Elements of Sailing I & II

The sailing bug caught Jane Ahlfeld while vacationing on one of the Maine windjammer schooners. She decided to take a leave from elementary school teaching…and has yet to return. She shipped out on the MARY HARRIGAN, a 50′ schooner, as mate to teach Cruising Boat Seamanship for WoodenBoat School in the Caribbean and Maine.In ’93 and ’94 she taught a course in Small Boat Sailing on the local boats of Bequia. Since 1989 she has returned to Brooklin each summer to teach and work on our waterfront. When not on boats, Jane is a computer consultant. She has a masters in Education and holds a U.S. Coast Guard License. Students often comment on Jane’s patience, knowledge, sense of humor, and attention to both the group and individual needs. She teaches the skills and gives all the support needed to gain confidence on the water.

Originally from midcoast Maine, Arista Holden grew up sailing in various traditional small craft throughout Penobscot Bay, She is a captain and long-time seamanship instructor for adult and youth programs including Outward Bound, the National Outdoor Leadership School, Atlantic Challenge Team USA, the Nova Scotia Sea School, the Viking boat Polaris, and Morse Alpha Expeditions. A student of languages, culture and craft, Arista has traveled, sailed, taught, and studied all over the world. Just last year, she sailed 800 miles of the Norwegian coast in a 42′ square-rigged femboring with Fosen Folkehogskole (Folk School). Arista holds a B.A. from Hampshire College, current Wilderness First Responder and CPR certifications, and a 50-ton Master’s captain’s license.

Annie Nixon fell in love with the ocean and sailing right after college when she went to work for Thompson Island Outward Bound in Boston, Massachusetts. She learned to sail, navigate, and teach aboard their traditional 30′ open rowing and sailing vessels. Annie then spent four years at the Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, Maine, leading 21-day sailing wilderness trips for high school and college-age students. On these expeditions Annie captained both a 26′ Crotch Island Pinky and a 28′ Mackinaw Lake design. She taught elements of seamanship, wilderness “leave no trace” ethics, and marine ecology as part of these expeditions. On and off for seven summers after that Annie worked as deckhand and mate on the schooner MARY DAY and occasionally the schooner AMERICAN EAGLE. Since 2006 she has taught sailing at WoodenBoat School and led weeklong sail staff training expeditions for the Chewonki Foundation. Annie currently holds a USCG 100-ton license.

Martin Gardner, born on the Chesapeake Bay, and with two grandfathers who were professional seamen, should have had a life in boats. It started well enough, with numerous fishing trips out on the bay and various model boats. Then something went wrong, and for a few decades, Martin pursued a career that included more time in airports than in anchorages. In the 1980s he came to his senses and began sailing seriously, eventually leaving his day job to cruise for four years aboard a 28′ Lyle Hess cutter.  He has sailed over 25,000 miles on a variety of bluewater boats. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard Master’s license and an assortment of U.S. sailing and ASA instructor qualifications. He now teaches sailing year round and keeps a cruising catboat back on the Chesapeake Bay.

Geoff Kerr does business as Two Daughters Boatworks in Westford, Vermont, on New England’s “west coast.” A boater since taking a Hurricane Island Outward Bound School course at age16, and later a Coast Guard officer, Geoff learned the trade at the Alexandria Seaport Foundation with Joe Youcha. He served as shop foreman and instructor in that dynamic environment. In his one-man, full-service Vermont shop, Geoff does small-craft repairs and restorations, as well as new construction, specializing in Iain Oughtred’s Caledonia Yawl. He has been affiliated with Chesapeake Light Craft since the company’s infancy, and is a licensed builder of their many designs, as well as an authorized and experienced instructor.

Robin Lincoln grew up sailing on Cape Cod. She says the greatest gift her family ever gave her was exposure to water and boats at an early age. Sailing has been a constant thread throughout her life. Racing as a young girl in wooden Mercurys, Beetle Cats, Lightnings, and Wianno Seniors, she won many championships. Robin also taught sailing seminars, organized races, and helped establish summer sailing programs for children and adults at yacht clubs and summer camps. She sailed to Europe aboard the schooner WESTWARD and cruised the west coasts of the U.S., Mexico, and Central America aboard a 38-foot cutter. Over the years, Robin’s sailing experiences have taken her up and down both coasts of the U.S. from Canada to Florida, Mexico, and the Carribean. She was a partner in a sail loft in Costa Rica for four years, where she had the opportunity to examine sails and rigging while sailing on different boats from all over the world. For over 20 years she owned and operated Center Harbor Sails in Brooklin, Maine. Robin’s life both in the loft and on the water gives her an intimate and well-rounded knowledge of boats and sailing. She has enjoyed teaching at the WoodenBoat School for almost every year since its inception. She continues to spend every spare minute she can sailing the beautiful coast of Maine.

The love of sailing has kept Gretchen Snyder on or near the water for most of her life. For over 30 years Gretchen has delivered boats up and down the East Coast, across the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, and throughout the Caribbean islands where she spent three years in the charter business. Her enthusiasm for sailing and boats is not only confined to the sea, but has also led to her own land-based business. Gretchen has owned and operated “The Loft” in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, a sail loft specializing in gaff-rigged working sails, as well as the canvas needs of the entire boat. She sold The Loft in July 2005 and decided to cruise new horizons, the sea of educaton. She is now a licensed elementary school teacher presently enjoying her Second/Third Graders on Martha’s Vineyard.

Rich Naple has been sailing since 1967. His first port of call was where the Severn River meets the Chesapeake Bay as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy. Before leaving for his assignment as a bridge officer on the USS KITTY HAWK, he remained in Annapolis to teach the fundamentals of sailing to incoming freshman on Rainbow 24s. Rich has also taught sailing on Rhodes 19s in San Francisco Bay and Comets on a lake in the Berkshires. His fondness for speed on the water led him to sail on Hobie 16s for many years. He continues to enjoy windsurfing on Great Sacandaga Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. With an easygoing nature and encouraging teaching style, Rich shares his love of sailing in a unique fashion.

Anna Yoors grew up in Massachusetts in a cozy coastal town where the ocean held allure, adventure and the ultimate beauty of nature. As a child, sailing wasn’t part of her life, but it only took one trip as a college student with SEA Semester and she was hooked! Since that very first sailing trip, Anna keeps returning to boats and finding ways to combine teaching and sailing. She has worked for several tall ships including CORWITH CRAMER, SEAWARD, ROSEWAY, and ADVENTURESS as chief mate. Anna has also worked for Outward Bound and is actively involved with Atlantic Challenge as an assistant trainer for the upcoming summer competition in St. Petersburg, Russia. She holds a 100-ton Masters and 200-ton Mates license as well as a Wilderness First Responder.

David Bill sailed aboard Lasers, Lightnings, and Atlantic Class sailboats during his boyhood years on Long Island Sound. In 1981, Dave left Southeastern Connecticut and went to sea as a third assistant engineer aboard freight ships, tank ships, and container ships. In 1987 he earned his USCG 50-ton Master auxiliary sail license and continued his seafaring career on sailing charter yachts in the Caribbean and New England waters. In 1996 Dave returned to the University of Rhode Island to complete his Masters of Marine Affairs degree. Captain Dave instructed Nautical Science at Tabor Academy gor 30 years until 2018. For the past three years he has lived aboard his Shannon 28 DREAM in the Bahamas and in the Southeast. His greatest joy is messing around in boats with people of all ages, including his daughter Tayler.

A passionate sailor, Susan Lavoie has extensive cruising experience in coastal as well as offshore waters, in addition to many years of dinghy and one-design racing. As past Commodore of the Blue Water Sailing Club in Boston, Massachusetts, she was responsible for organizing cruise activities, developing seminars based on safety, navigation, and electronics and racing techniques. A member of the National Women’s Sailing Association, Susan instructs yearly seminars directed toward women. She is the author and illustrator of Sailing Safely and How to Get Home, a sailing book for beginners and intermediates. Holding a U.S. Coast Guard license, Susan enthusiastically shares her passion for sailing, teaching the skills needed for enjoyment and confidence on the water, and just messing around on boats with others.

Erica Moody was born in landlocked upstate New York and schooled in western Massachusetts, but finally made it to the coast in 1991 for a summer working on Martha’s Vineyard. Since then she has not been far from the sea. Upon moving to Boston in 1992, she was fortunate to sail on a friend’s 1940s Alden sloop for a few years, getting to know the Massachusetts coast first from the sea rather than from the road. Her passion for sailing and the beautiful craftsmanship and design of the wooden sailboat has never left. She was inspired to find a career in the building trades, and found an apprenticeship with a custom metalworker in Boston. She has now been working professionally as a metal craftsman in and around Boston for 25 years. Over the last 18 years Erica has been focusing on doing custom metal fabrication under her name, and in 2016 adding a line of personal work in small metal housewares and woodworking tools. Along with teaching at WoodenBoat School each summer for several years, she has taught classes and workshops at Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, The Apprenticeshop, and The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. Erica finally made the move from Boston to the wonderful state of Maine in 2014 and is living and working in the midcoast village of Waldoboro.

After learning how to sail at her high school in West Palm Beach, Florida, Delaney Brown found a passion for the sport and has been competing and coaching ever since. Delaney attended the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg — partially to study journalism and partially for the perfect sailing conditions – where she sailed dinghies and competed as a member of the nationally ranked women’s sailing team. When not sailing, Delaney spent her time coaching Green Fleet sailors at the Annapolis Yacht Club in Annapolis, Maryland and learn-to-sail classes at the U.S. Sailing Center in Martin County, located in Jensen Beach, Florida. Now, this former Florida woman works as an editor for WoodenBoat magazine while traveling from sailing town to sailing town looking for her next adventure.

A passionate sailor, Susan Lavoie has extensive cruising experience in coastal as well as offshore waters, in addition to many years of dinghy and one-design racing. As past Commodore of the Blue Water Sailing Club in Boston, Massachusetts, she was responsible for organizing cruise activities, developing seminars based on safety, navigation, and electronics and racing techniques. A member of the National Women’s Sailing Association, Susan instructs yearly seminars directed toward women. She is the author and illustrator of Sailing Safely and How to Get Home, a sailing book for beginners and intermediates. Holding a U.S. Coast Guard license, Susan enthusiastically shares her passion for sailing, teaching the skills needed for enjoyment and confidence on the water, and just messing around on boats with others.

Hank Mosley is the chief mate aboard Virginia's first fleet at Jamestown Settlement, where he began his career working aboard the living history museum's reproductions of the DISCOVERY, GODSPEED and SUSAN CONSTANT. He has worked aboard traditional sailing and educational vessels for more than twenty-five years. Hank has sailed aboard the tall ships "HMS" ROSE, TOLE MORE, SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS, HARVEY GAMAGE, GAZELA, PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II, LADY MARYLAND, WHEN & IF, KALMAR NYCKEL, SPIRIT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, EXY JOHNSON, BOWDOIN, and the USCG Barque EAGLE. In 2002, he was a maritime consultant for the movie "Master & Commander: Far Side of the World". He served for five years as the captain of the schooner VIRGINIA in Norfolk, VA and was the Director of Maritime Operations for OpSail 2012 Virginia. Hank holds a 500-ton Ocean master's license of steam and auxiliary sail and a B.A. in history from Christopher Newport University (1997). He lives in Newport News, VA with his wife and three children.

Tracy Eberhart has been perpetually distracted by boats ever since her mother taught her to sail, and childhood summers were spent tooling around the marshes of Currituck Sound, Outer Banks, North Carolina, in a beloved Jimmy Steele peapod. In college her attention was diverted away from academics by an intramural crew team, and while after graduation she spent a dozen years fundraising for a variety of New York City arts and cultural institutions, boating continued to occupy most of her extracurricular time. Tracy was a founding member of Harlem River Community Rowing, a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission to increase affordable and accessible rowing opportunities for all New Yorkers. In 2012 she was seduced by the community of creative, eccentric, and boat-obsessed characters that inhabit Brooklin, Maine, and traded a population of 8 million for 800. Her greatest fear is that her baby girl born in 2020 will not like boats.