Sailing mentors – Who’s yours?

One of my favorite bloggers and twitterers is Mark Hendy. He lives in the UK and shares a common passion for sailing. One of his recent posts was  about how he got into sailing thanks to his sailing mentor, Tony. One outing on a boat with Tony and he was hooked:

This got me thinking about my own sailing mentors. I have been sailing for over 20 years and there have been four. The first two were both called Tom and could have not been more different.

Our first sailing instructor was a retired engineer called Captain Tom, who was retraining to be a Lutheran minister. At weekends he taught sailing on his Morgan 42. What a lovely guy! A great teacher who took us under his wing, taught us how to sail and then helped us find our first boat a Cape Dory Typhoon. Coincidentally we bought it from one his former mentees. Without his help and advice we would not have become addicted to this great way of life.

The second Captain Tom was a skipper for the Offshore Sailing School who taught us to live aboard in the BVI's. He was a gruff, rum-drinking, Floridian who taught us more in a week than I have ever learned. We saw him a  year later and he hardly remembered us - so not much of a mentor/mentee thing. You can read more about him and our exploits in this post.

Since then I was mentor-less until fairly recently. I am lucky to have two great and fairly recent friends who are both highly experienced sailors. Like any good mentor, they are generous with their insights if requested but don't feel the urge to ram it down my throat. Always helpful without being patronizing.

One of my mentors is my mate Phil, an Aussie who is the proud owner of a beautiful Swan 42 that he has double-handed in the Newport to Bermuda several times. Most of the time he cruises her out of Sag Harbor. I have been out on the boat with Phil and his wife Joy a few times and out for beers even more often. He has been a great source of ideas about the pros and cons of owning your own big boat and where to sail in the region. I feel much clearer about what I am looking for long-term thanks to Phil.

My other mentor is Howard, the skipper of Knot Again. Howard owns a C&C 34 that he races in Raritan Bay with yours truly frequently on the starboard winch. Howard is mostly self-taught and has clearly studied sailing well. He has been a frequent winner at RYC and drives his wife crazy with all the silverware. Every time I am on the boat with Howard I learn something new. He is a great tactician and a great person to answer technical questions about sail trim etc.

Howard is a "skipper factory". There are several other boats at RYC owned and skippered by Howard's former crew who have learned from him and then gone on to campaign their own boats.

I would love to hear about your mentor stories. I will of course share them back on this blog.