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Meet the Mods

76K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  tempest 
#1 · (Edited)
Back around 2009 former Sailnet Moderator CruisingDad introduced this thread so that everyone knew who the moderators are. It has gotten updated from time to time but here is who we currently are......

Who am I? Well, I am an architect (buildings) with my own practice in Annapolis, Maryland (Halpern Architects). I have a masters degree in Architectural Structures which is an architectural degree that is more heavily engineering biased than the average garden variety architectural degree.



A maintenance Day on 'Synergy'

I have some informal training as a yacht designer and have designed and built a few boats, and worked for naval architects and yacht designers at different times in my life, Below was a schooner that I designed back in the 1970's.
Naval architecture Water Triangle Slope Line

Rectangle Slope Parallel Font Circle



BUT I do not consider myself a professional yacht designer. I have also worked in boat yards and as a consultant to boatyard owners, designing repairs and alterations to yachts. My mother had two companies that built and imported boats from Taiwan, which gave me a lot of insights into the boat building industry.

I first started sailing in 1961 and more or less have sailed ever since. In 1963 or 1964, a family friend went sailing with my dad and I and wanted to take a picture of our boat under sail. The picture below is one of his that was taken that day, with my Dad steering and me trimming the genoa.

Windrift 1963-64

When we put our friend on the fuel barge to take the pictures, my dad let me bring the boat into the dock for the very first time. Our friend snapped this picture of me during that maneuver looking at the closing gap between the boat and the dock. I was probably somewhere between 12 and 14.

Jeff Sailing as a 12 -14 year old

I enjoy most types of sailing. I currently sail on the Chesapeake Bay but have sailed on much of the U.S. Atlantic coast. In a given year, I typically will daysail, race (both my own boat and other people's boats), and cruise (both my own boat and other people's boats) and can be out on the water as many as 100 days a year. I do a lot of single-handing. While I have cruised offshore, I strongly prefer coastal cruising. While I have raced dinghies and very high performance boats, I prefer racing 22 to 40 foot keelboats. I have owned wooden boats and enjoy sailing on traditional watercraft. I have a pretty strong background in yacht and working water craft history and have owned a few wooden boats.
Water Sky Boat Vehicle Mast

Indian- Sarasota 1975
Watercraft Boat Naval architecture Sky Vehicle

Indian- John Holmes Boat Yard- Nokomis 1976
Boat Watercraft Naval architecture Vehicle Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

Diana- end of restoration- Dinner Key- 1973

These days I prefer to own modern performance cruisers.
Water Sky Boat Watercraft Naval architecture



'Synergy' Hardening up onto a close reach.

In a general sense, I have a preferences for boats that perform well, and that offer excellent sailing capabilities (performance, ease of handling, comfort, and seaworthiness) across a wide range of conditions. I pick a boat based on how she sails with all the rest being negotiable. I really am not a fan of 'heavy weight offshore boats'. (Duh!)

I currently own a Farr 38 (Farr 11.6) which I daysail, race and cruise single-hand. The Farr 11.6's are hard to classify boats and not exactly your normal off-the-rack cruising boat or racing boat. They were built as fast offshore cruisers but have had a very successful racing record. They also have a remarkable record as short-handed offshore cruisers. My boat was single-handed into the States from Cape Town, South Africa.
Water Cloud Sky Boat Watercraft

Synergy beating out of Maryland Yacht Club after a SailNet rendezvous.

I have owned over a dozen boats with family members owning over a dozen more. I race on a variety of boats over the course of the year and sometimes help out with deliveries, or help a new owner 'sort out' a boat that is new to them. I also like sailing up to boats from astern and observing their sailing abilities, meaning relative speed, stability, leeway, and motion. All of that combined gives me a relative sense of how boats are built and how they sail.
Water Watercraft Vehicle Boat Naval architecture

Synergy hardening up onto a beat in building breeze.

Many of my friends are yacht designers, sailmakers, and marine surveyors who also give me an inside track when I am researching a topic.

And since I first posted this in April 2009, I have gotten married to my lovely wife Barbara, who makes me smile, makes me laugh, and makes me think, but not necessarily all at the same time. We just celebrated our 11th year anniversary.
Wedding dress Bride Smile Flower Bridal clothing

My lovely bride, Barbara and I

That is who I am. Now how I ended up as a moderator on SailNet back in 1996 is another story but for another day......

Donna_F pointed out that newest of the photos above is from June of 2010 so here are some more recent photos taken (2019) racing on Skybird, a Tartan 101 with wind in my hair, a smile on my face, and a song in my heart:

Jeff Sailing 2019 ,


In recent years I have been very active with CHESSS (Chesapeake Short-handed Sailing Society) where I was a founding member and where I have served on the Board of Directors since its first meeting. These days I do a lot of single-handed racing and cruising. This picture was taken at the finish line winning the spinnaker class in the 2020 Poplar Island race.

Poplar Island Race- Synergy at Finish Line 2020-06-27

Lately I also have been doing a lot of mentoring people who are getting into our sport; helping them learn to sail or improve sailing skills, pick the right boat, or to restore and upgrade their boats. (I have recently appeared in the 'Sailing Nervous' video series on YouTube helping a friend repair his boats)

Regards,
Jeff
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Being Australian we know 2 things: Drinking and the water.


I've been sailing since I was 12 and in 1998 raced from Ashkelon, Israel through the Mediterranean, to the Canaries. Then raced as Mate of a Swan 651 from Canaries to Brazil and Argentina.

2008 few to the Caribbean bought a Beneteau 393

Sea Life in London 2019

From 2008 a west-about circumnavigation via Panama, Australia, Red Sea, Med, Atlantic back to Caribbean.
Last few years have been sliding between the Caribbean and the USA 3 times including 3 whole summers in New York. Europe spent 3 winters in London and summers in France, Belgium and Netherlands. Now back in the Caribbean.

Shorts Smile Tree Outdoor furniture Thigh

My fiancée Marjorie

On SailNet I am open to anyones thoughts or problems so please send me a message and I will see if I can help. How can we make SailNet better?

Mark
 
#3 · (Edited)
It has been a long time since I needed to write up a résumé, so I will try to be short. I do not have lots of pictures. My background ranges quite broadly while staying mostly close to home. I am a retired French teacher, after spending 19 years with up to 200 third, fourth and fifth graders in eight classes a day. Before that I was in the air travel industry for about 20 years in the New York tri-state area. I worked in both passenger and some cargo sales at different international airlines, marketed travel software nationwide and also handled client relations at a corporate travel agency in Manhattan. Between paying jobs I also did a stint as a yacht broker.

My sailing background is steadier. We started learning to sail on Long Island Sound in Blue Jays, then moved on to Lightnings and bigger boats. I skippered my family’s Soling on weekends, and crewed on Solings at C.O.R.K. I got asked to crew on the Marblehead-Halifax race, then Newport-Bermuda races. Studying in France gave me the chance to sail in the English Channel and at the Pre-Olympic Regatta at Hyères. I taught sailing for two summers before serving as watch captain on an Ohlson 38 cruising to Europe. We toured Ireland’s East coast and touched at Scotland, Man, the Scillies, Royan, and Arcachon before I had to get back to school. I joined up again to bring the boat back from Tortola to Connecticut via Bermuda the following spring.


Boat Watercraft Water Sky Vehicle

Blue Jays heading home after the regatta. You can also see one of the 16 Solings in the fleet being drysailed, just above the clubhouse porch.

Water Shorts Boat Watercraft Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

Soling on a daysail.

Motor vehicle Hat Standing Shorts Tree

Transatlantic crew. I like to steer.



A job and an apartment in NYC allowed me to continue sailing on weekends and to build a rowboat on the East River by Gracie Mansion after work. Newport-Bermuda races continued. Marriage and a mortgage in the suburbs put boat ownership on the back burner, though we crewed on J/24’s and Sonars in our new location and I found time to build a cedar-strip canoe in the living room.

Children called for a bigger house, which we found back in my home town. My father conspired to give me a Pearson Resolute – the ultimate family daysailer - for my birthday. Nineteen feet of solid keelboat, with bench seats perfect for as many five year-olds as you would want for a birthday party. For a sailor used to racing, it was torture: tired, old, slow and sluggish. I added two Chicago-Mackinac races to my résumé. Within a few years we found partners with goals like ours and bought a J/36 together. It offered stellar performance for racing as well as sufficient accommodations for cruising and moody adolescents. We sailed Eclipse with our partners for 24 years, winning silverware and cruising the East Coast from New York City to Northeast Harbor, ME. In the off seasons I built cedar strip-epoxy kayaks for my wife and me. I also acquired an International 505 dinghy – a boat that I had first seen in Normandy, 40 years earlier. More recently I volunteered to serve on the YRALIS PHRF Committee, where we determine handicaps for boats that want to race from about 60 yacht clubs on Long Island Sound.

Water Boat Sky Watercraft Sailing

J/36 Eclipse, racing. We had the name written in large letters so people would be able to read it without binoculars when we finished. Not sure that would have worked in this race.

Water Boat Watercraft Vehicle Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

Cedar strip kayaks. One is a Caspian Sea, the other a Great Auk. About 25kg each.
Water Sky Boat Watercraft Mast

Étoile is International 5o5 USA8172, a tack forward Parker-built boat.

Seeking improved creature comforts in 2021 led us to getting a “new” boat in June, still with our same partners. Arcadia is a 1996 Sabre 402. For Christmas she got new North 3Di sails, so we are excited about racing next season, though we are planning a cruise to Martha’s Vineyard too.

Cloud Sky Water Boat Watercraft

Arcadia, doing 8 knots under a reefed main and 130% Genoa in 20-28 knots of puffy NW breeze. The new sails are black, so we hope to win more than the two races we did last season.
 
#4 · (Edited)
I guess it's my turn as the newest member of the " Mod Squad" If you recognize that reference to an old U.S. TV series you may be as old as I am, or watch a lot of re-runs.

Anyway, I'm an East Coast Guy. A city boy, born and raised in Newark , N.J. The Boy Scouts helped open my eyes to the Great Outdoors; camping, hiking and fishing became an early passion. They also probably kept me out of trouble! Our leaders were mostly Veterans who came home and became police and firemen in town. They were tough and taught us self-reliance and discipline among many other useful things.

In College, I shared a house on 3 acres with 3 other roommates and besides hiking and camping in the White Mountains, the Adirondacks, and the Catskills, we all had motorcycles and did some touring. There were canoes, in the toy shed, and one of my roommates bought a little cartop foam filled sailboat called a " Sunflower" . I think I was hooked on Sailing from that point on. From there it was an 18 footer, then a 22 Catalina, a 29.9 Bristol, which brings me to my current and probably last sailboat a 34 Sabre. That evolution took about 50 years.

I started on the lakes and reservoirs in N.J. Then moved to Barnegat Bay. I sold the Bristol to my former roommate, and was boat less for about 10 years. During that time, I raced on a 33 Hobie ( mono) at a local club, Sailed with friends, and sailed with a high school friend on the Chesapeake Bay out of Annapolis, on the Sabre that I now own. We did a lot of sailing on the Chesapeake, from one end to the other. We probably made the run from Annapolis to St Michaels 100 times. ( more often than not, at night)

We set out on the Bermuda Ocean Race one year, and had to turn back at the halfway point. ( tough decision, 2 sick crew members ) Two years later Tempest made it to St Georges. A few years after that, I helped take her to Florida for the winter. The Following season, I bought the 34, when my buddy moved up to a 386. That was 17 years ago. We brought her up to the Raritan Bay where I keep her. Since then I've cruised her in the LIS, and to Block Island Etc. and locally, and sail on the 386 on the Chesapeake, and when it comes North.

I retired from my full time career in University Foodservice in 2009, ( after 25 years) then taught in the Nutritional Science Dept. for 5 years after that. I also taught ASA classes all levels for a few schools off and on for about 8 years, as well as the N.J. Safe Boating class. These days, I drive a launch 3 days a week at a local yacht club, and teach food safety classes for Supermarket chains. So much for Retirement!

I actually started my career in Parks and Recreation, and worked for a County Park Commission for 9 years. We had 2 Ice skating rinks, a popular zoo, a few golf courses etc. A change in direction found me going back to school to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Did the Chef , restaurant and club, thing for awhile, then ended up in the University where I managed the Capital improvements of Dining Facilities. ( design and construction etc.) and my department purchased everything you can't eat. ;-) I got to travel all over the U.S. During my career, then tacked on vacation time to those trips. Once while in Reno at a conference, We ducked out and drove to Lake Tahoe, and rented a sailboat for the day! ;-)

I've been on this Site, I think since '07, and have found it a great learning resource! I have benefited from it all. The cumulative knowledge and experiences of the membership never ceases to amaze me.

I suppose, I need to post some photos at some point, but at the moment I need to cut the grass, and do some yardwork outdoors. I just spent the last two days re-doing the teak etc. on Tempest, and the lawn is calling to me.
 
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