Meet One Design Movers and Shakers!  The One-Design Sailing Symposium features forums led by industry and class experts providing the impetus to exchange ideas, foster new ones and give one-design sailing a spot on the starting line.

Jonathan Banks
Jonathan has over 20 years international business management experience with leading companies in the marine, electric vehicle, automotive, sporting goods, and telecommunications industries. He is currently the Executive Director of Sail America, the trade association for the U.S. sailing industry. Prior to joining Sail America in 2006, he ran his own marketing consulting business, Market Momentum, which provided sales, marketing and strategic consulting. Previously, he was Director of Marketing for Vectrix Corp., a leading developer of zero-emission personal transportation products; Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Thule, the world’s leading manufacturer and distributor of roof rack systems; and Marine Market Manager at New England Ropes. He also held various management roles with two of the UK’s leading telecommunications companies; British Telecom and Cable and Wireless. Jonathan has extensive sailing experience on all types of boats from dinghies to mega-yachts. From 1991 to 1994, he skippered a Swan 57 on a circumnavigation of the world. Since moving to the United States in 1995, he has been actively involved in all types of sailing, including several charter vacations, one-design racing, and cruising the waters of Narragansett Bay. Jonathan currently co-owns a Lippincott 30 and races his Sunfish in the Barrington Yacht Club frostbite series.

Janet Baxter
Janet Baxter is the immediate past president of US SAILING and started her work on the US SAILING Board as a rep from the ODCC. She races actively in Chicago and has been a member of several classes, including Lasers, Etchells, T-10s and now Beneteau 36.7s. She is also a certified judge and occasional race committee participant. As a delegate to ISAF, she has heard many discussions about various international classes and their issues and solutions. Janet has experience facilitating brainstorming events, and is looking forward to prompting further discussions between sessions, in the bar and with your local fleets when you return home.

Jerelyn Biehl
Jerelyn is a one-design sailor at heart and has been involved as a junior instructor, advisor, racer and administrator. Mostly races Snipes. 

Matt Bounds
At the age of 47, Matt has been sailing for over 43 years – most of that time in Hobie Cats. He’s been involved with the Hobie Class for over 20 years and has served as class secretary, treasurer, chairman and is the current editor of the class magazine, the Hobie HOTLINE. Matt actively campaigns his Hobie 14, 16, 17 and Tiger F-18, traveling as much as 20,000 miles a year to regattas. He is a two-time Hobie 17 North American Champion (2005/2006) and competed in the 2006 US SAILING Championship of Champions. In 2007, he has shifted his focus to race management and has achieved his certification as a race officer. 

Jim Capron
Jim Capron, US SAILING President, has been sailing and boating all his life. An engineer by trade (University of Miami, University of Maryland), Jim founded and is president of Capron Company, Inc., a facility automation design and contracting firm located in Rockville, Maryland.

Jim began sailing Penguins in grade school, but has also owned and raced a Lightning, J/24, and J/35. He currently races an Etchells out of Annapolis Yacht Club. Jim and his wife Dawn have also cruised extensively in the Caribbean and down east in Maine and Canada.

Jim is a certified US SAILING Judge and Umpire, an ISAF International Judge and International Umpire, and a member of the ISAF International Judges Subcommittee. As an official, Jim has served as a judge and umpire at many international events, including the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the 2003 Louis Vuitton Cup in Auckland, Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Races, and the ISAF World Sailing Games.

Dan Cooney
Dan is the US SAILING Marketing Director, He grew up in Marion, Mass. sailing one-designs and keelboats out of the Beverly Yacht Club. Last year he chaired the Buzzard's Bay Regatta. He's also sailed numerous Newport to Bermuda and Marion to Bermuda Races. Link to the documents for Dan's Presentation.

Sarah Davidson
Program Manager, One Design Insurance Program and Marketing Manager of Gowrie, Barden & Brett. She has been at the agency since 1999. Sarah got deeply involved with junior sailing through her four children, ran the junior sailing program at the Madison Beach Club, Madison CT for six years as well as served for a brief time on the USODA and ISSA boards. Occasionally she crew on the family Lightning and cruises a week each summer on a cousin's Shannon 43.

Jan & Steve Davis
Steve has been active in sailboat racing since age of 6. Born in Southern California and a member of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Steve raced Sabots, Snowbirds, Lehman 12’s, and Etchells.  Steve has vigorously participated in the Lightning Class since buying his first Lightning in 1999, he and his wife Jan also sail Snipes when they can find the time.

Skip Dieball
Skip Dieball came into his own in 2004, as evidenced by his nomination for the ROLEX YACHTSMAN OF THE YEAR.  In his sailing career, Dieball has earned one North American Championship, nine National titles and nine Midwinter titles.  In addition to these achievements, he actively pursued an opportunity to represent the United States in both the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. 

Skip continues to build on the success that brought him the Rolex nomination. His annual racing schedule includes participating in Interlake, Thistle, Lightning and J/22 Midwinter and National Championships as well as the Lightning World Championships every two years.

Skip owns the Quantum Sail Design Group lofts in Toledo and Cleveland. His relationship with Quantum Sails allows him access to state-of-the-art technology in sail design. This, coupled with his extensive sailing experience, keeps him on the cutting edge of one-design sailboat racing.

Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, Skip attended Eastern Michigan University. He lives in LaSalle, Michigan (north of Toledo), with his wife, Laurie and daughters, Meghan and Mallory.  They are members of the North Cape Yacht Club.

Marlieke Eaton
Marlieke Eaton has been with US SAILING for five years. As the main communications person for the organization, her responsibilities include handling media relations, writing and editing US SAILING’s weekly electronic newsletter e-USSAILING, maintaining news content on the US SAILING homepage, managing US SAILING’s hard-copy newsletter, and more. Marlieke learned to sail in the Netherlands, where she grew up. Prior to joining US SAILING, Marlieke has done PR for the American Heart Association and worked at a PR agency. She has a BA in Broadcast Journalism & Spanish from American University in Washington, D.C. and an MA in Media & Communication Studies from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Fried Elliott
Fried Elliott is the Snipe and Star class photographer, which entails capturing and producing photographs and multimedia used for class communications, press coverage, advertising, fleet building, and regatta participation. His photographs have appeared in publications and websites all over the world and his multimedia presentations of major events are not to be missed.

Susan Epstein
Susan, a native of Boston, MA, started racing sailboats at the age of 6 yrs.  At nine, she had her own Lawley 15.  Susan graduated to 110's, then Ensigns, and for the last 20+ years has raced 210s. She is a past-President of the 210 class, was advisor and coach to the Wheaton College sailing team, and at US SAILING served as Chairman of the Council of Sailing Associations and the U.S. Women's Match Racing Championship.  Currently, she is a member of the Board of Directors of both US SAILING and NWSA, and is Grading Secretary for the US SAILING Match Racing Committee. Most recently she helped to establish, Sail Nantasket, a 501(c)(3) sailing foundation aimed at developing a combined high-school/community program.

 In addition to her own sailing, the mother of five and grandmother to 11 stays in-tune with several one-design classes through the activities of her daughter Linda who sails Snipes, J22s, Sonars, etc, etc… and through the activities of a few grandkids who sail in the Opti, 420, N10, and Laser classes. 

George Fisher
Attorney, private practice of law - Fisher Skrobot & Sheraw, LLC; Graduate of Ohio State University College of Law; Vice Chairman – ODCC; Chairman – J. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Sportsmanship Award; Past President – International Lightning Class Association;  Past Commodore – Buckeye Lake Yacht Club; 2002 Recipient – J. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Sportsmanship Award; Past Interlake Class Champion; North American Masters Championships – Lightning, Snipe and Flying Scot classes

Greg Fisher
Following in his father George's footsteps, Greg is the winningest one-design champion of the era. Greg is presently a salesman with North Sails One Design and is a 15-time National Champion in 6 classes, including the J/22, Lightning, Flying Scot, Thistle, Highlander and Johnson 18 classes. He is also the past Chair of the One-Design Class Council and Championship of Champions Committee for US SAILING.

Tom Hubbell
Tom is a physician in family medicine and the chief medical officer of a small hospital. For 40 years he has raced Thistles (serving as President twice) and recently added racing C-Scows. He day-sails or ‘duels’ in Lasers but only if there are whitecaps. He and Greg Fisher created Coach-TCA, a 7 day racing instruction that runs concurrently with the Thistle Midwinters East, and the material is available in his book, Sailboat Racing with Greg Fisher. As a board member of US SAILING since 2000 and a Vice President since 2003, he led the re-structuring of US SAILING to a much smaller, skill-based, member-elected board with re-arranged divisions.

Patty Lawrence
US SAILING Board member, Past President of the Thistle Class Association

Dave Perry
Dave grew up in Connecticut sailing Blue Jays and Lightnings at the Pequot Yacht Club on Long Island Sound. He received his undergraduate degree at Yale, and has received an honorary Doctorate of Education from Piedmont College. He is a Senior Certified Judge, and has been a member of the US SAILING Appeals Committee since 1986, and is currently the Chairman. He has authored three books on the sport, Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing, Winning in One-Designs, and Dave Perry’s 100 Best Racing Rules Quizzes.

At Yale he captained the 1975 Dinghy National Championship Team and is a two-time All American sailor. He was fifth at the 1979 Laser World Championship, two-time Congressional Cup winner (1983 & 1984), second in the 1984 Soling Olympic Trials, the 2003 Ideal 18 North American champion, and two-time U.S. Match Racing Champion (in 1982 and 2006!).

He is a member of the Sailing World Hall of Fame, the recipient of US SAILING's W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Trophy for Sportsmanship and the first recipient of the Captain Joe Prosser Award for Excellence in Sailing Instruction. He has conducted thousands of "rules talks" and seminars on the sport, and is best known for his clear, humorous and highly interactive presentations. He is currently the Rules Advisor and Afterguard Coach for Victory Challenge, Sweden’s America’s Cup team.

Dave Rosekrans
Dave Rosekrans, a retired product development engineer from Procter & Gamble, is a past president of US SAILING. Dave is a 43-year veteran Thistle racer at Cowan Lake Sailing Association, a small do-it-yourself club near Cincinnati, Ohio. Dave has participated in the International Sailing Federation and the US Olympic Committee. Dave participated in the reorganization of US SAILING, which is intended to facilitate US SAILING in building participation in sailing.  His motto is HOFF; honesty, openness, fairness and fun. In this spirit, Dave has developed an interest in improving the ethics and conduct in sailing.  Dave also has worked with the Red Cross in First Aid and has 20 years with the National Ski Patrol, including being a Patrol Director.  Dave welcomes questions and suggestions about US SAILING and sailing in general.

Don Shea
Don Shea is the Midwest District director for ISSA.  The Midwest high school scene has seen an explosion of growth and Don has been an important part with 32 schools actively participating in the Midwest region. Come hear how high school sailing can be incorporated into your area or how you can recruit high school sailors to practice with you.

David Sprague
David has been a management consultant in Toronto with assignments in Canada, the United States and England over the last 20 years. For the past 17 years, he has been a partner in Management Advice, a Toronto-based international consulting firm. David's area of specialization is executive recruiting and general management consulting. In addition to Executive Search, he has acted as the chief operating officer in a number of companies in Canada and the U.S. on behalf of his clients. Prior to his consulting career in Management Advice, Canadian Marketing Associates and Woods Gordon, David spent twelve years at Procter & Gamble, holding management positions in both the Marketing and the Human Resources Groups. These roles and experiences in various management levels help him to be cognizant of the client's needs and empathetic to their business goals. David has been, and continues to be, active in the community. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Toronto East General Hospital, the Board of Directors of the Boulevard Club in Toronto, the Ontario Sailing Association and the Canadian Yachting Association. He has been a member of Canada’s National Sailing Team and remains very active as a participant and as a volunteer in the sport of sailing, both nationally and internationally. He is currently the Canadian representative on the World governing body of sailing, the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), as well as a Past President of the Canadian Yachting Association, Vice-Chair of the ISAF Class Council and Chair of the ISAF International Measurer’s Sub-Committee.

Dr. Timothy Storer
Fellow, American Academy of Dermatology; Diplomate, American Board of Dermatology in Private Practice in Delaware, OH; Immediate Past President of the Central Ohio Dermatological Society; served as Chief Resident, Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University in St. Louis Division of Dermatology.

John Strassman
John was born in May, starting sailing in June and hasn’t stopped since.  John was a dock-rat at South Shore Yacht Club in Milwaukee when he learned about racing on his father’s L. Frances Herreshoff designed Q boat, Questa.  He subsequently raced in NAYRU-sponsored Junior events, participated in collegiate racing at Northwestern and University of Wisconsin and campaigned a 470 during the mid-1970’s.  John is a serial boat owner and has owned and raced  Solings, 210’s, Lightnings, PHRF boats and currently is racing 470’s again with other old, fat people. He is not very particular and will sail on almost anything…   John is the current Chair of the US SAILING Junior Championship Committee, a Certified Regional Race Officer and the Area K Area Race Officer.

Ken Taylor
Ken is President and founder of US SAILING Regatta Network which provides online registration and event management services for competitive sailing events. Ken is an active member of the Austin Yacht Club, actively campaigns a J/22 in the Southwest circuit and has been a member of the J/22 class since 2003, and sailed Hobie 18s in District 6 of the North American Hobie Class association, for six years.  The heart of US SAILING Regatta Network was developed during Ken's tenure as the Race Chairman at a central Texas yacht club.  

Dr. Stuart Walker
Dr. Walker is a one-design champion at the World, Continental and National level. He has been a columnist for Sailing World magazine for many, many years. He currently campaigns his Soling in Annapolis, Maryland.