Steve Matles | Modern Sailing

Steve Matles

Instructor

You’ve got to really love sailing when you launch your first boat in the “mud puddles” of Oklahoma reservoirs. It was a 19-foot Flying Scot, a daysailer that followed him from Tulsa, to Galveston, and finally to Lake Tahoe where he turned it in for a 28-foot Lancer. Steve currently owns Moon Dance, a Bavaria 42 Cruiser in the Berkeley Platinum Fleet.

At 10, Steve got the sailing bug as a summer camper on one of the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota. His log book shows passages which included Lake Superior the British Virgin Islands, Dry Tortugas, Galveston Bay and Scotland. More recently, he sailed Moon Dance down from Seattle, and Coho II up from the LA area.

In 1981 Steve moved to Reno where he began sailing Lake Tahoe. In 2016, while on assignment at a hospital in the Bay Area, Steve began teaching for Modern Sailing on weekends, though his home base remained in Reno.

Steve is an ASA instructor for Basic Keelboat, Costal, Bareboat, and Advanced Coastal Cruising classes, as well as Coastal Navigation. He holds a Coast Guard 50-ton license (with Sailing Endorsement) and is also a Royal Yachting Association Coastal Yachtmaster.

Steve recently retired as a Healthcare Safety Officer and Disaster Manager. “I might be slightly risk-adverse,” Steve tells his students as he emphasizes the need for safety in all aspects of sailing. He and his wife, Marty, have two grown children, in all in Reno. 

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  • Steve Hood, Basic Coastal Cruising

    I would definitely recommend Modern Sailing to anyone who is interested in learning to sail the right way.

  • Sara Jane G.

    I've taken two classes at MSS&C and was very happy with the program. This is also a great club with lots of opportunities for camaraderie and practice on the water. The boats in the fleet are fantastic and kept in tip-top shape. I highly recommend for all sailors and would-be sailors!

  • Mike, Santa Rosa, California

    All of the courses and my instructors (JT and Stan) were extremely professional and full of knowledge and experience. I found I was able to learn from their experiences beyond the scope of the courses, and look forward to future opportunities to do so. I would highly recommend Modern Sailing to anyone.

  • Danny Collins

    The office staff was very accommodating in meeting my availability.

  • John Kipping

    The meeting room was quite adequate and the location most convenient, but the course outline and instruction were outstanding. Modern Sailing is fortunate to have such a well organized instructor in Mr. Stan Lander who teaches very well from a rich professional background. Mr. Lander was generous with his time and patiently in helping students who needed more attention or time in understanding various aspects of the curriculum.

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Modern Sailing School & Club

Sausalito Location
2310 Marinship Way, Sausalito
(415) 331-8250
(800) 995-1668

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1 Spinnaker Way, Berkeley
(415) 331-8250
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