Volunteer Fleet Captain Skippers

I grew up in a sailing family on Long Island so basically I started sailing before I could walk. At summer camp in Maine I sailed dinghies and in the winter I was frostbiting in a Penguin with my father. During college I enjoyed being on the Brown University varsity sailing team and traveling around New England to compete. When I returned to the New York area I raced an Ensign and eventually bought my own which I kept for 15 years. I continued to race on LI Sound in Sonors, J24s, and Tartan 10s.

Next I decided to try a different sailing experience and I began crewing on the 105 foot iron schooner, Pioneer, out of the South Street Seaport Museum. It was a fabulous experience to learn “old” sailing terms and sail a gaff rigged boat built in 1885. The most valuable experience was learning the chain of command on a large sailing vessel.

I eventually felt “the need for speed” again, so I joined the MYC and returned to small boat sailing. I enjoy being a skipper and doing Fleet Captain sails. It is a wonderful way to meet new people and share my life- long love of sailing.

Last year I jumped on the chance to join the 12 Meter Syndicate and bring America II to the club as the Flagship for our 20th Anniversary. Now I have the opportunity to combine my love of sailing fast and the big boat experience while we learn to sail and race a piece of American sailing history. I look forward to sailing more this season and meeting more interesting people. Who knows what the future holds! (July 2008)

When I take club members on Fleet Captain cruises, everyone comments how departing North Cove Marina is like going on a vacation just minutes after leaving work behind. That's priceless!

I've been a skipper member for two sailing seasons and have also participated in several MSC events locally and internationally. A few highlights from 2006 were the Dennis Connor IYCC, Architects Regatta, City Council Regatta and Hedge Fund Managers Regatta. In Nov 2006, I , along with 6 other club members, represented the club in the Golden Rock Regatta. With Tim O'Brien as our captain, we took 1st place overall in the race that started in St. Martin, stopping in St. Eustatia, St. Kitts & St. Barths before returning for trophy in St. Martin. I'm still on island time due to the fact that I just returned from da Caribbean Regatta - yeah mon!

Sailing has also had an impact on my work as a video camera man and editor. It is difficult for me to take my attention away from sailing to pick up a camera (unless I am contracted to do so). Occasionally you might see me at the docks or on the water doing some promotional video and slideshows for MSC events & website. Recreational sailing in the harbor, the camaraderie and friendships on and off the water have graced my life in New York City . (Jan 2007)

Although I've lived around the water all my life, I didn't begin sailing until 1999 when I moved to Battery Park City, where I now work out of my apartment, as little as possible, I should add. I rode my bike past the clubhouse many times before stopping in, signing up for Basic Sailing and then joining the club. Now, I'm blessed with being able to take a fifteen-minute walk along the esplanade to the docks and take out a boat most any time the sailing looks good.

After I joined the club, I crewed for about four years, trying to sail with a range of skippers so that I could learn as much as possible. I also took courses in navigation and racing and became a skipper a couple of years ago. I've raced on Tuesday nights and a few Saturdays. I encourage everyone to try it out on Saturdays if they enjoy some friendly competition. My wife Mona just started sailing two years ago and we try to sail as much as we can. I have crewed and navigated twice in the Isle of Wight race in England and did an overnight crossing of the English Channel on a friend's 32 foot Rival. It was a beautiful experience that I'll never forget.

My philosophy about sailing is simple: Be safe and have fun. That's my goal whenever I go out. I firmly believe that no matter how good a sailor you are, you can always learn something whether it be from the most experienced skipper, a first season newbie, or just by observing what's going on around you. I learn something every time I go out and would feel cheated if I didn't. Other people have shared their knowledge with me and I enjoy passing what I know on to others. Nobody should expect to know it all. If they think they do, I'd suggest not sailing with them. As a Fleet Captain, I'm always looking to go out with people who want to participate in the sail, learn more about sailing, and enjoy the water, the rest of the crew and the club. (Jan 2007)

I love to sail and be on boats, but I didn't find this out about myself until a few years ago when I moved to an apartment at the southern tip of Manhattan which had views of the New York Harbor all the way to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge . I walked pass the Manhattan Sailing School on the way to work and nearly every day, I saw boats sailing in the harbor . While I had sailed for a couple of years with a friend some years back, I really never learned anything about sailing as I followed orders to trim the sails and wasn't offered the helm. This all changed when I decided to sign up for the Basic Keelboat Sailing class.

Over a beautiful, breezy weekend in June, I learned what it was like to really sail a boat. I joined the Manhattan Sailing Club three days after I completed the class. I quickly got on the water by going on Fleet Captain sails with James Sinclair, Rich Turrin, Ted Wallace, Jon Schultz and many others. I don't think I was a "natural" as it took a while for me to get the feel for sailing, but I thoroughly enjoyed being on the water. Midway though my second year in the club, I was fortunate enough to start sailing with several mentors, especially Kinya Tago, Ted Wallace and Rich Turrin. I was on the water a couple of times a day every weekend and a few evenings during the week practicing my sailing and motoring sails. At the end of the 2005 season, on a cool, rainy, breezy day, I passed the skipper certification test. Stephen Yip said that I now had "a license to learn", something that I took very seriously. When the next season started, I found that not only did I want to learn, but that I learned better by sailing with others and helping them learn more about sailing.

When I became a Fleet Captain, people often asked me to help them prepare for their skipper tests, so I started helping them until one day Ted Wallace asked me if I wanted to be an official mentor and, of course, I said yes. Additionally, I started sailing in the Saturday afternoon race series which gave me the opportunity to learn more about the winds and currents of harbor.

For 2007, I would like to combine Fleet Captain sails with mentoring by having a future skipper on the boat as much as possible. Since I have learned so much by helping and teaching others, I feel sure this will be a benefit to future skippers. I do want to clear up one thing up before ending this little bio. While I did sail a lot last year and I seemed to be at the club nearly every day, there is no truth to the rumor that I don't have a job. I have a full time job managing software development projects so you won't see me down at the docks much between 9 AM to 5 PM, but I will often be there by 5:45 PM. Hope to see you there. (Jan 2007)

For me, a Fleet Captain sail is a time to empower the crew to sail safely with confidence and fun. I first began sailing as an adolescent on sailfish, sunfish and 420’s in the Great South Bay off Fire Island. To this day, I can tell you that there is nothing quite like being on the 420’s trapeze with the water whizzing by, inches below your head; or for that matter docking under sail! As I grew older, life took me off the water. Yet, living in NYC and Chicago, I always felt the pull of the sea. Several years ago when I went for a sail on the Shearwater, I learned about the Manhattan Sailing School and remembered that I live on an island with water all around!

I took the basic keelboat course with my lovely wife, Valerie, joined the club and sailed as much as time and weather would allow, which was alot. I continue my education, sailing with the Manhattan Sailing School, MSC and elsewhere. In Nov 2006, I crewed for Chris Land in the Golden Rock Regatta in St Martin, a week-long regatta consisting of 35-46 miles courses between islands. I hold ASA certifications for Bare Boat Charting and Coastal Navigation but I still consider myself a novice sailor. I enjoy cruising, racing and participating in the Fleet Captain and Skipper Mentor programs.

I am grateful to all my fellow MSC mariners, but most especially Ted, Wes, Jon, Kinya, Nobi, and Tim who have shared knowledge, wisdom, time and good humor and given me this gift of sailing. It is for them, that I sail for the Fleet Captain and Mentor programs. (Jan 2007)

Kinya Tago

The day my college buddy invited me to go sailing on his father’s boat, I was hooked, and have been for the past 35 years. That day, I felt a new sense of freedom, and literally, the ability to go anywhere the wind took me. So in 1970, near Tokyo, Japan, I became a crew member on a brand new S&S 30 ft. long sailing boat. From 1972-75, when the weekend and weather permitted, I engaged myself in extensive in-shore and off-shore racing. The next year came with many changes. I moved to sunny southern California to finish my education, and as fortunate as that was, I could not sail for the next year and a half. Fortunately, in 1977, I moved to NY with my wife and from 1980-85, I was able to join in the much missed boating scene at Schenecock, Long Island.

From then on, I’ve never missed out on any boating opportunities. Later that year, my wife and two kids, then ages 5 and 2, were able to share my love and excitement for bare-boating on our first trip to the British Virgin Islands. Since then, we have gone back to the BVIs, as well as Abaco, Bahamas, 5 times until 1993.

In 1988, I joined MSC (formerly called Manhattan Yacht Club) which was then located at South Street Seaport, and continued to sail the New York Harbor, as well as in Newport, RI. In the early 90’s, I had the opportunity to go abroad and do a bare-boat charter, mainly in the beautiful Greek Islands and Majorca, Spain. My favorite would be bare-boating in Phuket, Thailand. Since that trip, I have gone back to Thailand many times. I’ve also had the privilege of sailing with club members during the MSC Barbados Sailing Week in 1994.

Currently, I am a Fleet Captain Skipper and as well as a bare-boating fanatic. I look forward to circumnavigation in the near future. So with 20 years of bare-boating experience all over the globe, it brings me great joy to be able to share that experience with others, and to help them feel the freedom that I first felt as a college kid.

Kinya Tago, First 100 Member (Aug 2005)

Hi, I’m Rich Turrin and am a Mentor and Fleet Captain Skipper here at MSC. I’m looking forward to having you out on the boat and hope you enjoy your sail with me. I am a specialist in cruising and love to head out to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. As you may have guessed from the picture, I also love fishing and will try to fill the cooler with fresh fish when we go out. And yes, since I know you are wondering about this, I do eat the fish that I catch. And yes, it’s safe.

I got hooked (pun intended) on cruising years ago when I came off one of our racing boats and decided that there was far too much yelling going on for me to enjoy myself! Since then, I’ve done a trans-Atlantic and many other smaller cruises in foreign waters.

While many racers assume that cruising is “the lazy man’s sailing,” it is in fact just the opposite. Cruising requires the development of a very specific set of skills and I try to work with my crews to get them to think about how they would sail the boat for longer distances. Things like when and where to tack, how to avoid other boats in the harbour and how to read the weather become critical over longer distances.

Many of my fleet captain sails will have a mentor student on board. I like to work with the mentorees to help them learn to communicate with the crew, and run the boat efficiently. These are skills that mentorees can best develop when they have a crew of less experienced sailors to work with. I find that everyone on board will benefit from this training and have fun. Hey, having fun is why we’re all here. At the same time, I must confess how proud I am when I see all of the current MSC Skippers I’ve helped train.

I almost forgot to mention that I encourage smoking on board, as I’ve been known to smoke some rather large cigars while sailing. I have always found them indispensable in the precise determination of wind speed and direction! : )

Looking forward to seeing you on the water - Rich Turrin, First 100 Member (July 2005)

I started sailing when I was twelve years old and I remember it clearly. I had gone to Boy Scouts of America Camp (BSAC) and located the lake where we would be training for our Swimming Merit Badge. Also on the lake, by the dingy docks, were a handful of Sunfishes and Lasers. I asked the Scout minding the docks how to gain access to the boats and he replied that they were reserved for the Scouts trying to become sailors. By the end of camp, I was a sailor and have continued these past forty years.

In 1968, my parents moved us to Savannah, GA, where I learned to sail in tides, river currents and salt water conditions. Tybee Island was good for all the Hobie Cat sailing I could wish to do. We formed a Cat Surfing competition by using the tidal return of the back river from behind the island to get us beyond the breakers. You sink your pontoons in ahead of the swell, watch carefully as to where the break starts, and then tack outside for another ride. Smart sailors took few risks; dumb ones had to remove the debris of their boats off the beach.

Local sailing began when I moved to New York City in 1980. Inside the North Fork of Long Island was the initial exposure. The area between Riverhead and Nassau Point, just off New Suffolk and Robbins Island, were the best waters for the Hobie I had purchased. In the late 80s, I helped start the New York City Community Sailing Association (NYCCSA), and quickly outgrew this grass roots organization. I was a charter member of the Chelsea Sailing Center and, after three years, transferred my membership to the Manhattan Yacht Club; which I saw as a superior organization and a step up to the best sailing grounds in the area, the New York Harbor.

Currently, I spend my free time as a single parent of an incredible son, Martin. I am Head of the Mentor Program at the Manhattan Sailing Club as well as an active Fleet Captain Skipper. I sometimes race in the fundraising regattas and otherwise love cruising the playgrounds between the Verrazano, Brooklyn, and George Washington Bridges. (July 2005)