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Home Delivery Instruction Biographies Jeremy Hopkins Bill England |
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Sailing Biography: Bill England A native of Calvert County, Maryland, I spent my childhood in the 1950s and 60s on the Chesapeake Bay shores. Little did I realize at the time what a treasure it was to be born with the opportunity of devoting endless summertime hours to “simply messing about in boats.” My dad owned a skipjack, on which I learned the basics of sailing and maneuvering, plus a little fishing too. My friends and I sailed a variety of small boats -Windmill, Sunfish, Sailfish, Snipe, Aqua-Cat, Hornpiper - all of which were small enough to drag up on the beach. It was a golden time, during which I learned valuable lessons about wind and water, how to make a sailboat go, and how to make it go where I want it to. In the late 1960s I went to college, which started me on a path to marriage, career, and child-rearing that would occupy the next thirty years or so. Living inland in North Carolina limited my sailing to mainly a couple of times each year on one of my dad’s boats. In 2001 I retired from the engineering career and returned to the water in a big way, crewing on offshore deliveries, accumulating sea-time, and studying for the Captain’s license exam, which I completed successfully in early 2003. Along the way I met Captain Jeremy Hopkins, who invited me to crew with him on the trans-Atlantic delivery of Free Flight, a Bristol 45 center-cockpit sloop, from Mallorca to Annapolis. Since then we have been great friends and professional associates, frequently consulting one another on various nautical questions - although I do most of the questioning! My delivery experience includes numerous modern vessels including Beneteau, Bristol, Caliber, Catalina, Hunter, Jeanneau, Mason, Nauticat, O’Day, Pearson, Sabre, Ta Chiao, Tartan, and Tayana monohulls, as well as Robertson & Caine catamarans. I have sailed to or from many ports on the US East Coast from Maine to Florida to the Gulf coast of Texas, plus the Caribbean and west coast of Mexico. In 2005 and 2006 I managed the instruction programs and the fleet of boats at Getaway Sailing Inc., a Baltimore sailing school and the largest full-service sailing center on the Patapsco River. There I taught sailing (I am an ASA certified instructor), captained day and extended charters, assisted with summer camps and corporate team building programs, and managed the maintenance and repair of the 20-boat fleet, which includes 23’ Sonar day-sailors up to 36’ cruising sloops. I have a great fondness for sailboats, and all the ancient and modern lore associated with them. On deliveries, I emphasize safety and comfort above speed, on the principle that a healthy well-rested crew will make the best decisions. I am a non-smoker and do not permit smoking on my deliveries, With regard to instruction, I take a well organized approach that is heavy on practice, long on patience, and free of hollering. Boating, I believe, should be a good time. I have held these principles for quite some time, and my association with Capt. Jeremy has reinforced my belief in them. |
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