Our Team

A native of the Bay Area, Joe has a passion for sharing his love of the water with others. He has been an SEA volunteer since 1990 serving in various positions. He became a US Sailing Certified Instructor in 1993 and runs the Adult Sailing Program.

Joe grew up on the water living in California, Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines. His earliest memories are of his mother scraping the bottom of their Chris Craft cabin cruiser in a Sausalito boatyard, his father running aground in the shallows of San Pablo Bay (lesson: have a chart and read the tide table), and fishing for bullheads with his friends in Tiburon. He has been fortunate to have sailed, snorkeled, paddled, and body-surfed the blue waters of the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Florida, Fiji, Mexico, Hawaii, South Africa, Australia, and the Philippines. He is an avid sailor, swimmer, paddler, rower, and a US Navy veteran.

Kif Scheuer started sailing at SEA in 2022. After completing beginning sailing, he signed on as a volunteer adult sailing assistant and then began helping out with Open Sails. After “getting his feet wet” with dinghies, he got interested in more advanced sailing skills and experiences. He completed SEA’s keelboat class in late 2022, and then in 2023 completed the ASA 101, 103, 104 sequence in Baja Mexico along with another SEA board member – Kurt Sund. Since then he’s been on 2 bareboat charters and is a partner in a 32’ 1973 Ericson over in Berkeley Marina. As he got more involved with sailing activities, he continued to increase engagement and support for SEA. Most recently he has taken on administrative support roles especially with the website. After much arm twisting he finally joined the SEA board in April of 2024.

Kurt started sailing in Denmark at the age of 5. He sailed competitively in Denmark and the Baltic in 420s, 505s, and Trapez Dinghies. Kurt had the joy of learning and sailing the 505 with Paul Elvstrom, a Danish Olympic Gold Medal holder. He also participated in building and sailing a 40-foot Viking sailship in his hometown of Frederikssund, Denmark.
In a 26-foot wooden Folk Boat that he assisted in building over 2 years Kurt sailed the Atlantic from Denmark to Bergen Norway and back. He has sailed in the Bay since 2011, first in a MacGregor 26 and now in a 34.3 Beneteau sailboat. He got his ASA 101, 103, and 104 last year. He has taken many people out in the San Francisco Bay on his boats and loves the work we do at SEA.

David Hirzel’s sailing life on the Bay began in 2006 with his first sail on Kitty Sark, a sixteen-foot wooden gaffsail catboat (now a part of SEA’s fleet) belonging to Alice Cochran. He joined the Board in 2017 and has served as secretary ever since, with a special interest in the Desi and sail-training ventures on larger traditionally rigged ships including Call of the Sea’s Seaward and Matthew Turner. When not on the water he practices green architectural design in San Mateo County and 20 years of Living History at San Francisco Maritime.

Jose is an enthusiastic parent of 2 SEA sail campers and a member of the MYC.
A native of Argentina, Jose became fascinated with the water when he moved to the Bay Area. He sailed with crews and then got his 6-Pack license.
Seeing how much Jose loved being on the water, a friend suggested that he become a crew member on a bay ferry. Jose quickly moved from the deck up into the wheelhouse and is now a ferryboat captain going from Alameda to San Francisco and Vallejo. He knows San Francisco and San Pablo Bays like his backhand.
Jose can fix broken outboards and replace zincs on old boats. He is also our chief keelboat instructor. His easy-going manner makes him a favorite with our new sailors.

Doug learned to sail at the Cal Sailing Club in 1974. He raced Lightnings in SF Bay, and then cruised with a friend from the Lightning fleet for 4 months in Central America and the Caribbean where he caught the cruising bug.
Later he taught Red Cross Sailing at the Renton Sailing Club in Washington and obtained a 50 ton inshore Captain's License and ASA Keelboat instructor certificate. His extensive sailing experience includes thousands of ocean miles and cruises around Vancouver Island, Haida Gwai, from Seattle to Prince Rupert, B.C., Panama to Santa Crui, CA, raced from Hawaii to the Philippines. With Shanna lived aboard and cruised for 17 years from San Francisco through Central America, the Panama Canal, the Caribbean, US East coast, across the Atlantic and cruised the Mediterranean, returning across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and back to Maine.
Education : BA Music, UC Berkeley 1974, BS Electrical Engineering, University of Utah 1986

Bryn has been living in Marin for 10 years now along with his wife and boy/girl twins. In 2021 he signed up for the only Adult Beginner class that year (only one due to COVID) and had a great time, so much so that in summer 2022 he took the Adult Intermediate keelboat class and both of his children took one of the two-week summer camps hosted at Marin Yacht Club (MYC).
Since then Bryn has continued to sail from both Loch Lomond (with SEA) and MYC (where he’s also a member). As he continues to “learn to sail by sailing” (a repeated quote from Jane) he has started to join the group sails around the bay with his son, become a training assistant for the adult beginner programs, been supporting the ongoing boat maintenance and recently joined the SEA Board of Directors. In addition his son is on the path to become a Junior Counselor for the kids camps.

Our Volunteers