Captain Brian Earl
Captain Brian Earl has been sailing for over 35 years on various size craft as well as a variety of waters. From the West Coast to the East Coast, the Great Lakes, Inland lakes and rivers, and the Caribbean. This extensive experience has given him a unique perspective of various weather, water, and yacht conditions you might find where you sail.
Brian is a licensed Coast Guard 100 Ton Master Captain and Coast Guard Examiner, authorized to teach USCG Captain courses, holds ASA Instructor Certifications, and is an ASA instructor evaluator. He maintains certificates in Red Cross First Aid, CPR, and AED.
As founder of BE-Nautical, he is recognized as ASA Instructor of the Year (and BE-Nautical as ASA School of the Year). He supports the environment through ASA’s Plastics Purge, recognizes the contribution of veterans and teachers with discounts, and supports women in sailing with Women on the Water courses.
Captain Amy Gallagher
Captain Amy believes that it’s never too late to learn to sail. She learned as an adult and bought her first boat, a Beneteau First 310 Tall Rig, the same summer. From her base on Lake Michigan, she began local and long-distance racing, most notably as crew on “The Hook”, an annual 189-nautical mile race. Quickly building her sailing skills and confidence, it wasn’t long before she embarked on month-long sailing adventures, roaming across Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and
Lake Superior with complete beginners as crew.
It was during these sails that Amy realized she could combine her previous teaching experience with sailing. Amy loved helping her crew feel more confident on the water especially during those challenging moments that are always a part of sailing. Her teaching style is fun and safety-focused and she is committed to creating a low-stress learning environment.
Captain Amy has over 400 days of sailing experience in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and on the Great Lakes and holds a US Coast Guard OUPV license and is certified to instruct ASA classes: 101, 103, 104, 114, and 118.
Captain Frank Jaeger
Founder, Owner — The Spinnaker Crew
Captain Frank has sailed for years and thousands of miles on several vessels (monohull and catamaran) on the great lakes and oceans, over day and night, and in different weather and sea conditions. He is passionate about providing sailing education, has lectured at sailing conferences, and has delivered boats to various destinations. In 2021, Frank received ASA’s highest award as Outstanding Instructor of the Year and was among the elite 1% of instructors (ranked 13 of 2,332 Instructors worldwide).
Frank is USCG licensed Master Captain of vessels including auxiliary sail less than 50 tons upon Great Lakes and Inland Waters and operator upon near coastal waters not more than 100 miles offshore.
His areas of expertise and certification as a licensed instructor include ASA 101, 103, 104, 105, 108, 114, 117, and 118.
Tierney Acott
Tierney learned to sail because she thought it looked like fun. Spoiler: it is. She learned on the Irish Sea and since then has sailed mostly on Lake Michigan with a few forays in the Pacific. She started as a dinghy sailor and then graduated to keelboats through BE-Nautical’s ASA certification program.
Tierney is an ASA certified instructor. She also volunteers at Northwestern University Sailing Center (due to her love of dinghies). She is Red Cross CPR and AED certified.
JT Quinn
Captain JT first started sailing while living in New Zealand. He has spent time working on yachts all along the Atlantic Coast, Caribbean, Croatia, and French Polynesia. He has crossed oceans, sailed to every island in the Caribbean, and transited the Panama Canal. Whether it’s long, open water passages or cruising the islands, JT loves to share his stories and knowledge about sailing.
JT holds a USCG license, RYA Yachtmaster, and is a certified ASA instructor.
Tom Cunliffe
Tom Cunliffe is one of the Anglosphere’s leading writers on sailing and the sea. He was educated at a North of England grammar school and the University of Liverpool where he read law. In 1968, aged 21, he threw it all up for a career in sailing which he has pursued ever since, working on vessels of all sizes from dinghies to large gaff schooners.
Starting out by heading up a sailing school in the South of France, he has taught sailing, seamanship and navigation at all levels, from beginner to ocean skipper. For four years he was a senior offshore instructor at the British National Sailing School. In between teaching, he has served before the mast in small sailing ships, skippered yachts for private owners, raced offshore and been to sea as mate on a home-trade merchant vessel. He is an RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Instructor examiner, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and works from time to time as a consultant for US Sailing.
In his own yachts he has cruised to destinations as diverse as Brazil, Greenland, the Caribbean and Communist Russia. Specialising in vintage and classic craft, he has become a world authority on gaff rig.
In 1986, he began writing and is now the author of 25 published books. Mainly of a maritime nature, these range from best-selling textbooks on seamanship and navigation, through technical works on astro-navigation, to a three-volume history of piloting under sail. They include travel books taking in medieval Viking Atlantic voyaging and riding the United States extensively on a motorcycle. He has twice won the 'Best Book of the Sea' award. For thirty years he was editor of the important Shell Channel Pilot and is a columnist for Sailing Today, Yachting World, Classic Boat and SAIL magazine (USA).
Tom Cunliffe skippered his 35-ton Edwardian pilot cutter for BBC1's Island Race series, making 8 prime-time documentary programmes. He wrote and presented the BBC TV series Boats that built Britain as well as Quest Channel’s popular series Boatyard. His Youtube channel Tom Cunliffe Yachts and Yarns has over 30,000 subscribers.
When not at sea in his Mason 44 cutter, he lives with his wife Roz in the New Forest of Southern England where he maintains his 1949 Bentley and cultivates roses.