precision and cool-headedness required for international race officiating. He has overseen racing at all levels from the Pacific Northwest around the world. We dive into the "Art of the Regatta" and hear some harrowing dips (Sea Stories) from some truly epic races.

Olympic Race Management, Regatta Strategy, Professional Race Officiating, High-Performance Sailing Logistics, International Sailing Standards, Olympic Yacht Racing, Race Officer Insights, Grand Prix Regatta Organization.

In this episode, we sit down with a powerhouse of the Pacific Northwest sailing scene. Joy Dahlgren joins us to talk about the movement sweeping our waters. She is a racer, a business owner, and a community builder.

Joy is now with North Sails in Victoria after her time with UK Sailmakers. She also leads the charge for women in high-performance racing.

We dive deep into the Cascadia sailing movement and what it means for our region and look ahead to the road to the New York Yacht Club.

See the show notes here.

Cascadia Sailing

Women's Sailing

High-Performance Racing

All-Women's Team

NYYC Women's Championship

Pacific Northwest Sailing

Sailing Community

One-Design Racing

IC37 Racing

We finish up our conversation with Steve McBride that we began in Episode 1. In this conversation we talk about Steve's coaching and his thoughts on the art and science of encouraging performance from sailors (and hockey players?).

Show notes, blog entries and lots more can be found here; www.blackwolfracing.ca

Follow us: www.instagram.com/blackwolfraces/

Sailing, Racing, Coaching, Prairie Sailing, Sailing in Canada, Pacific Northwest Coaching, Dinghy, Laster, Fireball, Paralympic Sailing

We meet up with legendary sailing coach Steve Mcbride to talk about sailing and his experiences.

Steve talks about getting into sailing with his dad on Falcon Lake in Manitoba. We chat about Fireballs, Lasers, Optimists, and of course 49ers and skiffs. A paralympic coach and well known in Canadian high performance sailing and the Paralympic sailing movement. Seve talks about 'Doing it Scared'

Show notes, blog entries and lots more can be found here; www.blackwolfracing.ca

Follow us: www.instagram.com/blackwolfraces/

Sailing, Racing, Coaching, Prairie Sailing, Sailing in Canada, Pacific Northwest Coaching, Dinghy, Laster, Fireball, Paralympic Sailing