John Connolly

John has been teaching advanced sailing courses on San Francisco Bay and along the California Coast for the past 20 years. In November of last year, he completed his 104th advanced ASA class, spending 7 days with his students outside the Gate sailing to Monterey and back. These conditions are among the most difficult in the country, commonly with 30 knot winds, 15-20 foot seas, thick fog, strong currents and regular shipping.

John has also taught 147 advanced ASA classes overseas in many locations including the South Pacific, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Seychelles Islands, Africa, and Alaska. What makes him unique among other instructors is that his overseas classes have an 80% repeat rate with old students going again and again.

He has a 100 Ton USCG Master license and is and ASA Ocean Passagemaking Instructor. He is also one of the only RYA Ocean Yachtmaster Instructors in the United States.

He is also the inventor of the LifeScoop, a crew overboard recovery system.

JT Meade
ASA Outstanding Instructor 2009

JT Meade's sailing career started soon after he visited Newport, Rhode Island to witness the 1980 Americas Cup. He found a crew position on a 63ft Scottish yawl and delivered her through North Atlantic storms to Bermuda. From there, he "hitchhiked" to Puerto Rico, and ultimately found a position as cook aboard the 85ft Schooner "Appledore".

During the '80s, JT received his Ocean Operators License in the Virgin Islands and worked winters delivering yachts to the Caribbean, principally aboard "Appledore." His summers were spent in Colorado as a professional white water river guide throughout the rivers of the Rocky Mountains. Both careers climaxed in 1985 with a Trans-Atlantic delivery aboard a 50ft Bristol sloop into the Mediterranean and the south of France; returning to the states to row his own river boat the entire length of the Grand Canyon for 21 days.

JT joined Modern Sailing in 1993, received his ASA Instructors Certifications, and has conducted ASA courses in San Francisco Bay, Coastal California, French West Indies, and Tahiti. JT received the "Outstanding Instructor of the Year" in both 1995 and 1996 from the ASA. In 2002, JT, with his wife Sue, and his 4 year old son Dylan, sailed their 48ft ketch "Fiddlers Green" along the California coast to Baja and mainland Mexico for five months. In March 2003 they sailed 3,600 miles across the Pacific to Hawaii, cruising all of the islands for five months and returning to SF Bay and his Instructors position with Modern Sailing. Again, in 2009, his students and the ASA awarded him, for the third time, with "Outstanding Instructor of the Year".

Stan Lander
ASA Outstanding Instructor 2009

Stan started sailing at age 15 on Clearlake (Lake County, California) in Flying Juniors. During high school and college, he sailed and raced on trailer able catamarans (mostly Hobie 16s). After graduating from San Jose State University, Stan entered the United States Coast Guard and earned a reserve officer's commission in Yorktown Virginia. During his 20 year career, he served in the Coast Guard Cutter Morganthau as a Deck Watch Officer and in Coast Guard Cutter Northland as the Operations Officer. He is a veteran of three drug war campaigns; two Haitian and one Cuban Mass Migrations, with over 10 years of ship sea service.

During his off duty time, Stan owned and operated several different kinds of sloop rigged keelboat and cruised with his family. Noteworthy during these years, he and his crew Gordon Thomas captured the Overall SE Multihull Region Championship in 1981 on a Hobie 18 sailing out of the Fairhope Yacht Club, Alabama. After retiring from the Coast Guard, Stan and his family settle in the San Francisco Bay Area where he still resides with his wife Sher. After obtaining his 200 Ton Master License in 1998, Stan quickly took to the SF Bay water front as a Charter Boat Captain and Sailing Instructor. He earned his ASA Sailing Instructor Certificates in the summer of 2000. He later earned his Instructor Evaluator Certificate in 2006.

Currently as an active MSC staff member, Stan teaches up to Advanced Coastal Cruising and OUPV / 100 Ton Master Licensing classes. Additional, he conducts Modern Sailing's Instructor Qualification Clinic every spring just before the SF Bay sailing season starts. Most recently based on student reviews, he was awarded a Certificate of Achievement as an ASA Outstanding Instructor of 2009. He is looking forwarded to 2010 Sailing Season around the bay and Central California Coast.

Robert McCreary

Robert learned to sail on Lake Merritt in 1974 and brings more than 25 years of professional sailing experience to Modern Sailing. He is a published sailing educator and has instructed small- and big-boat sailing and navigation at all levels along the West Coast. Robert also served as the American Sailing Association's National Education Coordinator, administering educational standards and instructor training to more than 300 sailing schools and 3500 instructors worldwide. He has also created and advised sailing schools and designed and implemented specialty learn-to-sail programs.

Robert pilots commercial dining cruise vessels on SF Bay, instructs USCG captain's licensing courses, skippers coastal and offshore deliveries of new yachts for yacht dealers, serves as a yacht racing tactician and coach, presents boat show seminars, and is a private & charter yacht purchase consultant.