Instructors

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    • Fred Bagley

      Fred Bagley has sailed the Great Lakes most of his life. Fred and his wife doublehand their Caliber 38 out of Cheboygan, Michigan , and have spent many summers cruising Lake Superior and other Great Lakes destinations.
    • Captains Alex & Daria Blackwell

      Daria and Alex Blackwell are lifelong sailors and passionate cruisers. They have completed three Atlantic crossings and have spent years cruising the coasts of the Americas and Europe on their ketch Aleria.
    • Captain Alex Blackwell

      Alex Blackwell, with his wife, Daria, is a lifelong sailor and passionate cruiser. They have completed three Atlantic crossings and have spent years cruising the coasts of the Americas and Europe on their ketch Aleria. Alex is a sailing journalist, author, and editor. He frequently writes about sailing technology and sailing adventures, contributing to several magazines, websites and e-zines, including his own, Coastalboating.net.
    • Larry Brandt

      Larry Brandt gained his intimate knowledge of radar compliments of the US taxpayer, in the US Air Force, where he was a maintenance crew chief on advanced Air Defense Command search and height finder radar systems.
    • Lou Bruska

      Lou Bruska has been a sailor for fifty years. He and his wife, Laurel, bought their first boat in 1978, and started racing. Since 2003 they've been cruising on their Catalina 36 out of Holland, MI.
    • Vic and Sue Camaiore

      Co-port Captains Vic and Sue Camaiore have been sailors for over 30 years. They currently sail on "Inspiration" an Island Packet 350. They have sailed on Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan and Erie. Home is the Clinton River and Lake St. Clair. They are recent winners of the GLCC Founder's Award for their article about their circumnavigation of Lake Michigan.
    • Bill Cullen

      Bill Cullen brings his creative and inventive ideas to the world of cruising. Why accept things as they are when with a little ingenuity you can find a way to "build a better mouse trap."
    • Roy Eaton

      Roy Eaton is "The Voice of the North Channel" on VHF radio's "Little Current Cruisers' Net". Roy and his wife Margaret sailed their boat, Mystic Loon, for 36 years through all of the Great Lakes and beyond, as far as the Bahamas.
    • Jim and Heidi Egensperger

      Jim and Heidi Egensperger began boating in NE Ohio in the early 1970s, primarily as crew on a number of different sailboats on the south shore of Lake Erie. The ensuing years saw them racing and cruising in a wide range of locations and boats including all the Great Lakes (plus Lake Champlain), Trent-Severn and Erie canals, Hudson River, St. Lawrence River, East Coast of North America from Newfoundland to Florida and Bermuda, chartering in the Windward Islands, the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound and the Whitsunday Islands of Queensland, Australia. They have cruised and casually raced their Catalina 30, Touch of Grey, since 2015. They are members of the GLCC, also since 2015, and participated in GLCC Rallies, Rendezvous’ and the Cleveland Boat Show GLCC booth. They are currently Deputy Port Captains of Mentor Harbor, E-8, on Lake Erie.
    • Charlie Ellins

      Charlie Ellins lives on the Trent-Severn Waterway on Lake Couchiching near Orillia, Ontario. He has spent his summers on the Waterway since the 1950's. Charlie enjoys cruising the Trent Severn Waterway aboard his Sea Ray 34 named "Lady Lou"
    • Rich Fink

      Rich is an accomplished life-long sailor and one of the most experienced cruising boaters in the Great Lakes Cruising Club. His extensive cruising experience encompasses all five Great Lakes, and well beyond, in a wide range of boats.
    • Mark Gagyi

      Mark is a long time Lake Erie sailor who since the1980's has enjoyed exploring the sights and sounds his home lake. Retirement gave Mark the chance to stretch his cruising legs and to cook and cruise his way across all five of our fabulous Great Lakes. Mark is a Port Captain for the Great Lakes Cruising Club and has also presented numerous Cruising Lake Erie seminars at Cleveland's Mid America Boat Show.
    • Mike and Deb Hervey

      Deb and Mike Hurvey, with both sail and power experience as well as being both GLCC and AGLCA members, began their Great Loop travels in 2016. Hop on board as they share their loop experience and planning.
    • Niels Jensen

      Niels Jensen, originally from Denmark, is a past Commodore of the Great Lakes Cruising Club, past president of the Great Lakes Foundation as well, plus is GLCC Port Captain for Stockton Island on Lake Superior. His home cruising waters are western Lake Superior.
    • Brad Lathrop

      Captain Brad Lathrop has a unique insight to cruising the Great Lakes as he explores the sweetwater seas from his 26 ft trailerable boat. Having already sailed 3 of the 5 Great Lakes, he brings the enthusiasm of a recent convert to his presentations bolstered by the significant experience garnered from actually "doing it". Brad enjoys helping others with small boats learn that they too can share the excitement and the beauty of cruising these Great Lakes.
    • Sheila McCurdy

      Sheila is a 100,000 mile-plus sailor, and is a past commodore of the Cruising Club of America (CCA). She certifies cruising instructors for US Sailing and runs Safety at Sea seminars, plus serves in numerous other boating industry roles.
    • Joe McKeown

      Joe McKeown grew up powerboating the Great Lakes, making his first family trip to the beautiful waters of the North Channel in 1969. He converted to sailing while in Annapolis, MD where he sailed the length and breadth of the Chesapeake Bay and competed in several long-distance sailboat races, like Annapolis to Bermuda and the Governors Cup.
    • Joann Mead

      Joann and her husband Chuck have cruised all five Great Lakes. When not cruising, Joann uses her prior tech sector experience as chair of the Great Lakes Cruising Club's Web Site committee.
    • Craig Murchison

      Craig Murchison is a retired Dow Chemical Research Fellow and Past Commodore of the Saginaw Bay Yacht Club. He is also active in the Saginaw Bay Power Squadron and serves as GLCC Port Captain for Tawas Bay and Port Austin, on the shores of Lake Huron. Craig and his wife, Pamela, have extensively cruised the Great Lakes, in particular Lake Huron and it's adjoining North Channel and Georgian Bay, plus are 2011 recipients of the Great Lakes Cruising Club's Admiral Bayfield award for cruising all five Great Lakes. They currently cruise "The Shot Rock", their 42 Cruisers Powerboat.
    • Joe Parker

      When not cruising or racing, Joe, an active GLCC member, has worked as a rigger and a sail consultant, plus in countless other aspects of boat construction and maintenance for nearly forty years. He owns and operates Bay Boat Works, his rigging shop and is a partner in Parker Sailing Consultants with his son Brad providing services for sailors buying a new boat, refitting or repairing their boat.
    • Angèle and Jim Passe

      Angèle and Jim started sailing together on a small city lake in Minnesota, in 1971. Then Jim built a 27 footer in his backyard that took them onto the rivers. Since 1987 they've been sailing a Moody 376 on Lake Superior, all the Sweetwater Seas and well beyond.
    • Peter S. Plumb

      Peter S. Plumb, a resident of Portland, Maine, is an attorney, musician and passionate cruising sailor. He started sailing at a very young age, racing small boats in Edgartown, Massachusetts, and progressing over the years to explore some of the most exotic cruising destinations on the planet.
    • Bill Rohde

      GLCCSchool Assistant Coordinator and former Great Lakes Cruising Club Director, Bill Rohde, is a lifelong cruiser. For years he and his wife Judy cruised under sail, most recently on a 42' Tayana Pilothouse Cutter. They recently purchased a Legacy 40 Sedan Cruiser for the next chapter of their cruising adventures.
    • Dave Spencer

      Dave and his wife Kathy live in London Ontario and sail out of southern Georgian Bay. Dave and Kathy have cruised extensively around Georgian Bay and the North Channel aboard their Catalina 34 sailboat named "Good Idea".
    • Eric Sunstrum

      Eric Sunstrum and his wife Cynthia make their home near Ottawa, Ontario, and have enjoyed over 20 years sailing in the Thousand Islands and Bay of Quinte. Active members of the GLCC, they most recently coordinated the 2019 GLCC Lake Ontario Rally and the 2019 Georgian Bay Rally. They keep their Catalina 28 sailboat named Northern Whisper at the Trident Yacht Club in the Thousand Islands.
    • Mark Thornton

      Mark is one of the foremost marine weather authorities on the Great Lakes. In addition to teaching weather classes for GLCCSchool, he is also president of LakeErieWX, a company focused on providing marine weather training and forecasting for Great Lakes boaters.
    • Tom Trimmer

      Tom Trimmer is the founder and owner of Custom Marine Products, a company specializing in marine solar systems for the cruising sailor. He cruises the The North Channel for six weeks every summer.
    • Dave and Colleen Wray

      Dave and Colleen Wray are long time Lake Superior Boaters. They sailed for several years in the Apostle Islands, Isle Royale and North Shore of Canada. In 2016, they purchased a 1997 Mainship 350 Trawler in Mackinac City, Michigan with plans to spend a year on the boat navigating around America’s Great Loop. Having completed the 7000 mile journey in fall of 2017, their boat Moonshadow is now moored at Barkers Island Marina in Superior, Wisconsin.
    • Steve Wyckoff

      Steve is a member and former Commodore of the Grand Traverse Yacht Club and has sailed the northern Great Lakes, the North Channel, parts of the Caribbean, and Washington’s San Juan Islands.
    • Jim Zima

      Jim Zima is the owner of Great Lakes Diesel in Vermilion, Ohio. In addition to maintaining, repairing, and re-powering marine diesels Jim teaches numerous seminars in and around the Great Lakes and at the Annapolis Cruisers University. GLD is the largest certified Yanmar dealer on Lake Erie. GLD is also a certified dealer for Westerbeke, Universal, and Kubota. In his GLCC School webinars Jim Zima shows us that he is not only a master mechanic but a great teacher.