Professional sailor and coach Chris Snow reminds us that the 2025 sailing season begins with a plan:

If you are like me you’ve probably been thinking about what you’d like to accomplish in the coming year in sailing wise. Hopefully this short post can help you think about your goals for the year and set you and your team up for success.

Being deliberate about setting goals is the way to achieve them.

Aspirational vs. Waypoint goals:
Say you wanted to go on a powerboat cruise from a place like Newport, R.I. to Camden, ME. In today’s world, you’d turn on your chartplotter which would show you your present location. Then you’d pick the spot on the screen where you wanted to end up.

On the plotter I use often, I might then press “go to”. Immediately the machine would draw a straight line from where I am to where I want to go. Almost certainly the line would go across land. If I chose to follow it my journey would soon be over as I run hard aground and come to a complete stop! – Full report