Mark Laura

Mark Laura

Mark was elected to the Collegiate Hall of Fame and has won a J24 North American Championship, three Thistle Mid-Winter Championships, the Volvo Cup, and has a Sir Thomas Lipton Sportsmanship award.  Currently Mark races a full spectrum of boats, from J24s to Gun Boat 65s and serves as head coach to the University of Washington Sailing Team.  Most recently, Mark was 4th in Mexico City for the J24 North Americans, Tactician for the Winning boat in the Maxi World championships in Italy and will be sailing in the 2019 J24 World Championships in Miami.

Mark has served as U.S. Coach for three World Championship teams and is a former US Olympic Sailing Coach. He is renowned as among the world’s finest seminar leaders.  Mark has taught literally hundreds of seminars and clinics to sailing groups of every description. His racing clinics have been held in five countries worldwide.

Chris Bedford

Chris Bedford

Chris Bedford is founder of Sailing Weather Services and creator (with Peter Isler)of the online weather school Marine Weather University (MWU). For MWU Chris developed a college-level curriculum to maximize the student’s comprehension of marine weather. The first online weather school for boaters – MWU provides cutting edge marine weather education taught by sailors for sailors.

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Kerry Poe

Kerry Poe

Kerry is the owner of the North Sails Oregon Loft and is a Four time US Sailing Team member. He has competed in 10 World Championships, 470, Laser II, 505, Melges 24 and Farr 30.

A partial list of events won include 470 US Nationals, Laser II US Nationals, Oregon Offshore, Swiftsure, Newport to Ensenada, Chicago Mackinac.

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Rod Favela

Rod Favela

Rod’s racing experience covers the spectrum from Sunfish and dinghies to Vipers, J24s, Melges 32s, and Farr 39s, from small lakes to open oceans, as helmsman, tactician, and trimmer. 

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Bobby Brooks

Bobby Brooks

Bobby Brooks has coached over 45 race teams, campaigns a 6 meter in Europe and sails regularly on a J109 and Melges 32 in Texas.

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