Snoloha goes Unsalted

For any of you regular blog readers, fans and customers, it’s no surprise that sailing plays an important role in my life and for Snoloha. I’ve only been sailing for about seven years, and it really has become somewhat of an obsession. I use to play golf…and with golf you were always trying to learn and improve. Sailing is a lot like that, so much to learn and to soak up…except it also has become a type therapy for me as well as I deal with the stresses of growing a small business. Golf would stress me out more than it would relax me (there are a couple of snapped irons at the bottom of a water hazard that are proof).

For a few years now my good buddy Capt Dave from Bay Breeze Yacht Charters & Sailing School and I have kicked around ways for our businesses to work together (for any of you longtime readers you may remember Dave almost named his new company Snoloha Sailing, but he eventually had the opportunity to buy Bay Breeze instead). We’ve done coozies and polo shirts and sponsored events, but nothing concrete has ever been figured out.

Until now.

In an effort to promote and highlight sailing Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes, Snoloha and Bay Breeze are bringing you Unsalted Sailing.

It’s no secret that people love escaping to the Caribbean for their sailing adventures. And we don’t blame them, we love doing the same. In fact we’ve already got a catamaran booked for November out of the BVIs and we can’t wait.

However, sailing the Great Lakes, and especially sailing Lake Michigan out of our homeport of Traverse City, is as picturesque and relaxing as anywhere you could imagine. The waters are crystal clear shades of blue and green, and the shoreline is made up of sand dunes, beaches and quaint harbor towns. There are times in the middle of summer, minus the palm trees and the salt water, that you would think you were in the Caribbean.

Even though we kinda like the fact that this is somewhat of a hidden sailing gem, we also felt it was important to share it with fellow sailors looking for a new place to explore, and of course with all of you who already love sailing this amazing part of the world.

Sure, there are directories and clubs out there already that already promote sailing this area. But with Unsalted Sailing we are taking a bit of a different approach:

• We will we use the website to showcase and highlight Great Lakes sailing.
• We will utilize all the fancy social networking tools, including Facebook and Twitter.
• We are launching the first Unsalted Sailing Flotilla this August.
• We will be asking for your photos, stories and input (we are not claiming to be experts in all 5 Great Lakes, so we will depend on your expertise to build this brand…and we all know that ‘local knowledge’ is more valuable than what a visitor’s center has to offer, so we are looking forward to hearing your ‘local knowledge’ as we grow the Unsalted Sailing brand).
• We will offer a complete line of Unsalted Sailing merchandise, not only featuring the logo, but also an entire line of Unsalted Sailing designs inspired by and reflecting this very area we call home.
• We are bringing you Unsalted Sailing not only as a result of our love of sailing, but also as a result of Capt Dave’s years in the business and as the owner of Bay Breeze Yacht Charters and Sailing School, and the result of my experience in the retail & merchandising world and as creator and owner of the Snoloha.

So kick back and enjoy the sail…that is until it’s time to tack and we ask for a hand.